Seven Steeples

 Seven Steeples by Sarah Baume

A beautifully written story about...well, very little. Bell (Isabel) and Sigh (Simon) leave the city to live in a remote area of Ireland, cutting ties with family, friends and everything else connecting them to their old life. Their cottage looks out on a mountain they promise to climb, but time slips by and eight years pass before they finally get to it. 

In the meantime they go for walks with their dogs, taking note everyday of the changes in the natural world around them. They swim, go to town now and then for groceries, and occasionally tidy up the clutter resulting from their almost unbelievably laid-back lifestyle. They don't have jobs but live on welfare cheques, and as self-proclaimed misanthropes, they avoid human contact with anyone but each other. 

That's what there is of plot. As for character development, well...by the end of the book we know the dogs better than Bell and Sigh. There's something un-solid about them, like we're looking at faded pictures rather than real people. They seem indecisive and unconnected to reality as their home and surroundings fall into disrepair, and then ruin, around them. It's hard to relate to them, and we don't see any dialogue between the two so it's hard to see even how they relate to each other. The dogs, however, are disconcertingly real and described so thoroughly they are practically the main characters.  

But, the writing is lovely. Described elsewhere as a prose-poem, it does have the look and feel of poetry. End sentences of paragraphs leave words and phrases scattered about, giving individual words more impact and setting a mood - sometimes poignant, sometimes slightly sinister - that infuses the whole book 

As I came to the end, I thought it was quite brave to tell a story this way but that it only worked to a point. What it didn't do was tell much of a story, nothing very memorable anyway. We watch everything deteriorate around two people who could do something about it, but don't. I found it incredibly sad. 

Spoiler...

Then this happened: at the very end, from the top of the mountain they have finally climbed, they look back and see something so unexpected that you have to reconsider everything you've read up to now. You must decide for yourself what it means, but other reviews have suggested it might be a ghost story, or perhaps the two characters have merged into one. Since the latter is a lovely thought but impossible, I'm leaning toward the ghost theory. The more I think about it, the more that makes sense and the more I like a book that I didn't like much at all an hour ago. I think I have to read it again now from a whole new perspective. 

The Invisible Man

 The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

I'd never read H.G. Wells but had heard about the notorious radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, and seen movies made from that book and The Island of Dr. Moreau. I wanted to watch the Elizabeth Moss movie based on The Invisible Man but thought I should read the book first, only to find out the movie is only loosely based on the book and isn't the same story at all. 

The book being 128 years old I expect most people know how the story ends, but in case you don't, spoiler ahead...

A scientist, in an experiment gone horribly wrong, is shocked to find himself becoming invisible. But he soon realizes there are pros and cons to his condition - he can go anywhere unseen, but any clothes he wears are visible. And it's winter, so walking around naked can get uncomfortably chilly. Another unexpected hindrance to sneaking around is that any food he eats, or anything he picks up to carry, can be seen, revealing his location to anyone watching. Still, the pros outweigh the cons and he comes to like, and then need, the control invisibility gives him over others. Eventually his desire for power consumes him and leads to his demise.

I wasn't keen on the narration of the audio book I listened to. Edward James Beesley was very expressive, almost too much so, but then maybe it was suitable for the story and the time it was set in. I just like things a little more subtle; I might have liked it better had I read it. 

Thrush Green (#1)

 Thrush Green by Miss Read

I finished the Fairacre series last year and have just begun the Thrush Green books. I found this first one quite different than the other series in terms of sheer wordiness. In the first few chapters it seemed every blade of grass and every bird in the air were being described in minute detail. I began to fear I might not enjoy this series - unthinkable after the joys of Fairacre (and after I'd tracked down and bought every last book in the series) - but it soon improved. I do enjoy Miss Read's descriptions of nature but this seemed excessive in the beginning. I was happy to find the characters soon taking their places as the stars of the show and the setting settling into its secondary place.

It begins on May 1, Fair Day in Thrush Green, with little Paul recovering from an illness and worried the new young Doctor Lovell won't let him go to the fair. Paul's aunt Ruth, herself recovering from a broken engagement, is staying with him while his parents are away. 

Mrs. Curdle, who runs the fair with an iron fist and a kind heart, knows her health is failing and that she'll either have to find a business partner or shut it down entirely. She was hoping her grandson, Ben, would take over for her, but for the past year he's been moody and undependable and she's doesn't know if she can trust him anymore. 

Molly, who works at the local pub and lives with her truculent father, met and fell for Ben at last summer's fair but hasn't seen or heard from him since the fair moved on to other towns. She's excited to see him, but also resentful that he didn't stay in touch after expressing deep affection for her a year ago. She doesn't know how she'll react when she meets him again.

Then there's old Dr. Bailey and his wife, who both realize it's time for him to get help in his practice; two older ladies, Dimity and Ella, who share a house and look after each other, though Dimity seems to do the greater part; and Sam, Ben's cousin, who is finding it hard to support a wife and three children and so takes to pilfering fund's from Mrs. Curdles caravan.

It's the characters who make Miss Read's books so enjoyable. These are people you'd meet in any small town, folks generous and kind, grumpy and irritating. Familiar and comfortable. Nothing very dramatic happens plot-wise, but Miss Read weaves humour and truth and sometimes a little romance into the every day lives of these ordinary people and you end up loving them.  

The Fairacre series was wonderful and it looks like Thrush Green is going to be as well. Twelve more in the series but I'll pace myself, which is to say I'll hoard them to make them last.      

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

What I thought was a novel turned out to be a short story and only an hour long on audio. But I am glad it wasn't longer; the more I heard the more questions I had to which there were no answers.

Benjamin is born as an elderly man, fully grown, talking, and walking. I have many, many questions about how that birth and the nine months preceding it happened and what condition Benjamin's mother was in following that joyous event.

As Benjamin grows up his body gets younger. He becomes stronger and more capable, confusing everyone but having far less trouble than you'd expect in the circumstances. When he reaches old age he is physically a child, with the thoughts and behaviour of a child, and then a baby. At that point he seems to fade into non-existence. I haven't seen the movie but I might watch it just to see how they did that. In the book it's gently worded and peaceful but I can't quite visualize it.  

It's an odd story, but beautiful at the same time. It's imaginative and lets you look at life and aging in a way you probably never have. And the writing - I'd forgotten how much I love Fitzgerald's writing. I'd like to get into one of his novels soon.