Book Reviews
Bleak, despondent and dangerous landscapes are the setting for Steven Amsterdam’s exploration of what might happen when the world seems about to end, or at least to change catastrophically.
This territory is reminiscent of that explored so memorably by Cormac McCarthy in The Road; there are elements of it also in the movie Legion,or in Meg Rosoff’s novel How I Live Now or even in The Children of Men by PD James. But Amsterdam is independent of all those other, and even earlier, narratives of environmental, political, economic and ethical disasters — not least by being funnier.
It’s not a laugh-a-minute novel, but it has a cool undertone of amazement at the ways in which humanity decides on the things and the behaviours it values the most. As the story — or stories, for the book is delivered in episodes — rips along that slightly juvenile tone darkens, but even so there is a relief to be garnered from the side-show events which, like the cataclysmic happenings themselves or the ever-present threat of violence, happen off-stage, somehow in the background of a country, or a world, which is accepted for what it is.
It’s the getting to that acceptance which is the most endearing element in this slightly un-linked story line: the first two episodes being the recollections of a boy young at first and then just old enough to want to steal cars. As he tries to accommodate his father’s fears, his mother’s scepticism and the enduring love and daring uniting his determined grandparents a note of compassionate awareness is struck which is never eliminated.
Even in a territory where a lizard is a longed-for dessert something keeps these narrators in tune with human kindness, however disguised that might be.
In each section the nature of the disaster is implied, sometimes with too much subtlety; there is a bureaucracy or a re-settlement, barricades dividing the urban from the rural populations of survivors.
There are floods, horses trained to work even in a deluge, abandoned mansions and shacks and rats — if you’re lucky — for dinner (unless the abandoned houses have stocked their rations as well as their ammunition). For a minor official who has to get people to leave their homes the wonder is the way in which they hold on to things which don’t make sense; for another wanderer and his companion a hint of syrup in a piece of bark re-awakens optimism and confidence.
A Verification Unit, at which survivors of flash-fires caused by underground oil drilling are given cash to start over again, has a section of Grief Tents; again and again methods of survival and programmes of rehabilitation are inferred, all suggesting as well some strand of realistic community courage.
Not to be wondered at, after all: the 20th century, for example, gave us two world wars, two recessions, tsumanies, the Nazis, Aids, Communism and the Atomic bomb. How dystopian is that?
Hans Fallada (translated by Michael Hofmann) Penguin Classics, £20; E-book: Europe/United States, $17.74
Review: Billy O’Callaghan
Three years ago, Hans Fallada’s 1947 masterpiece, Alone In Berlin, was finally made available to English language audiences. Hailed as ‘the greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis’, it marked the surprise return to public consciousness of a writer whose books had ranked among the finest of his generation but which had somehow been allowed, in the decades following his death, to fade into obscurity. Now Penguin Classics offer, for our delight, A Small Circus. Another major novel, one of Fallada’s most important, it serves to enhance yet further the long-dead author’s impressive reputation.
In the imaginary town of Altholm, a group of farmers hold a public demonstration against a perceived act of bureaucratic injustice. Things turn nasty and in the ensuing melee, Tredup, a down-at-heel reporter snaps some compromising photographs, pictures potentially worth a fortune to the right buyer. From here, a captivating plot unfolds; recounted in long tracts of dialogue, it explores the various attempts at, and resistance to, reconciliation and culminates in the trial of the offending farmers. It also presents a huge cast of characters, all less than likeable, all determined to advance their own ends at any cost. With the world falling apart, ulterior motives run deep and morality loses ground to hunger, corruption and family duty.
Drawing from personal experiences as a farm labourer and a sometime newspaper reporter, and with an acute understanding of his nation’s state, he has crafted a story of impending social and political upheaval, one that bores to the very heart of a crumbling Weimar Republic circa 1929, and a Germany about to give way to the sweep of Nazism. With Fallada, there is the sense of history being written in the moment. Hindsight adds layers to his work, but the foundations have been ingeniously set in place.
