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Reviews by Cloggie Downunder

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Flight Behavior
by Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver's best yet (11/1/2012)

Flight Behaviour is the 5th stand-alone novel by Barbara Kingsolver. In the Appalachian Mountains above her home, eastern Tennessee farm wife and mother of two, Dellarobia Turnbow is about to take a step that will change her unsatisfactory life forever when she is arrested …more by a vision of something she has never before encountered. What seems like a miracle is, however, threatened by her father-in-law’s decision to allow the mountain to be clear-felled by a logging company. Those who start reading and think this is the formulaic righteous woman plus scientist battling against hick farmers and loggers to save endangered species will need to think again! Of all the things I predicted about this novel at the beginning, the only one I got right was that it is very, very good. I was assured of that in just the first few pages by prose like “How they admired their own steadfast lives. Right up to the day when hope in all its versions went out of stock, including the crummy discount brands, and the heart had just one instruction left: run.” and “Whoever was in charge of the weather had put a recall on blue and nailed up this mess of dirty-white sky like a lousy sheet-rock job.“ I also loved “His moustache made two curved lines around the sides of his mouth like parentheses, as if everything he might say would be very quiet, and incidental.“ This novel has a plot that didn’t go where I expected; the characters, too, surprised me when I thought I had their measure. Kingsolver skilfully conveys the desperation of poverty in everyday life and its effect on education, life choices and what people come to believe. She also highlights the importance of the manner in which scientists convey their message to the general public. This novel had me laughing out loud (especially at Dovey’s church marquee sayings), choking up, giving a cheer (for Facebook of all things!), moved to caring about the fate of certain insects and thinking about many things: climate change, poverty, the decline of craftsmanship in the face of mass production, the cost of research, the disposable society and the increasing waste of goods. Kingsolver manages to make a huge amount of information about lepidoptery, sheep farming and lambing, global warming and the environment, easy to assimilate by incorporating it into this wonderfully uplifting tale. Her passion for the environment and our role in climate change is apparent in every paragraph. A brilliant, thought-provoking read, probably her best yet! (less)

Sea of Poppies
by Amitav Ghosh

a brilliant read (10/7/2012)

Sea of Poppies is the first book of the Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh. This is a beautifully told story set in India, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal on the eve of the First Opium War. The Ibis is an ex-slave ship purchased by merchant Benjamin Brightwell Burnham for …more the purpose of transporting indentured labour from Calcutta to Mauritius. Ghosh gives the reader a veritable feast of characters: Deeti, the strong-willed wife of Ghazipur opium addict, Hukam Singh; Hukam’s uncle ruthless Bhyro, a recruiter of migrant labourers; carpenter Zachary Reid, the son of a Baltimore Negro freedwoman and her white master; Burnham, merchant and closet masochist; Jodu, a boatman; Raja Neel Rattan Halder, a debt-ridden zemindar; Serang Ali, leader of the lascar seamen; James Doughty, a pilot for ships entering Culcutta; Kalua, a low-caste ox-cart driver; Paulette Lambert, the feisty orphaned daughter of a French botanist; Baboo Nob Kissin Pander, Burnham’s accountant who is a virgin celibate with strong religious beliefs; Captain Chillingworth, engaged for his last sea-voyage; first-mate Jack Crowle, a man with an inferiority complex and a sizeable cruel streak; and Chinese-Indian opium addict, Ah Fatt. Ghosh carefully develops each character, weaves them into this marvellous tale until they end up on the Ibis together. It feels like the Ibis herself has drawn each of the characters to her. Significant characters are also tied together by their stylistic depiction in a drawing for Deeti’s shrine. Ghosh provides information on many subjects: enforced poppy cultivation in India, opium factories and the opium trade with China; opium addiction; the caste system; bore waves; foreign traders in Canton; Chinese pirates. By incorporating it all into this mesmerising tale, he makes it interesting and easy to assimilate. With a cast of characters from such diverse backgrounds, the languages they speak are also varied, ranging from proper English to pidgin and patois, and the Chrestomathy in the appendix is helpful as a glossary for some of the words used, as well as expanding on Neel’s story. Ghosh’s fascination with the migration of words into other languages is apparent, and, with snippets of Bhojpuri language, folk songs, nautical terms and colloquial Anglo-Indian, the dialogue has a truly authentic feel. There is some beautifully descriptive prose and marvellous imagery: “The noise never failed to amaze him: the whiplash crack of the sails, the high-pitched shriek of the wind in the rigging, the groan of the timbers and the surf-like pounding of the bow-waves: it was as if each ship were a moving tempest and he an eagle, circling close behind to hunt in the ruins of her wake.” and “The wind was blowing strong and hard, and the waves and the clouds seemed to be racing each other across a single, vast firmament, with the schooner straining in pursuit, her timbers groaning with the effort of the chase. It was as if the alchemy of the open water had endowed her with her own will, her own life.” The ending leaves the way open for all sorts of developments in the second book of the trilogy. A brilliant read. (less)

A Conspiracy of Friends: A Corduroy Mansions Novel
by Alexander McCall Smith

delightful as always (9/29/2012)

A Conspiracy of Friends is the third novel in the Corduroy Mansions series by Alexander McCall Smith. McCall-Smith dispenses gentle philosophy through ordinary people in their everyday lives, commenting on such things as the possibility of friendship between men and women; …more

