The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl

"In 1865 Boston, the literary geniuses of the Dante Club—poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell, along with publisher J. T. Fields—are finishing America's first translation of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil Dante's remarkable visions to the New World. The powerful Boston Brahmins at Harvard College are fighting to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that the infiltration of foreign superstitions into American minds will prove as corrupting as the immigrants arriving at Boston Harbour.

The members of the Dante Club fight to keep a sacred literary cause alive, but their plans fall apart when a series of murders erupts through Boston and Cambridge. Only this small group of scholars realizes that the gruesome killings are modelled on the descriptions of Hell's punishments from Dante's Inferno. With the lives of the Boston elite and Dante's literary future in America at stake, the Dante Club members must find the killer before the authorities discover their secret."

This is not a long book, but it often felt that way. Verbose, densely-written, with constant references to the state of literature, and publishing, in Boston just after the end of the Civil War. It really helps if the reader has some knowledge of the history, location, and the social and political complexities of the time. Seriously, it often assumed we all know who Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes and a few others are and that we are privy to a large amount of personal information about each. Because of this fact, there is unfortunately very little characterisation and growth in the characters. None of their voices felt unique, nor did I  feel like I was seeing a literary hero come to life on the page before me. Now I do know who they are, but I still mixed them up.

I'd be reading about one of them dashing off somewhere and then the scene would change to the study of a house where another was sitting, reading, perusing - and I'd think, wasn't he just running down the road? No, no, no! Get your famous, mid-nineteenth century New England, literary figures straight!

The book is a mixture of real historical facts and a well - crafted fictitious story. Most of the characters were real people and the main ones are celebrated poets. This is one of the most interesting features that I have found in Pearl's book. This feature gives realism to the story, and in this story, the poets of the Dante Club assume the role of detectives in their attempt to find a serial killer. 

However there where many side plots that weren't dealt with. The police officer of mixed-race, Nicholas Rey, is just... kind of there. We never delve deeper into his phycological state, he never says or is used to demonstrate anything interesting about the social time/ racism in Boston. There is nothing said about the hypocrisy of the Northern States who fought for the freedom of slaves but where still battling against their own racism. It would have also been interesting to see how these old rich white men would react to having to work closely with a mixed race man. 

There where also no women in this book. No main characters and not even an interesting side character that felt well fleshed out. It was frustrating and disappointing. I don't need every book to have a strong female protagonist, and watching a group of grandpa's trying to solve crime was sweet, but at least have a fleshed out supportive wife or spunky daughter/granddaughter, please. 

It was, overall, an interesting read. There were many surprising twist and turns. The historical facts relating to the time of Dante translation were quite intriguing. However, I found the flow of the story choppy, awkwardly cutting from scene to scene and the pace very, very slow. There was suspense, but it was built up so incrementally and only towards the very end. When Pearl finally does start to delve into the psychology of the killer (which was intriguing and actually my favourite part of the book), it was far too little, far too late.

Age Rating 15+. The murder scenes are really quite brutal, far more so than I was expecting from the tone of the rest of the book. 

The Otherlife - Julia Gray

"I always get away with it when I try stuff like this. Partly it

comes down to sort of assuming that I'm going to. I've got loads of confidence. And Loki got away with everything. Well, almost everything.

When troubled, quiet Ben begins at the ruthlessly competitive Cottesmore House, school to the richest, most privileged boys, he is befriended by Hobie: the wealthy class bully, product of monstrous indulgence and intense parental ambition.

Hobie is drawn to Ben because he can see the Otherlife: a violent, mythic place where gods and monsters roam. Ben has unnerving visions of Thor and Odin, and of the giant beasts that will destroy them, as well as Loki, god of mischief. Hobie is desperate to be a part of it.

Years later, Ben discovers his beloved tutor Jason is dead. And he can’t help wondering if Hobie – wild, restless, dangerous Hobie, had something to do with it…"

A surprisingly great book which has many element which I enjoy such as magic realism linking to Norse Mythology, something I absolutely love. Such a myth nerd. 

I half expected, from the blurb, of this to be a tale of jumping between worlds and being chased by an individual uncannily like Loki. But it's not and I was slightly disappointed by the fact that the Norse Gods didn't appear as often as I expected nor did Ben, one of the main characters, flit between worlds.

However what we do get, a dark academia-esque murder mystery, was very fun to read. The writing was also beautifully done, with subtle humour and realistic dialogue. As someone who has lived in England, I found the English culture that was very prevalent amusing and wonderful to read. 

The tale is told between two perspective: the diary entries of Hobie in 2008, and present time from Ben's point of view. At first, I wasn't sure where this story was going. There was one mention of the Gods in Ben's POV, then we changed to Hobie's perspective and that had no Gods in it whatsoever in the beginning. But slowly, slowly, the story built and I found myself reading faster and faster to find out the ending, to discover the truth of what happened to those boys at Duvalle Hall and how it all went so very
wrong.