The author was himself a complex and controversial personality. Writers like Thomas Mann, who fled Nazi tyranny, criticised him for remaining behind and compromising the artistic integrity of his work, and Fallada’s own life reads like fiction run amok. As a teen, he killed his close friend in a botched suicide pact; later, he developed severe alcohol and morphine addictions, spent long periods of time in asylums and prison, and displayed frequent evidence of mental instability, depression and a propensity for sudden violence.
Yet he is an astounding storyteller. A Small Circus keeps a hectic pace, with clean, detached prose. Nothing obstructs what needs to be told, but neither is anything laid bare simply for effect. And in recognising the essential flaws of people, even his most casually drawn characters feel possessed of rare humanity.
Michael Dobbs, Simon and Schuster, £17.99; Kindle £8.99
Review: Anthony Looch
The latest novel by thriller writer Michael Dobbs draws heavily on contemporary events and features his series character, Harry Jones MP.
Harry, a swashbuckling bloke, is a millionaire and former military man. In this book he suffers appalling financial misfortunes, violence and terrible false accusations.
The novel starts grimly, when a guided missile causes a large passenger jet to crash into the Thames, east of Tower Bridge. The passengers — all of whom are killed — include 37 children of American diplomatic staff in London.
When Harry starts trying to find out who caused the tragedy, he gets drawn into a complex web involving an oil pipe line from the Caspian Sea, the Russians, and a highly-placed British EU official who is not all she seems to be. This thriller will undoubtedly please Dobbs’s fans but it requires extra concentration as the plot resembles a cryptic crossword puzzle.
Lisa Gardner, Headline, £12.99; Kindle, £6.99
Review: Rachel Howdle
The Sunday Times top 10 best-selling author Lisa Gardner releases another tense thriller following the cases of Detective DD Warren.
The seventh tale in the series tells the story of 28-year-old Charlie Grant, a woman who is terrified that she is going to be murdered on January 21.
Charlie seeks out the Boston-based detective at her latest crime scene, telling the new mother that her two childhood friends were murdered leaving her the only one still alive. This fear has led her to train to fight for her life when the moment comes.
DD takes the case and as she looks further into Grant’s past, she starts to doubt the young woman’s story. Stories begin to stack against her and the authorities start to think maybe she has committed these murders herself.
One thing is for certain: Charlie Grant isn’t going down without a fight.
Ann Cleeves, Macmillan, £16.99;Kindle, £7.19
Review: Laura Wurzal
This is the fifth novel featuring the formidable Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, portrayed by Brenda Blethyn in ITV’s drama series Vera.
She is friends with hippy neighbours Jack Devanney and Joanna Tobin. When Joanna disappears and Jack is desperately worried, she feels obliged to help. She tracks her down to The Writers’ House, a country retreat on the Northumberland coast that offers courses for writers and aspiring authors. Professor Tony Ferdinand is discovered stabbed to death in The Glass Room, a first-floor conservatory.
Complications occur when Joanna is found in a corridor holding a knife.
As she investigates, Vera is pulled into the world of publishing. When a second body is found everyone’s a suspect.
This novel has all the Ann Cleeves trademarks — great timing, strong characters, lots of tension, and plenty of red herrings to keep the reader hooked.
The setting of the murder in a isolated house with its mysterious guests also gives it a distinct and satisfying Agatha Christie-esque feel.
Helen Schulman, Atlantic Books, £12.99; Kindle £5.73
Review: Shereen Low
Lives can impulsively be ruined with the click of one button, as highly-publicised cases such as that of Carolyn Bourne, the nightmare mother-in-law, have shown.
It’s a subject American novelist Helen Schulman focuses on in her fifth novel, This Beautiful Life. The Bergamots — husband and wife Richard and Liz, their teenage son Jake and adopted Chinese six-year-old daughter Coco — are the average middle-class family, who have moved to New York City from Ithaca. As Richard throws himself into his new job, Liz, having given up her career, has manoeuvred herself into the top tier of queen bee mums.
Their life changes when 15-year-old Jake unthinkingly forwards a sexually explicit video clip sent to him by a fellow student. Within hours, the attachment hits the web and the consequences are life-changing.
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