Author: Haruki Murakami (b 1949)
Translator: Jay Rubin
Publisher: Vintage (2003 edition)
Bough from: Book Depository

Introduction

To English language readers, Haruki Murakami is Japan’s best known author. His most famous works are Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1995), Kafka on the Shore (2002), and 1Q84 (2009–2010).

Growing up in Japan, Murakami loved Western literature and music. His novels are imbued with these influences. He has translated into Japanese a number of novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Truman Capote, John Irving and others.

What is the story about?

Toru Okada loses his job, pet cat and wife. Somehow, his wife’s brother Noboru Wataya may be behind his run of misfortune. He gets help from a motley cast of characters including a teenage girl, a pair of psychic sisters, a mysterious mother and son, and an old officer from the Japanese occupation of Manchukuo.

Themes

This is a genre–bending novel, incorporating a detective story, horrific accounts of atrocities from WWII, a supernatural thriller, and a horror story. The eponymous wind–up bird and a well are recurrent motifs in the story.

Finally …

At 607 pages, this is not an easy read.

Author: Donna Tartt (b. 1963)
Publisher: Penguin Books (1993 edition)
Bought: NoQ Store

Introduction

Donna Tartt is an American author. Her first novel was The Secret History (1992). Her second novel The Little Friend (2002) won the WH Smith Literary Award in 2003 and her third The Goldfinch (2013) won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

What is the story about?

Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely.

The Secret History explores what could lead a group of classics students in an elite college to murder one of their own and the consequences on each of them.

Finally

Enjoyable read.

Author: Gore Vidal (1923–2009)
Publisher: Vintage International (2000 edition)
Bought: Book Depository

Introduction

Gore Vidal was an American writer. Among his most popular works is Narratives of Empire, seven historical fiction novels spanning the founding of America to the rise of the American Empire.

Readers outside the US will likely relate best to Lincoln (1984).

What is the story about?

Lincoln spans the short period from Lincoln’s secret arrival in Washington DC for his inauguration as the 16th President of the United States in 1861 to his assassination 4 short years later. Vidal’s Lincoln is seen through the lens of a number of historical figures, primarily his secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay. This is a Lincoln beset by corruption and infighting in his cabinet (Seward, Chase, Stanton), incompetence and outright insubordination among his generals (McClelland, Pope, Burnside, Halleck, Grant, etc), and rebellion in the Radical wing of the then nascent Republican party. Things were just as bad, if not worse, at home – Lincoln endured the loss of a second son (William ‘‘Willie” Lincoln died of typhoid in 1862) and had to stand by his increasingly unstable wife (Mary Todd was institutionalised in 1875).

Themes

Vidal’s Lincoln was ambivalent on how he can resolve the issue of slavery under the terms of the US Constitution – he said: “As you know, I have said, more than once, if I could preserve the Union by freeing all the slaves everywhere, I would do so. If I could preserve the Union by freeing none of the slaves, I would do so. If I could preserve the Union by freeing some of the slaves but not others, I would do so. Well, I have not the political power to do the first. I have not the inclination nor the need to do the second. So, I shall now do the third, as a military necessity” (p 339).

Although “Lincoln had a true hatred of slavery, as much for the brutal effect it had on the masters as on the enslaved, he was unshaken in his belief that the colored race was inferior to the white” (p 356). He therefore favoured colonisation (ie. resettling freed slaves abroad)  – “… without the institution of slavery, and the colored race as a basis, the war could not have an existence. It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated” (p 357).

Vidal’s Lincoln was America’s first imperial President. He suspended habeas corpus (p 184). A restive Senate was admonished that “there can be no plural executive in the country. There is only one president and one commander-in-chief, and he is chosen by the people and if you should try to defy him in the exercise of his legitimate office, you do so at his peril” (p 405). Stephen Douglas said to him: “Your great man thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, he will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving free men” (p 112). And in the closing pages of the novel, Lincoln was compared by a character to Bismark (p 656).

Finally

A long but readable book.

Et cetera

When the last of the colored men had left the room, Lincoln said to Hay, as a convenient surrogate for himself, “Why would any colored man want to live in this country, where there is so much hatred of him?”
“Perhaps they think that that will change, once slavery’s gone.”
Lincoln shook his head. “There are passions too deep for even a millennium to efface.”
(p. 358)

The project now forever associated with Abraham Lincoln is still incomplete today, more than 150 years after his assassination.

Author: Daniel Keyes (1927–2014)
Publisher: Gollancz (2002 edition)
Bought: NoQ Store

Introduction

Daniel Keyes was an American author best known for Flowers for Algernon. The work was originally published as a short story in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (April 1959), which won Keyes the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960. Keyes expanded it into a novel (1966), which won the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novel. The novel has been adapted for television and cinema several times.

What is the story about?

