7) A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
I don't remember how I acquired this book but I put off reading it due to a fear of it being too depressing. It is, after all, about four people who want to commit suicide. Strangely enough, it turns out that it's quite an uplifting book. Yes, it deals with difficult situations, but it deals with them with a lot of humour and self-deprecation. I particularly like Jess' nihilistic character, the tough exteriror of which hides a sensitive, lonely little girl. Albeit a sensitive, lonely little girl who likes swearing. A lot. In fact, all the characters, bar Maureen swear a lot. JJ muses on this with rather comic effect:
"How do people, like, not curse? How is it possible? There are all these gaps in speech where you just have to put a 'f***'. I'll tell you who the most admirable people in the world are : newscasters. If that was me, I'd be like, 'And the motherf*****s flew the f***ing plane right into the Twin Towers.' How could you not, if you're a human being? Maybe they're not so admirable. Maybe they're robot zombies."
N.B. In the original, the swearwords aren't asterisked -out, but as I'm not one for swearing myself, and I haven't put an age restriction on this blog, I thought it was better to do so.
This, coupled with Maureen's
naïvety ("I don't know how those jet-set people who have to fly once or twice a year cope, I really don't") and Jess' casual stereotyping ("I could imagine Martin and Cindy having kids called Polly and Maisie, which are sort of old-fashioned posh names, so everyone could pretend that Mr Darcy or whatever lived next door.") go to create a very funny, enjoyable read.
I even finally learnt the meaning of "Having your cake and eating it":
"Jess looked kind of doubtful. 'Are you sure that's it? How can you eat a cake without having it in the first place?'
'The idea,' said Martin, 'is that you get it both ways. You eat the cake, but it somehow remains untouched. So "have" here means "keep".'
'That's mental.'
'Indeed.' "
I think, however, that I can, with this book, have my cake and eat it; I have read a book with a thought-provoking, serious subject matter, but also enjoyed it and laughed a lot along the way. So there.
8) What Maisie Knew by Henry James
I have to say, if I hadn't been reading this for uni, I'm not sure I would have finished it. I've been reading it on and off for over a week now and there were some points where I was looking at the "percentage read" bar at the bottom of my kindle and willing it to go faster. That being said, it's a very powerful book, dealing with the aftermath of a divorce on a child (perhaps another reason I struggled with it, as this came a but close to home) and how innocence can be manipulated. The plot is almost ridiculous in many ways, but purposely so, and it adds some levity to the harsh words and hypocrisy of the characters:
"Your father wishes you were dead - that, my dear, is what your father wishes."
"You'll never know what I've been through about you - never, never. I spare you everything, as I always have."
AND
"You know your mother loathes you, loathes you simply."
"Repudiate your dear old daddy - in the face, mind you, of his tender supplications. He can't
be rough with you - it isn't in his nature."
I would by no means call James' book a bad one; rather I would say that it sometimes moves quite slowly and is very wordy; not something to read when you're tired! All in all it covers an interesting, and contemporarily relevant subject in a fresh way (it was probably quite scandalous in 1897!) and I'm looking forward to hearing what my lecturer has to say about it.