Hobie is awful, but it was also incredibly interesting seeing his perspective? He's a bully, he's spoiled and he bullies his little sister into having an eating disorder. However, you can also see that he's falling apart and the cruelness is how he copes with the anger and pressure he is under. So I disliked him as a person, but seeing from his perspective was so interesting and I loved reading the POV of both boys. 

Ben on the other hand is a quiet metal head loner. He speaks old Norse, tattooed himself at 12 and is surprisingly kind and gentle towards others. Both characters felt well fleshed out, realistic and I could relate to both of them. 

The 'Otherlife' as Ben calls it is softly woven into the main story line, a kind of off-to-the-side extra that made me wonder if it was all in Ben's head or if he really was seeing Asgard and the Gods of Norse mythology. The ending of the book ties everything in nicely, giving the readers the final explanation of everything that had occurred.

This book is good but not in a nice way. It features a lot of horrible events from horrible characters and it shows a really dark side to parents/parenting who drive their children towards ambition so hard that they destroy them. It's also very much about undiagnosed mental illness and people making mistake after mistake until it destroys them.

However, I did find the book to be a little emotionally flat. I wasn't that deeply involved. However, I think that might have just been from the shortness of the book, only 225 pages on my kindle edition, rather than any lack of characterisation. I also didn't like the shoehorned romance element between Ben and Zara. There was no chemistry, no history and they felt like polar opposite personalities. 

Age Rating 14+. Bullying, eating disorders, broken marriages, academic pressure, drug addiction, death, broken family. 

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

"When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future."

I adore Hardy's writing. His prose and writing style is understatedly sublime, and there where many stunning passages about nature, religion and the human condition that left me breathless. 

However I take exception to Hardy's characterisation, plot and the widely accepted reading of this book.

In my humble opinion, I believe this book has been fundamentally misunderstood by English Literature curriculums everywhere. They often say that Alec represents Tess's debasement, Satan, and Angel her salvation, making many biblical allusions to Original sin and Tess being Eve. I don't see that at all. Alec does not seduce Tess, she never gives into temptation. He rapes her forcefully even though she refused his advances repeatedly. Tess is never debased other than on the eyes of society. 

Angel, the man supposed to be her salvation and so oh so subtly named, is an idiot. He doesn't love Tess for Tess, he barely knows her. Rather he loves the idea of her that he has conjured up for her, the biblical virginal Mary figure of his imagining. (I am sorry but what kind of pervert refers to a women they have just met as virginal? Even in their own thoughts?)His concept of a purer, less worldly milkmaid is so false and his romanticisation of the lower working classes was bordering of fetishist. This clash between his Christian idealised pastoral concept with the reality of the more pagan, more earthy workers was telling.  

I also found the emphasis on Tess's copying of Angel's ideas, attitudes, even speech and movement horrifying. Maybe a link between the easy acceptance of religious doctrine and how it abolishes free thought? Her acceptance of Angel's abandonment is also judged by Hardy as foolhardy. She should have pushed harder, but her own values have so demonised her in her own mind that she now views herself as unworthy of .. well pretty much everything. Hardy having Angel admit to having sex a few lines prior to Tess's confession of rape further highlighted the hypocrisy. Angel gave into temptation, if we carry on with the biblical allegory, he sinned and sinned willingly. Tess however, a women forcibly raped, someone who never gave into Alec, is seen as more "dirty", more sinful? I call BULLSHIT. 

I can understand the biblical allusions that have been read into the book but I found, while reading, this book to be, rather, a subtle critic of religion. Tess, through her and her societies religious beliefs is demonised for something completely out of her control, something she should be pitied for. Hardy makes a point of showing that the farm workers, ostensibly more "pagan" didn't hold Tess as accountable as the otherwise more civilised, read Christian, upper classes. 

Both Alec and Angel represent a dominating power, a wish to mould Tess in their own image. To own her completely, both physically and morally. Tess is a blank slate for them to project anything they want onto. Alec at least was able to see his own hypocrisy, he immediately drops his new biblical image after realising that he still lusts after Tess. Angel is not so honest with himself.

Tess's eventual murder of Alec felt more induced by shame and a feeling of entrapment, unnecessary shame as Hardy takes point in assuring us. Her violence could be read, not to stem from a debauchment of the soul but rather a very Christian shame that has been forced on her by Angel. 

Sorry for the very long rant. I have no idea if Hardy wished his book to be read in this way, but this is how I interpreted it. 

Age Rating 15+. Some serious topics are covered like rape, poverty, abandonment and death of a child. 