Charlie Gordon was a 32 year old man with an IQ of 68. He was selected for a surgery to improve his intelligence after positive results from a similar surgery on Algernon, a laboratory mouse. Within 3 months, his brainpower jumped to almost superhuman levels. Then Algernon began to deteriorate and Charlie discovered from his own research that:

ARTIFICIALLY-INDUCED INTELLIGENCE DETERIORATES AT A RATE OF TIME DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE QUANTITY OF THE INCREASE
(p. 177)

Themes

Was Charlie Gordon better off in his original condition? Was it worth it to leave behind his mental retardation even for a short time?

How was the book?

Basic paperback.

Finally

A poignant story.

Author: Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay
Publisher: BBC Books (2006 reprint)
Bought: NoQ Store

Introduction

Yes Minister is a BBC Television series that aired between 1980 and 1984. The writers Jonathan Lyn and Sir Anthony Jay John Mortimer created an instant popular classic  and a follow up series, Yes, Prime Minister, followed in 1986 to 1988.

Both series were adapted into book form and omnibus paperback editions titled The Complete Yes Minister and The Complete Yes, Prime Minister were published in 1989.

What is the story about?

At the center of the collection of short stories, told in epistolary form, is the battle of wits between the earnest but naive Rt Hon. Jim Hacker, Minister of Administrative Affairs, and the army of civil servants led by his department’s Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby.

Finally

It was hilarious first time around as a TV series and somehow as hilarious when experienced a second time in print. Some visual humour (eg the packed sleeper scene in The Official Visit) worked better on TV. But overall, the TV series relied not much on sight gags and much much more on the language so not much is lost in this print adaptation. Yes Minister the book is absolutely enjoyable, with laugh-out-loud moments almost every page!

Author: Joe Haldeman (b. 1943)
Publisher: The Orion Publishing Group / Gollanz (2010 edition)
Bought: NoQ Store

Introduction

Joe William Haldeman is an American author. He served as a combat engineer during the Vietnam War and won a Purple Heart. His experience informed his most famous novel The Forever War (1974) which won a Nebula (1975) and a Hugo (1976) for best novel. When Gollanz launched SF Masterworks in 1999, The Forever War was selected as the first book in the series.

What is the story about?

The protagonist William Mandella is conscripted to fight an alien race called Taurans. Traveling to and returning from battle at nearly the speed of light meant the earth he returns to is no longer one he recognises. Unable to adapt, he chooses to reenlist.

Themes

The Forever War has been hailed as a science fiction classic. In truth, the science is very much in the background. The novel is a meditation on the Vietnam War and the men and women who fought in it.

Finally

Enjoyable read.

Author: Junot Díaz (b 1968)
Publisher: Faber & Faber (2009 edition)
Bought: NoQ Store

Introduction

Juno Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic. His family moved to New Jersey when he was only 6 years old. Díaz lives and works in the US.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) is Díaz’s first novel. It was a best-seller and won numerous award including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008.

What is the story about?

The narrative criss-crosses generations and geography to tell the story of Oscar de León, a Dominican migrant living in New Jersey . His status as an outsider was accentuated by his obesity, fascination with fantasy and science fiction, and a proclivity to fall in love.

Themes

Magical Realism: This refers to a literary genre where fantastical elements are blended into and accepted as part of a real–life and rational environment, most commonly associated with Gabriel García Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967), Salman Rushdie (Midnight’s Children, 1980) and Isabel Allende (The House of the Spirits, 1982). And indeed, in The Wondrous Life, Díaz alluded to Macondo, the fictional town in the heart of One Hundred Years of Solitude (p 7). Much of what is recounted in The Wondrous Life is attributed to a curse called fukú.

Politics: Reading The Wondrous Life would not be as rewarding without some knowledge of the politics in the Dominican Republic during the 1940s–60s. The central figure during that period was Rafael Trujillo, the dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. He modernise the country and brought prosperity to the small island but brutally crushed all opposition to his regime. There are a number of useful footnotes which provide useful background to key events and individuals of the Trujillo rule. Like his Latin and South American predecessors Marquez and Mario Vargas LLosa, Díaz blends his fiction with the vivid history of the continent.

Fandom: The novel is replete with science fiction and fantasy allusions, from comics to tv and movies to literature to computer games. One page 2, we get our first taste, the narrator comparing Rafael Trujillo to “our Sauron, our Arawn, our Darkseid, our Once and Future Dictator”.

What about the book?

This is a basic paperback with no extras.

Finally …

A bitter-sweet story, a literary descendant of (but an easier read than) One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro (b 1954)
Publisher: Faber & Faber (2005 edition)
Bought: NoQ Store

Introduction

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan but moved with his parents to Guildford, Surrey when he was only 5 years old. He grew up and was educated in England. He became a British citizen in 1982.

