M2C Online Bookclub - Competition Winner

 

Congratulations to Paula Galvin - who has won tickets to see A.L. Kennedy & James Meek for her review of The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy

This is an astoundingly different book on so levels, its look ( being blue), its change of narrative voice, and the sheer breadth and determination of its literary scope make it a profound reading experience.

From the moment you encounter this book and its author addresses you as the reader of "this book, this book you are reading" you are aware that this is reading on a different level.

The book is simultaneously a meditation on the possibilities of love, and loss and imagination and magic and entwined in this, is an erotic, passionate evocation of possessive love.

A.L. Kennedy is a masterful storyteller who weaves quotidian tales with a sense of the magic and  mystery which underpin all human relationships. Elizabeth Barber is on a voyage with her boyfriend who is sufficiently banal to presume to propose to her on this trip. Events conspire to obstruct and we, the audience remain enthralled to the end.

M2C Online Bookclub - The Blue Book (Part 3)

Photo via Flickr  - National Media Museum Collection

Agghhh....it's so hard to talk about the end of this book - the final few pages are quietly devastating.and change your perspective on everything.

DO NOT READ IN PUBLIC - I was completely blindsided and had to do some intense sniffling and blinking hard out the window to prevent disgracing myself entirely on the train. All I can say is that if you haven't finish reading 'The Blue Book' yet keep going but be prepared for an emotional wallop.
There's really nothing else to say but keep reading and finish the book if you haven't already.

Other books to read if you enjoyed 'The Blue Book':

The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson - Based on the Pendle witch trials of 1612, an extraordinary story of magic, superstition, and ruthless murder.

Last Orders by Graham Swift - Winner of the Booker Prize in 1996 and  a funning and moving rumination on death, life, love, parenthood and childhood.

M2C Bookclub facebook page
  
Competition - win tickets for you and your bookclub to see A.L. Kennedy in Dún Laoghaire this September

 M2C Online Bookclub - The Blue Book (Part 1)

M2C Online Bookclub - The Blue Book (Part 2)

M2C Online Bookclub - The Blue Book (Part 2)

I'm almost finished The Blue Book - and trying to slow down so that I can really enjoy and savour the language and the story. Beth and Arthur's history unfolds gradually as the ship they're on makes it's way tortuously across the Atlantic. The narrative drifts backwards and forward in time from their first meeting to their working partnership to this odd dance they're negotiating with each other on the ship.

Photo via Flickr & Australian National Maritime Museum

Like the rolling motion of a boat at sea my feelings for the characters dip and soar (but I'm wary now and scour the text for suggestive words like 'sway' and 'stagger', the prose is working it's way under my skin) - I'm on the verge of hating Arthur as we're shown his habitual work manipulating rich widows and then swing back again when it seems like he hates himself for what he does yet can't stop doing it.
Neither Beth nor Arthurseems happy, either with or without the other, and they're so tense with each other it's almost painful to keep reading - pity the hapless Derek lying prone in his cabin, (I'm starting to question everything now - has Arthur been somehow able to induce and suggest the seasickness to Derek). Their relationship is so strained and odd now, they couldn't continue as a couple but continued to meet up for weekends together, it takes the memories of how they first met and started working together as fake mediums to begin to understand their mutual attraction and aversion. The description of their way of conducting readings with codes, secret gestures, and reading people who want desperately to communicate with their dead is powerful . I can begin to understand the compulsion they hold each other under, the fierce bond that comes from working together so closely and the attraction of conspiracy.

One thing is for sure - cruises seem like a special kind of hell, weather or not, and I can't help but wonder if A.L. Kennedy went on a cruise as research.

Other books to read if you're enjoying 'The Blue Book':

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk - Very funny, very dark novel that charts a disillusioned young man's meeting with a mysterious and anarchic stranger who will change his life.

The London Train by Tessa Hadley -  A compelling and beautifully written novel of a man and woman whose lives collide on the Cardiff to London train.

 M2C Bookclub facebook page
  
Competition - win tickets for you and your bookclub to see A.L. Kennedy in Dún Laoghaire this September

 M2C Online Bookclub - The Blue Book (Part 1)

M2C Online Bookclub - The Blue Book (Part 1)

And so on to the final Mountains to Sea bookclub choice - The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy. 

First, to matters purely superficial - I had seen and admired the beautiful and vintage inspired hardback edition of the book with it's saturated blue cover and was disappointed to see that the paperbook edition has gone in a more pedestrian style - still blue but muted and dark with an image of two people with their back to us - and lacking the charm and slightly mysterious vibe that I liked about the hardback.
Does this rambling have a point you ask?

Well, only to explain why it took me a while to get into this novel - I think I was put off by the cover design and less willing than I usually would be to plunge in headfirst to a brand spanking new book.
I hummed and hawed and made excuses to myself not to get started. Some books need a good hour or two before you're fully engaged and for me this was one of them. I initially found Elizabeth's interior monologue distracting and challenging and I had to keep going back to reread passages that I kept losing the thread of.
Returning home from work on the DART I had to go back and reread the entire second chapter.