The Secret Scripture
by Sebastian Barry

a brilliant read (9/10/2012)

The Secret Scripture is the seventh stand-alone novel by Irish author, Sebastian Barry. Against the background of the imminent closure of an Irish mental facility, an aging psychiatrist reviews his remaining patients for suitability to re-enter the community at large. Dr …more

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home
by Rhoda Janzen

very funny (9/10/2012)

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is a memoir by Rhoda Janzen. Daughter of the head of the Mennonite church in North America (the Mennonite equivalent of the Pope), Janzen rejected her family’s faith at eighteen to go to college and teach. At forty-four, after a turbulent …more

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
by Rebecca Wells

did not grab me (9/10/2012)

Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood is the second of the Ya-Yas series by Rebecca Wells. Set in two main locations, it tells of Sidalee Walker’s retreat to a remote cabin near Seattle to examine her past life and prospective marriage to Connor McGill, an examination that …more

The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime
by Jasper Fforde

brilliant as always (8/29/2012)

The Fourth Bear is the second of the Nursery Crime series by popular author Jasper Fforde. Things are not going too well for Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division: a prime NCD case (the escape from custody of the violent psychopath, The …more

The Mermaid Chair: A Novel
by Sue Monk Kidd

a memorable read (8/11/2012)

The Mermaid Chair is the second novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Set on the South Carolina barrier island of Egret, it describes three intense months that change the life of 42-year-old Jessie Sullivan when she returns to her childhood home. Believing she is dealing with a …more

Boom!
by Mark Haddon

a fun read (8/11/2012)

Boom! is the first book by Mark Haddon and was initially published in 1992 under the title Gridzbi Spudvetch! This edition for 10 and over readers has been updated in 2009. Jim’s life is upside down: his father is out of work and spends his days on the couch watching TV or …more

Between the Lines: A Novel
by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer

delightful (7/28/2012)

Between The Lines is a young adult novel co-written by Jodi Picoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer. Essentially, it is the story of a young Prince who is stuck in a fairy tale and desperate to stop repeating the same script every time someone reads the book, and the …more

Sarah Thornhill
by Kate Grenville

a wonderful, moving tale (7/28/2012)

Sarah Thornhill is the sequel to the award-winning The Secret River by Australian author, Kate Grenville. The story is narrated by Sarah, the youngest daughter of emancipist William Thornhill and starts some years after the events of The Secret River. Sarah is growing up in …more

Criminal: A Novel
by Karin Slaughter

does not disappoint! (7/21/2012)

Criminal is the 7th in Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series. The story shifts between the early seventies and the present day. The present day is 2 weeks after the events of the 5th book in the series, Fallen (the 6th book being the eShort, Snatched), while the flashback …more

The Devil Wears Prada
by Lauren Weisberger

funny but not literature (7/21/2012)

The Devil Wears Prada is Lauren Weisberger’s first book, and details the experiences of Brown graduate, Andrea Sachs in her first job as personal assistant to the high-profile, fabulously successful Miranda Priestly, editor of Runway magazine. The book is said to be based …more

The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case: A Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Book for Young Readers
by Alexander McCall Smith

charming (7/8/2012)

The Great Cake Mystery is a children’s story for readers under ten by Alexander McCall Smith. It is a prequel to his popular No 1 Ladies Detective Agency novels in that it describes Precious Ramotswe’s first case, solved when she was still at school. Whilst the mystery is a …more

The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime
by Jasper Fforde

thoroughly enjoyable (7/8/2012)

The Big Over Easy is the first in the Nursery Crime series by Jasper Fforde and, while it was not published until 2005, it was actually written in 1994, well before his highly successful Thursday Next series. It is a reworking of his first written novel which was initially …more

The Secret River: A Novel
by Kate Grenville

a moving and powerful read (6/30/2012)

The Secret River is the first in the Thornhill family series by Kate Grenville. It tells the story of William Thornhill and his wife Sarah (Sal) from their childhood together in London, through William’s career as a Waterman, his eventual transportation to New South Wales …more

Black Swan Green
by David Mitchell

a dazzling read (6/30/2012)

Black Swan Green is the 4th novel by David Mitchell. It describes a year in the life of Jason Taylor, an intense, thoughtful but stammering thirteen-year-old budding poet living in darkest Worcestershire. Set in 1982, this is a very realistic rendition of the anxieties and …more

The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison

hard to relate to (6/30/2012)

The Bluest Eye is the first novel by American author Toni Morrison. It is set in 1941 in the small town of Lorain, Ohio, and tells the story of an 11-year-old Negro girl, Pecola Breedlove, who becomes pregnant to her father Cholly. Pecola’s family and environment is such …more

Smut: Stories
by Alan Bennett

very entertaining (6/16/2012)

“Smut: two unseemly stories” is, as the title suggests, an omnibus of two short stories by English author and actor, Alan Bennett. The first story is The Greening of Mrs Donaldson. Mrs Donaldson, recently widowed, finds herself a little short on cash and decides to take a …more

The Lake of Dreams: A Novel
by Kim Edwards

a marvellous read (6/16/2012)

The Lake of Dreams is the long awaited second novel by the bestselling author of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards. It is 2006, and almost 10 years since Martin Jarrett was drowned in the Finger Lakes town of The Lake of Dreams. His daughter, Lucy, a hydrologist, is …more

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