As of 2015, he has published 7 novels. Ishiguro won the Man Booker Prize for his best known novel The Remains of the Day (1989). His sixth novel, Never Let Me Go is included in the TIME 100 List of the Best Novels written in English between 1923 (when TIME began publishing) and 2010.

What is the story about?

The novel is set in England, late 1990s. The narrator, Kathy, introduces herself as 31 years old and a carer for over 11 years and begins by reminiscing about her complex relationship with Ruth and Tommy, her classmates from a school called Hailsham. Her story slowly reveals the horrific truth of who (or what) they are.

Themes

The genre of the novel is difficult to pin down. There are dystopian science fiction elements which are largely referred to only obliquely. The emotional heart of the novel is perhaps a tragedy about friendship, betrayal and forgiveness:

I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it’s just too much. The current’s too strong. They’ve got to let go, drift apart.
(p 277)

What about the book?

This is Faber & Faber first paperback edition with no extras.

Finally …

A modern classic that recalls Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). We will never see the word “complete” in the same light again.

Author: Joseph Heller (1923–1999)
Publisher: Corgi Books/Transworld Publishers (1988 edition)
Bought from:

Introduction

Joseph Heller was an American author. In 1942, the 19-year old Heller enlisted in the Army Air Corps and he was sent to Corsica two years later. In the Mediterranean theatre, he flew 60 combat missions and was awarded an Air Medal and a Presidential Unit Citation. After the war, Heller graduated from New York University (B.A. in English) and Columbia (M.A.). He was at Oxford for a year on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Heller’s place in English literature is secured by Catch–22 (1961), a satire of the absurdity of war. It was voted number 11 in the BBC Big Read’s poll of the top 100 best-loved novels (2003). It was included in a list of the 100 greatest novels of all time published by the Observer (2003), and the unranked TIME 100 List of the Best Novels written in English between 1923 (when TIME began publishing) and 2010. The novel was ranked number 7 in the Editor’s List and number 12 in the Reader’s List of the 100 best novels published in the English language since 1900 compiled by Modern Library in 1998.

What is the story about?

The protagonist, Yossarian, is a USAF bombardier based on an island of Italy during WWII. He and other airmen spent their time trying to avoid combat missions (by feigning insanity) and to get sent home. But there was a catch, catch 22: “A concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr [an airman] was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to, but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to” (p 62–63).

The term catch 22 has entered the English language.

Themes

A touch of Kafka can be found in the absurd situation the characters found themselves in.

What about the book?

Old but binding is still good.

Finally …

Funny in parts but a just a tad too long.

Author:Shirley Jackson (1916–65)
Publisher: Penguin (2000 edition)
Bought: NoQ Store

Introduction

Shirley Hardie Jackson was an American author. In her relatively short writing career, she wrote 6 novels, a number of short stories and other books. She is best known for the short story The Lottery, first published in The New Yorker (1948), and the novella The Haunting of Hill House (1959).

In his review of the horror genre, Danse Macabre (1981), Stephen King called The Haunting of Hill House one of the finest horror novels of the late 20th century. The novella was a finalist for the National Book Award.

What is the story about?

Thirty-two year old Eleanor Vance, bitter after years of caring for her invalid mother and estranged from her sister (her only living relative), agreed to join 3 others and live in a haunted house as part of an experiment. Before long, she started hearing her dead mother calling her (p 127), and something (or someone) wrote the plea HELP ELEANOR COME HOME on a wall in the house (p 146).

Themes

The centrepiece of the story is the house itself.

No human eye can isolate the unhappy coincidence of line and place which suggests evil in the face of a house, and yet somehow a manic juxtaposition, a badly turned angle, some chance meeting of roof and sky, turned Hill House into a place of despair, more frightening because the face of Hill House seemed awake, with a watchfulness from the blank windows and a touch of glee in the eyebrow of a cornice. Almost any house, caught unexpectedly or at an odd angle, can turn a deeply humorous look on a watching person; even a mischievous little chimney or a dormer like a dimple, can catch up a beholder with a sense of fellowship; but a house arrogant and hating, never off guard, can only be evil. This house … reared its great head back against the sky without concession to humanity. It was a house without kindness, never meant to be lived in, not a fit place for people or for love or for hope. Exorcism cannot alter the countenance of a house; Hill House would stay as it was until it was destroyed.
(p 34–35)

In this respect, The Haunting of Hill House harks back to the gothic horror stories of Horace Walpole (The Castle of Otranto, 1764) and Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher, 1839).

The Haunting of Hill House is also a classic study in the depiction of terror vs horror.

… the menace of the supernatural is that it attacks where modern minds are weakest, where we have abandoned our protective armor of superstition and have no substitute defense.
(p 140)

In this respect, the short story is literal cousins with works such as Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw (1898).

Finally

Chilling story.