The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak

"In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her

country’s violent past in a vivid and colourful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its centre is the “bastard” of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul: Zehila, the zestful, headstrong youngest sister who runs a tattoo parlour and is Asya’s mother; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as a clairvoyant; Cevriye, a widowed high school teacher; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. Their one estranged brother lives in Arizona with his wife and her Armenian daughter, Armanoush. When Armanoush secretly flies to Istanbul in search of her identity, she finds the Kazanci sisters and becomes fast friends with Asya. A secret is uncovered that links the two families and ties them to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres. Full of vigorous, unforgettable female characters, The Bastard of Istanbul is a bold, powerful tale."

I really loved the first two third's of this book. The prose is stunning. The descriptions of Istanbul, while sparse, where rich and beautiful. The dialogue was snappy and fun, and there where just some sentences that made me stop and re-read them a few times. 

 

For example, “The past lives within the present, and our ancestors breathe through our children.” and  

“Imagination was a dangerously captivating magic for those compelled to be realistic in life, and words could be poisonous for those destined always to be silenced.”

The characters were intriguing and are certainly the driving point of the story: the Aunties, each with their particularity but still had that tolerance and love that made them able to live together. 

Asya, the nihilistic bastard impressed me with her realistic teenage anger that wasn't diminished or written off as childish. I resonated with her refusal to accept the past as part of her, her wish to leave a big blank spot behind and stay in that moment with nothing to be charged for. I related to her deep and instilled anger that seems to radiate from her and her refusal to accept the world as it is.  

On the other hand is Armanoush, living with her ancestor's memories and history tied up to her present, half Armenian half American, deciding to find her roots by taking a trip to Istanbul. The city of her ancestors and their old enemies. She believes that returning there would help her find herself in between her mother's hate for Armenian culture and her father's Armenian origins.

I was surprised by, but really enjoyed the magical realism of this story. Auntie Banu's djinni were a great inclusion and where incredibly important in the plot. 

Now, onto the things that I didn't enjoy. The writing in this one was great, as I said before, but the story felt a little flat for me. It was both too much and too little. There was a lot of extraneous material as it seemed like the author was in love with this Turkish family and wanted to tell us all about them. There could have been more focus on the relationship of the characters, the Armenian genocide and the Turkish nationalisation vs Ottoman state. 

In the last third of the book, it felt like the author has taken a step back from the characters and all of the emotion left the story. It devolved to telling not showing. The great reveal as well was just so contrived and the coincidence was just... no,no. I don't like such contrived story lines that beat you over the head with the moral of the story, it becomes too didactic. The reveal of who was Asya's father, was horrifying. I am not sure why Shafak made that decision and I am not sure I can stand by it. That coupled with Asya's seeming acceptance of it by calling him "Baba" just didn't sit well with me and didn't fit with her character up till now. 

There where also a lot of story-lines left open. What happened with Asya and the Cartoonist? Who was "The Baron" that Armanoush had an online crush on? Where the Kazanci men freed from the curse? Did Banu give Armanoush the brooch? 

Overall worth a read from an introduction into the Armenian/ Turk conflict, beautiful atmosphere, great characters and lovely writing. 

Age Rating 16+. There is a rape scene,incest, mentions of heavy domestic violence, mentions and brief descriptions of genocide. 

The Birds Have Also Gone - Yaşar Kemal

"There is an ancient Turkish tradition that promises the person who

frees a small bird a place in paradise. Three boys set up a business of catching birds to enable people to free them, but city people are now sceptical and tragedy lies in wait for the boys."

Only about 150 pages, this was a short but impactful read. The second of my books set in Istanbul, it gave a brilliant yet ephemeral look into the culture. The writing style and descriptive passages are stunning, even if some of the content was brutal and thought provoking. I was disturbed by the tradition of freeing birds, captured for only this reason, that would then be released by a well meaning if deluded person only to be caught again. Trapped in this horrible cycle of capture and release.  

The characters of the boys are equally as unpin down-able as the rest of the story. They are, like many others in the book, disturbed by the fact people no longer want to buy the birds and partake. They take this failing to signify the moral failings of the modern Istanbul and the lack of faith in it's people. They also seem to feel pity for the many tiny beautiful birds they stuff into cages far to small for them, killing many birds everyday. Whether this pity is real or just a selling tactic though is truly hard to make out. The boys don't seem to understand how horrible their actions are, and put all of the blame for the birds captures and deaths at the door of the people who won't buy the birds freedom. 

This was my first Kemal and it did not disappoint. The book is so many things in one: a celebration of a great city, half reality and more than half myth; a lament for passing traditions and a disappearing way of life; a bewildered exclamation against the ravages of modernity, which has brought in its wake so much grief to so many. 

Above all else, this is an environmental story, and the author marvels at the gifts of nature so prodigiously showered on the Bosphorus, so cruelly treated by ambivalent and blinkered custom. The ending is truly shocking - but could it really have been any other way?

