A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume

review by Maryom

Frankie has reached crisis point. After finishing her art degree, she's got a temporary part-time job at a gallery, but fails to find a connection between what she's studied for so long and the adult world of work and bed-sits that she's now part of. She feels isolated, lost, and without purpose. One day, everything just proves too overwhelming so she does what she always does - phones her mum who understands without questioning and is ready to come to the rescue. Frankie is too old though to return to her childhood home and be 'mothered', so she persuades her parents to allow her to live in the old bungalow left empty since her grandmother's death three years before. There she tries to form a structure to her life - cycling, small shopping trips, a new art project, befriending her neighbour -  but she's still in a limbo-like state, and her future looks increasingly uncertain.


This second novel from Sara Baume again focuses on an outsider; Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither told the story of an elderly man and his equally outcast dog; this time the main character is a young woman, unable to move on from a childhood where everything was safe, secure and mapped out for her, to an uncertain, uncharted future. Frankie's dreamed of becoming an artist but now she's trained and should be heading out into the world to achieve this, she feels wrong-footed and at sea. Her thoughts (which I think all of us have shared on some point or other) are filled with a hankering after that simpler time of childhood, before adult realities - work, money and death - impacted on her, and she hopes, in retreating to her grandmother's bungalow, to regain that feeling of safety and well-being. She's still deeply troubled though and contentment seems hard to come by. Her thoughts continue to circle round death and decay, with her new art project focusing on dead creatures she finds by the roadside, and she's constantly testing her knowledge by recalling pieces of art and trying to find a relationship between them and the 'real' world.

The writing is beautiful but somewhat fragmentary, reflecting Frankie's disordered thoughts which flit from one subject to another, never staying anywhere for long, but it builds into an intimate account of someone gripped by depression, struggling against its pull, trying one step at a time to walk out of its depths, until those individual steps form a line. Emotionally and mentally it's a cautious, hesitant path though it's only looking back that I realise how much I was willing Frankie to stay on it, and how emotionally involved I'd become.

It's another truly remarkable read from Sara Baume, and marks her as a writer to watch out for.


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - William Heinemann
Genre - Adult fiction, depression, 

The Shore by Sara Taylor

review by Maryom

The Shore is made up of a group of islands sitting off the coast of Virginia; the Atlantic Ocean to one side, calmer waters and marshes to the other. Their story is told through the lives of several generations spanning 200 years - often a violent story of domestic abuse, drug-addiction, murder and rape but mixed in with magic and hope, all set against the backdrop of windswept beauty.

 I'm not certain whether to refer to The Shore as a novel or a series of related stories - it's difficult to pin down and really a bit of both. Events don't unfold in chronological order but jump backwards and forwards along the timeline - the earliest story being set in 1876, the latest in 2143; the latter gives a clue that this isn't just another family epic, but moves on into a speculative future. The islands themselves have a story to tell - at first a remote place, inhabited by the few remaining native Americans, then discovered as a resort for the wealthy, before declining into poverty. The islands both attract and repel - for some they're a safe haven, for others a trap - but throughout their physical presence dominates - the marshes and creeks, fields of corn and potatoes, sandy dunes and oyster shell roads, the long line of tide breaking on the outer islands. Against this backdrop the lives of various generations play out, each holding the spot light for a short while as part of an ongoing family epic;  children are born, bargains are struck, a little weather magic worked, houses are built then crumble with time.
The connection between each chapter isn't immediately obvious and I found this rather a challenging read, as I tried to keep all the inter-family relationships straight in my head while jumping about in time. (There is a family tree at the beginning which probably makes this much simpler, but I couldn't read it on my kindle!) It's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, and now knowing how the whole fits together, I think a re-read will turn up lots of things that I missed first time through and make all the pieces fall into place.


Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - William Heinemann
Genre - Adult fiction,

Jawbone Lake by Ray Robinson

Review by The Mole

Rabbit (otherwise known as Rebecca) is at Jawbone Lake on New Year's Day when she witnesses a car crash through the bridge and plunge into the icy depths. But she also sees a car stop and the driver get out and look - and all this after what sounded like gunshots. Fleeing the scene she is frightened that the man on the bridge may recognise her so changes her hair and clothes and hides at every opportunity. The driver of the car in the lake, CJ, was a successful business man and his son, Joe, is called home from London to be with his family.

Strange phone calls start to cause the family to question who CJ really was and Bill - CJ's father - knows or suspects more than he's prepared to share. Joe travels to Spain to find out everything he can about CJ and so the truth starts to come out.

I was surprised with this book how little actual violence or pursuit there actually was although the threat was constant and it was tense throughout. But when violence comes it certainly makes an entrance and it's nice to see no super heroes involved making the scenes of violence that much tenser and more shocking. I really enjoyed this story although the very style of it seemed unusual as I kept expecting a 180° shift and everything to come right. I also expected, throughout, that we were about to enter a romantic or a sex scene - something that the author managed to, thankfully, not overdo.

I really enjoyed this book although the style, if not the content, was very different to the usual thrillers I read. It's told with two voices - Rabbit's and Joe's - and there are the odd occasions when I wasn't sure which voice it was although it wasn't important to know which it was for those parts.

A thriller at a different pace - and while still a compelling read - a welcome change of pace as well.

Publisher - William Heinemann
Genre - Adult, crime, thriller

Buy Jawbone Lake from Amazon