BUT...............

Stick with it my friends!
I'm more than a third of the way through now and find myself utterly intrigued - by the characters, the unfolding backstory and the writing which took me so long to get to grips with.
As soon as I realized Elizabeth and Arthur were already acquainted I was hooked.
When I read the section about Arthur's session with Agathe I couldn't put it down till I had reached the conclusion.
One of the beautiful things about this is that I had no idea what to expect when I started reading and I still don't. Which is why I feel compelled to keep reading.

Other books to read if you're enjoying The Blue Book:

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel - a magnigicently sinister and witty novel about a medium. Gave me the chills.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham - A moving novel with three parralel plot strands that explore a single day in three different women's lives in different eras.

 M2C Bookclub Competition - win tickets to A.L. Kennedy event in September

M2C Online Bookclub. It's Competition Time Again !

Send in your review of our Online Book Club choice for August - AL Kennedy's  " The Blue Book " and the winning entry will win tickets ( 10 maximum ) to see her appearance at Mountains to Sea. AL Kennedy will be in conversation with the Irish Independent's Arts Editor Sophie Gorman on Friday September 6th @ 6.30pm. Reviews should be no more than 200 words.

M2C Bookclub - Competition Time

Win tickets for you and your bookclub (max 10 tickets) to see James Meek at this year's M2C festival in September

Our July online bookclub choice is The Heart Broke In by James Meek. If you'd like to win tickets to his M2C event in September (date to be confirmed) then all you have to do is send in a review of The Heart Broke in of not more than 200 words to mountainstosea@dlrcoco.ie by the end of July.

Online Bookclub Competition Winner - review of The Tiger's Wife

(Photo via Flickr - Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums)

Our hearty congratulations to Peter Sheehan who wrote the winning entry in our online bookclub competition. For this review of The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht he wins tickets for Téa's M2C event in September.

Natalia, a young doctor, in the war torn Balkan region, tells a story of her grandfather, also a doctor, who inspired her and passed on to her tales from his experience of life. Two distinct tales of magical realism are woven by Ms Obreht into the stark reality of war and death.
‘The Deathless Man’, being a man who is condemned never to die, is encountered by Natalia’s grandfather on a number of occasions and challenges the doctor’s pragmatic approach to life.
‘The Tigers Wife’, a deaf mute, is viewed with suspicion and dread by the superstitious villagers and has an affinity with only one person, in the form of the grandfather as a young boy.
Natalia’s attempts to aid children trapped in the war zone forms the core of the novel and offer the key elements of sorrow in this book to counterbalance the exotic fables of her grandfather.
Tea Obreht has produced a remarkable book that teases ones mind with the terror, imagery and superstition surrounding the Balkan region. While not a flawless work, The Tigers Wife is a wonderful read and a clear indication that this young writer promises greatness in the future.

M2C Online BookClub – The Tiger’s Wife (Part 3)

Well - did you enjoy it?

(Photo via Flickr - Field Museum Library)

There’s an odd feeling that comes with finishing a book you’ve really enjoyed – partly satisfaction, partly regret, and always some questions to mull over and images that stay with you.

I like to imagine the ghost of the tiger prowling the mountain near Galina.

Why did the apothecary do what he did? Is there any ambiguity about his actions?
Was I imagining it or at some point did the stories intersect - was the deathless man the same man who successfully wooed the woman Luka intended to marry?

And so to the final third of The Tiger’s Wife – the story of Dariša the Bear, the unhappy end of the Tiger’s Wife herself, the heartbreaking reason why the people and children of Brejevina paint Bis the dog all the time. There’s an interesting generational difference between Natalia and her grandmother – Her grandmother accepts the prescribed rituals of mourning and carries them out in a matter of fact manner while Natalia offers to help the villagers complete a superstitious rite out of curiosity.

The parts I loved about this book were he stories that people tell themselves to understand and see the world - people need stories and superstitions is to make sense of death, conflict and war. There are snippets of information about the modern war, there are mentions of different factions and landmines, but for the most part descriptions are vague. This gives the conflict a hazy feeling, not out of place with the rest of the stories. This war is one of a series of wars in the region – Natalia’s grandfather has experienced several in his lifetime.

This book is a skilfully woven tapestry of folktales, family legends, and a compelling narrative that I’m going to be recommending to all my friends in the weeks to come.

Other books to read if you've enjoyed The Tiger's Wife:

Galore by Michael Crumey. An intricate and entertaing novel following two hundred years of a Newfoundland fishing village.

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. Epic novel following the fortunes of a Chilean family from the turn of the twentieth century.
M2C Bookclub- Competition Time

M2C Online BookClub – The Tiger’s Wife (Part 2)

I found myself galloping through the middle section of this book (chapters 4 – 8), and then having to go back and make sure I hadn’t missed anything. The account of Natalia’s Grandfather’s childhood of the tiger’s journey to his home village of Galina is interwoven with Natalia’s and Zora’s present day mission to the orphanage in Brejevina. Once again the stories are told in chunks that leave you wanting more. Just as one narrative strand ends and another begins – a clever device that kept me reading late into the night, eager to catch up. 



