Books And Bikes

Rants about reading and cycling

Book Reviews

Monsieur Linh And His Child (La Petite Fille de Monsieur Linh) by Philippe Claudel

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I’ve said before that if knowing the plot of a novel in advance ruins it for you, there’s probably something wrong with the book.  The best have a lot more going for them than just a story. Philippe Claudel’s Monsieur Linh And His Child falls into that category (despite a glaring weakness), so I feel justified in spoiling it for you.

La Petite Fille de Monsieur Linh, as it is is known in the original French, has one tremendous asset: the description of a friendship between two elderly men.Monsieur Linh is a refugee, presumably in France, possibly from Vietnam, although Claudel doesn’t expressly tell us that.

[Read more…] about Monsieur Linh And His Child (La Petite Fille de Monsieur Linh) by Philippe Claudel

Small Country or Petit Pays by Gaël Faye

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Small Country or Petit Pays by Gael Faye has one thing that makes it stand out: authenticity. And that’s good enough for me.

The author is a singer and a rapper but don’t let that put you off. This is his first and so far only novel. Faye said the book is not autobiographical, yet the narrator and main character is called Gaby, who has a French father and Rwandan mother (as did Faye). He is growing up in the 1990s in Burundi at the time of the Rwandan genocide (as did Faye), and he eventually ends up a refugee in France (you guessed it).

All of which matters not at all, except when it comes to writing his next book, if he ever does.

[Read more…] about Small Country or Petit Pays by Gaël Faye

Sydney Bridge Upside Down by David Ballantyne

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If knowing some details of a book’s plot before you read it ruins it for you, it’s probably not that good a book.

It’s an indication that the book is over-reliant on plot, and niceties such as characterisation, quality of writing and a unique view of the world are not there.

In the world of reviews, they are called spoilers.

But there’s always an exception to the rule and Sydney Bridge Upside Down is it.

[Read more…] about Sydney Bridge Upside Down by David Ballantyne

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

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I have to admit rather cynical motives for reading this book. I did so purely so I could write a review of a more popular book than I would generally read, so that review would be widely read and drive people towards my own website.

It won’t be easy because there are already more than 2,000 reviews of it on Goodreads, and most seem to agree with me — Manhattan Beach is well written, well researched, blah blah blah, but it’s still not great.  [Read more…] about Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

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It’s a wonderful if sadly too rare feeling you get when you read the first sentence of a book and you know immediately you are going to love it. It’s like meeting an old friend and you suddenly remember how well you got on, especially in comparison to the fools you have been socialising with lately.

Such it was with Testament of Youth. There’s not a whole load I can say that has not already been said, other than it’s a fantastic book — but I’ll say it anyway.

The wonderful thing about being a human being is that we all have different views on everything, and not everyone loves Testament of Youth.  [Read more…] about Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (and other similar fluff)

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Despite my high-blown literary pretensions I will from time to time put down the Proust and the Dostoyevski and read a trashy page-turner, usually after a series of what I hoped would be classic, classy reads reveal themselves to be a pile of tush.

So after starting and abandoning Stendahl’s The Charterhouse of Parma and The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, I felt in need of light relief. [Read more…] about Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (and other similar fluff)

State of Emergency and Seasons in the Sun, by Dominic Sandbrook

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Ah, popular history.

Free from the constraints of academia, such as Richard Evans’ books on Nazi Germany, Dominic Sandbrook, in his four-volume history of post-war Britain, is able to select the facts he needs to support the argument he had clearly decided on before he even sat down.

Then he is allowed to interpret those facts however he wishes as long as it looks good, and if the facts don’t quite back up  his argument, well, he can choose some others. That’s what makes him a journalist rather than a historian. [Read more…] about State of Emergency and Seasons in the Sun, by Dominic Sandbrook

In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

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I read In Search of Lost Time, whose title was then translated as Remembrance of Things Past, during a trip around Australia a long time ago, so details of the plot have disappeared into the dark corners of my memory. Perhaps to emerge again if I eat a madeleine cake? I can only hope.

What I do remember is that along with War and Peace (which I previously read on a trip to India) is that it is the best book I have ever read.

[Read more…] about In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust