All That Man Is by David Szalay

review by Maryom

Nine men, nine separate stories, exploring 'manhood' in its various guises - from teenagers exploring the world on their own for the first time, to a middle aged millionaire losing all his fortune, and an elderly man trying to come to terms with the fact that his life may be reaching its closing years.

When this book was offered on Netgalley for review I jumped at the chance - after all, it was Booker short-listed, so I was expecting something fairly good. Unfortunately, for me at least, it didn't deliver on its promises. 
Basically, it just didn't grab me.
Firstly I found I didn't much like the format. It isn't a novel so much as a collection of short stories. There are loose links between them with a person or object appearing in more than one story - but to be honest that connection didn't really add anything. Also, they don't feel as rounded or finished off as I like a story to be; more like chapters, than fully stand-alone pieces.
Then there are the men these stories are centred on - and 'centred' is definitely the right word! Whatever their age or circumstances, the trait they have in common is believing the world revolves around them; friends, lovers, wives are just there to cater to their various wants and needs, and no real thought given to how they may feel. Now, I think it's perfectly possible to read a novel with an unsympathetic main character and still like the book - after all, faults make characters more interesting and a perfect person wouldn't have much of an interesting tale to tell - but reading story after story about guys for whom I couldn't feel a shred of empathy just became tiring. 

And, surely, not all men are like this, are they? Maybe that's the question the author is asking. Maybe I'm over-thinking it.

Maryom's review -  3.5 stars

Publisher - Jonathan Cape

Genre - adult fiction, short stories, Booker shortlist, 

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

review by Maryom

Eileen Dunlop lives a dull and dreary existence in a small town outside Boston. She dresses in her dead mother's clothes, has hardly any friends, works by day as a secretary at a boys' prison and, evenings and weekends, she looks after her alcoholic father, whose behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic and troublesome. She dreams of leaving and running away to the city but it doesn't seem likely that will happen.
Then, a new employee starts at the prison - Rebecca Saint John is glamorous and attractive, and everything dowdy Eileen would love to be. The two strike up an unlikely friendship but Rebecca's actions soon drag Eileen into more trouble than she could have imagined ...

Although this book is billed as a psychological thriller, I wouldn't personally describe it as such, as I didn't feel much tension or threat in the unfolding story line (but I've kept the tag). The story is told through the reminiscences of an elderly Eileen looking back on the events of the week leading up to Christmas 1964, so the reader knows early on that she has done something reprehensible which caused her to leave town in a hurry. There are plenty of hints about what it might be and the part that newcomer Rebecca plays in it but the actual act is kept secret till late, very late, in the novel, and nothing really remarkable happens before.

It's probably because of this lack of movement in the plot that I didn't like it, as the writing is good, and the atmosphere well conjured. I just didn't care about Eileen and her great secret. She certainly isn't a likeable character -  with her dreadful hygiene, morbid obsession with her deceased mother, and sexual hang-ups.

It's Booker shortlisted though, and I've seen good reviews on the web, so presumably someone liked it!

Maryom's review - 2.5 stars 
Publisher - Vintage
Genre - Adult fiction, psychological thriller

Other reviews - The Owl on the Bookshelf

The Chimes by Anna Smaill

review by Maryom

Following the death of his parents, Simon is leaving his home village in the country and heading to London; he has no clear memory of his past and no directions to follow, just a bag filled with objects that, when handled, help him remember very specific incidents, and a scrap of song that will lead him to a friend of his mother. Simon isn't unusual, for in this strange dystopian world memories are wiped clean at the end of each day by the sound of The Chimes, and lives are governed, directions given, goods advertised for sale, and information passed on by music and song.
In London, Simon by chance meets up with another boy, Lucien, who seems to have more ability to remember than most people, and who seems particularly interested in the small snippets Simon can recall from his past. Gradually Simon begins to remember more, and with growing uneasiness realises he was sent to London with a specific purpose.

A bit like plunging into a cold pool, the reader is dropped straight into Simon's world, standing in the rain at the side of the road, sharing his thoughts and limited memories, without preamble or explanation, and left to work things out for themselves. At first it seems like Simon may be the only one suffering from this weird memory-loss but gradually it becomes apparent that everyone does; unless a memory can be imprinted on an object, once out of sight even things as dear as home and family are soon forgotten - so a story that might be akin to Fifty First Dates or Before I Go To Sleep, quickly changes and becomes something darker. My immediate assumption was that everyone was suffering from some form of Alzheimer's-style epidemic, then when Simon encountered the noise and bustle of London, I wondered if memories were being overwhelmed by all the noise in the way that the constant chatter of social media today dulls us in our interactions with our surroundings, even the people we're actually sitting with. As the story progressed, both of these theories were proved wrong but the Chimes remained as an organised, centrally-controlled form of brain-washing.

The world of the Chimes is a wonderfully strange one, yet believable due to the 'thinking through' of the author. World-building alone, though, isn't enough to make a compelling story, so the author has built in a mystery, part of which the reader is privy to even though Simon has forgotten, and a slightly 'thriller' aspect to the plot.
Being told in first person by someone with no knowledge of what has gone before gives a shifting fluid feel to reality in which everything is observed as if for the first time, and deftly captures how it must feel to be in this predicament.


The main characters are young, teenaged or thereabouts, so I'm not sure whether I'd class it as an adult book perfectly suitable for teens with a desire for something a little unusual, or as YA that adults would want to read.






Longlisted for Booker Prize 2015
Maryom's review -  4 stars
Publisher -  Sceptre
Genre - dystopian,

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

 review by Maryom

The story of the Whitshank family is inseparable from the story of their house. Built for a client by the curiously named family patriarch Junior in the 1930s, it was for him, an ideal house, one he yearned to own and at last, with a little manoeuvring, his wish came true. On his death, his only son Red moved in with his wife Abby and young family, and filled the house again with noise and bustle, but now those children have grown, married, left home and have children of their own.

It's a quiet book - the story really of a fairly average family, to whom nothing extreme happens, either good or bad, they just jog along as most of us do. Their comings and goings are probably of little interest to anyone outside the family, but within the family they're built up to great dramas. They have their secrets of course, and it turns out that the 'accepted' version of family history might not be quite true,


It's a rather simplistic thing to say but if you love Anne Tyler's books, you'll love it, if you find them a bit lacking in 'grit' then like me you'll be left wanting. I've read other books by Anne Tyler and found them pleasant enough but not, for me, anything special. Somehow, being short-listed for both the Bailey's Women's Fiction Prize and the Man Booker Prize, I'd expected a little more in some way from this; sadly it didn't live up to my hopes.

This is one of this year's Bailey's Prize shortlist which I'm working my way through rather slowly. Other reviews below
A God In Every Stone - Kamila Shamsie

Shortlisted for Bailey's Women's Fiction Prize
Shorlisted for Man Booker 2015
Richard and Judy Book Club pick

Maryom's review - 3.5 stars
Publisher - Vintage
Genre - Adult, Family saga