Age Rating 14+. Deeply moving, quite shocking and sad. 

Istanbul: Memories and the City - Orhan Pamuk

"A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy–or–hüzün–that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire. With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters–both Turkish and foreign–who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving."

Because of my trip to Istanbul, I decided to read 4 books set there to get the vibe of the city I was to be visiting. 

This was the first on my list. It was unfortunately a disappointment. Pamuk spends a lifetime sitting indoors bemoaning an Istanbul which, he says, doesn't exist anymore. How he can remain isolated in a busy city year after year says more about him, his non-Turkish background, wealthier heritage, self-centred habits, etc. than it probably does about Istanbul.

We're left to slog through four hundred pages of angsty ennui which is purport to represent the zeitgeist of a city that mourns the days it stood at the centre of the world and a divided identity, but in fact does little more than chronicle the thin complaints of a wealthy man who never manages to move out of his mother's house. It would be fine if melancholy simply pervaded Pamuk's memoirs as he spun tales of his youth, but there are almost no tales told here, just endless, smothering atmosphere. 

I can't speak, obviously, for the Istanbul of his youth, but the Istanbul I have experienced is far from the black and white melancholy suffused landscape that Pamuk conjured up. Rather than a melancholy of a city, I think Pamuk writes about the melancholy and claustrophobia of a deeply dysfunctional family and his own deep bouts of depression. To layers those feelings and impressions over an entire city feels unfair and awfully self - centred. 

One positive of this book is that it did give me a good idea of where all the different neighbourhoods of Istanbul are, and helped me navigate a surprising amount. I would be interested to read more from this author, I think his prose, writing style and talent for creating atmosphere would be brilliant in fiction. 

Age Rating 14+ Deeply dysfunctional family, depression and sex. 

Beneath the Rising - Premee Mohamed

" A coming-of-age story about two kids in the middle of a war of eldritch horrors from outside spacetime…

Nick Prasad and Joanna “Johnny” Chambers have been friends since childhood. She’s rich, white, and a genius; he’s poor, brown, and secretly in love with her.

But when Johnny invents a clean reactor that could eliminate fossil fuels and change the world, she awakens the primal, evil Ancient Ones set on subjugating humanity.

From the oldest library in the world to the ruins of Nineveh, hunted at every turn, they need to trust each other completely to survive…"

This is an alternate history, cosmic horror, globe-travelling adventure Science fiction that's primarily a study of the relationship between two young people: Joanna "Johnny" Chambers who is a 17-year old super-genius who has single handedly rewritten the history of the early 2000s with her amazing inventions and discoveries and her best and only friend, Nick Prassad, an ordinary Canadian teenager.

When Johnny invents a new shoebox reactor that seems to generate free energy she also opens a gate into our universe for creatures of cosmic horror known as "Them", to flood in a true Lovecraftian manner. They want Johnny and her invention so that they can enslave humanity and take over the world. So Johnny and Nick go on the run to try and stop them. Pretty basic plot. 

However, what was very interesting to me while reading this book was the dynamics displayed between the two characters. Joanna is the pretty, genius,ridiculously wealthy and slightly psychopathic girl Nick has loved for most of his life, after a violent incident brought the two together. Nick and his family are well below Johnny on the economic scale, and by putting us in his head for the whole book, the author gives us a chance to reflect on the “hero”, as well as the myriad ways in which Nick’s and Johnny’s very different experiences affect them as they suffer threats and attacks, and how the fear and anxiety of their situation exacerbates their differences and their feelings for each other. The racial aspect, the references to race, colonialism, and privilege are not incidental, and were a great addition into a Lovecraft inspire Sci-Fi, someone who was so racist and expressed so much racism through his works. 

While there are many otherworldly horrors present, it’s the many problems that lie at the heart of their relationship, as well as the very real economic and racial issues between them that affected me the most about this story. I struggled to feel anything but irritation for Johnny, and her often blithe approach, her unthinking dismissal to so much that someone without her options, or skin colour, has to live in the world. However she is a very interesting character, she came across as slightly inhuman. Cold, calculating and deeply unfeeling, but at the same time vulnerable and trying desperately to do good. Nick, while supposed to be the "normal" friend was equally interesting, the mixture of love and hate he felt for Johnny, the anger, the claustrophobic closeness of the friends. 

I also need to mention the writing. I really enjoyed it, it got under your skin and made you feel unclean and claustrophobic. 

This is imaginative and fun in parts, the banter was great, there where some dated pop culture references that where a bit weird but didn't ruin the book. However, it was a tad long and dragged in points, and something just didn't hit right with me. The ending disappointed me and the two characters, while interesting felt slightly separated from the reader. 

Age Rating 13+. Could easily be read, enjoyed and understood by a younger audience.