About the Book
Title: Half Blood Blues
Author: Esi Edugyan
Publication: Serpent's Tail (2011)/Amazon Kindle
Summary: In Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty and the possibility that, if you don't tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. And they just might tell it wrong ...
What I Think
I wanted to read this because it had been shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize 2011, along with five others: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (the winning novel), Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch, The Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt, Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman and Snowdrops by A.D. Miller. A shortlisting for this highly prestigious prize is, in itself, a massive achievement, and I therefore had high expectations of this novel.
Set in Berlin and Paris at the beginning of World War II, a group of musicians are brought together by not much other than their shared love of jazz. Sid (on bass) and Chip, friends since childhood in Baltimore, had travelled to Germany to escape the Jim Crow laws governing 1920s America. Paul (a Jewish pianist), Ernst (club owner of the Hound) and Fritz (a blond Bavarian) were all Germans, as was Hieronymous 'the kid' Falk. Hiero was also black, a Mischling, a half-blood, and a mean trumpeter, due to play with Louis Armstrong in Paris. Throw into the mix Delilah Brown, a singer who gets Sid's blood pumping faster than Paul's nimble fingers on the ivories. The political, personal and professional tension is running high, and people don't always cope well in those kind of circumstances.
"Don't get me wrong - I loved Berlin. I ain't saying otherwise. And for awhile the Housepainter didn't even seem as bad as old Jim Crow. Least here in Europe a jack felt a little loved for his art - even if it was a secret love [...] Cause blacks just wasn't no kind of priority back in those years. I guess there just wasn't enough of us."
Although the main events are surrounding Hiero, this is Sid's story. He has a strong voice, which is heavily accented. This sometimes makes for slow reading as you need to concentrate to work out what he is saying. Add to that the heavy subject matter and this was not an easy read. However, it was very satisfying and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the era, jazz, or a darn good story.
About the Author
Esi Edugyan is a graduate of the University of Victoria and Johns Hopkins University. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Best New American Voices 2003. Her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was published internationally. Half Blood Blues, won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction. It was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize, and was longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her husband and daughter.
About the Book
Miles Garth, a guest at a dinner party, locks himself into the upstairs bedroom between the main course and desert. Despite enthusiastic coaxing from the other guests, he stays put and as days turn into weeks and then months, his isolation has an effect on many people's lives.
What I Think
I was recommended this book by my sister and I wasn't disappointed. It took me a little while to get the title straight, as it's unusual to say the least and doesn't make sense, but this leads to curiosity. Once I started reading it I realised that the book is divided into four sections: There, But, For, The. Now it was clear!
Each section is written from a different person's point of view and each character has his or her own voice. A very distinctive style has been used for the different sections. If you opened the book at any random page, you'd know whose story you were reading.
Each character has a link, albeit sometimes not a close one, to the main character, Miles. Smith has cleverly used the other characters and their interactions with Miles to disclose more about him and his life and the reasons as to why he's locked himself in the upstairs bedroom of a stranger's house.
About the Author
Ali Smith was born in 1962 in Inverness. She studied at the University of Aberdeen and lectured at the University of Strathclyde until she was diagnosed with CFS/ME. After her diagnosis she became a full-time writer and writes for The Guardian, The Scotsman and the Times Literary Supplement. She is the author of Hotel World (2001), The Accidental (2005), Girl Meets Boy (2007) and There But For The (2011) as well as short story collections and plays. Both Hotel World and The Accidental were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize as well as the Orange Prize for Fiction.
About the Book
Eva struggles to come to terms with the fact that her son, Kevin, is in prison for murder.
What I think
I've often heard people talk about this book as the best book they've ever read. I took a little time to get into it and had I not been reading it for my book club, I might not have persevered. I'm pleased I did though as the book got better and better.
Written as a series of letters from Eva to Franklin, her husband and the father of Kevin, this is an unusual book and stylistically it's an accomplishment. What is also very clever is that essentially you know what has happened from the start, but you continue to read to find out how it happened. I was gasp-out-loud shocked a couple of times by twists in the plot, and that's always extremely satisfying.
The underlying theme of this controversial novel is nature vs. nurture; a debate I always find extremely interesting. After a lengthy debate at book club, we were still undecided on why Kevin did what he did.
About the Author
Lionel Shriver (born Margaret Ann, but changed her name at the age of 15 to a male name which she felt better suited her personality) is an American journalist and novelist. We Need to Talk About Kevin was her eighth novel and it won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005.
About this book
Harley Savage, a big and somewhat manly woman, is sent to Karakarook, from Sydney, to set up a local Heritage Museum. Douglas Cheeseman, an awkward engineer with a fear of heights, has been ordered by Head Office to oversee the demolition of the village's historical bridge.
What I think
I absolutely loved this book and couldn't put it down. It kept me amused for two hours straight on a boat trip to and from Macau. Although I love reading, it still takes a good book to keep me interested for that length of time. This book, as the title suggests, is all about our ideas of perfection and imperfection in the world. It's beautifully written and the attention to detail is superb.
This book is like an anti-love story. The two main characters, Harley and Douglas, who have given up on love and almost on life, meet under strange and abnormal circumstances. Both in this tiny village to do a job, they develop a tentative relationship and you wonder if they will stand in their own way.
The village of Karakarook is like a character as it plays such a strong role. The heat, the dust, the windy lanes, the river; they all add value to this narrative. The many minor characters, who are just as quirky and interesting as the main characters, wouldn't belong in a 'big city'.
About the author
Kate Grenville is an Australian author. She has published eight fictional novels and four books about writing. The Idea of Perfection (1999) won the Orange Prize for Fiction, Britain's richest literary prize, in 2001.