(Photo via Flickr - Smithsonian Institute)



The story of the tiger’s wife is told vividly – the harshness and rigours of early 20th century village life (from the chronology of the book it could be 1920s/1030s?) is startling at times the fever that sweeps through the village in winter and kills all the children under twelve bar one, for example. The treasured copy of The Jungle Book that’s mentioned at the start of the story makes an appearance, a gift from the kindly village apothecary.

Ahhh……stories within stories!

One of my favourite things.

In reading the story of the tiger’s wife we also get the history of the Ottoman musket, the tale of the initial disastrous hunt for the tiger and the Grandfather’s early history until we come to how Luka the village butcher came to marry his child bride and why the villagers started calling her the tiger’s wife.

There are interesting parallels between each story strand – the village of the tiger’s wife appears untouched by modern life and superstition is a way of life but in the present day Natalia and Zora also encounter stubborn beliefs in the family who dig relentlessly in their host’s orchard. Natalia is desperate to inoculate the sick children in the family, but the parents put their faith in the ritual they’ve been advised to carry out and the pouches of herbs they wear around their neck. And a minor mystery as to why the orphanage children paint images of the dog Bis over and over again – they seem to have a talismanic property.

The war is over but casts a long shadow - Natalia makes a trip to the clinic where her grandfather died, hoping to collect his belongings there is palpable tension when she makes inquiries – hostile locals ask her if she comes from ‘the other side’. She remembers a trip with her Grandfather when the ceasefire was declared to the family holiday house across at a lake across the border and the uncertainty of the reception they would get from formerly friendly neighbours. The shifting loyalty that consecutive wars have created is a running theme. The story of the deathless man is taken up again but I didn’t find this second instalment as compelling as the first. For me I just want to find out what happened to the tiger’s wife.

If you’re enjoying the book so far you may also like to read:

‘Ali and Nino’ by Kurban Said. Set in Azerbaijan at the start of the twentieth century, Ali is Muslim and Nino is Christian but they are childhood sweethearts and are determined to marry. A moving love story told against the turbulent backdrop of the First World War and an interesting exploration of conflicting cultures.

‘The Crane Wife’ by Patrick Ness. A romantic and magical novel based on a Japanese folktale.

M2C Bookclub- Competition Time

M2C Online BookClub – The Tiger’s Wife (Part 1)

Fingers crossed some of ye have managed to get your claws into a copy of our June bookclub book – The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht. I’ll try not to include any spoilers for anyone that’s playing catch up this week.

 

I started reading it last week, raced through the first three chapters and am enjoying it immensely. I loved the opening of the book with the memory of the narrator and her grandfather’s trips to the zoo and the tantalising first mention of the tiger’s wife:

‘’I once knew a girl who loved tigers so much she almost became one herself’’

It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that the novel begins with the death of Natalia’s grandfather - the exact circumstance’s of which are murky. The customs and superstitions around death that give her grandmother comfort are interesting and the hints of conflict between various family members are intriguing.

Natalia and her friend Zόra are medical students on their way to help vaccinate orphans in an orphanage across the border. I like the way that explanations about the character and place come organically through the text – it has the effect of actually making me slow down my reading to make sure I don’t miss anything. I get the sense that everything is significant. Time periods shift and change throughout - there are mentions of a war, the Administration shutting things down and a teenage Natalia’s boyfriend is drafted. Back in the present, as she and Zόra cross the border with a carload of medicine it’s obvious that tension is still high – in the orchard of their host family in Brejevina shadowy figures dig on a sinister errand. The sense of trepidation is skilfully wrought; the reader gets the sense that they are being shown pieces of puzzle.

On a mysterious night time excursion with her grandfather Natalia, he tells her the story of his meeting with the deathless man, a wartime experience of his, which was one of my favourite passages of the book so far.

Still no mention of the tiger’s wife but I’m happy to continue reading and try not to skip ahead.

If you’re enjoying the book so far you may also like to read:

‘Burying the Typewriter: Childhood Under the Eye of the Secret Police’ by Carmen Bugan. A memoir about growing up in Ceausescu’s Romania, describing the author’s village childhood and her warm relationship with her grandparents before her father’s dissident activities brings the whole family under the scrutiny of the secret police.

‘The Fall of Yugoslavia’ by Misha Glenny. An acclaimed account of the five-year war in the former Yugoslavia.

M2C Bookclub- Competition Time

M2C Bookclub - Competition Time

Win a chance for you and your bookclub to win tickets (max 10 tickets) to see Téa Obreht at this years book festival !!!!!




We'd like to hear what you think of the June choice for the Mountains to Sea online book club - The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht. Email in a review of not more than 200 words to mountainstosea@dlrcoco.ie by the end of June and we'll select the best entry to publish on this blog. The lucky reviewer will get tickets to see Téa when she reads at the festival in September (date to be confirmed).