The Rook – Daniel O’Malley

“Dear You, The body you are wearing used to be mine.”  Thus begins The Rook, Daniel O’Malley’s first novel.  The story’s protagonist, Myfanwy Thomas, is a highly placed manager in a secret government organization called the Checquy; an organisation run by and concerned with the affairs of the supernatural in Britain.  She also has amnesia.

 

Her old personality has been wiped, and a new version of herself has just awoken in the rain surrounded by bodies wearing latex gloves.  I’m fairly wary of stories that use amnesia as a plot device, it’s sometimes used to artificially inject some mystery/suspense into a story, but here it’s done well.  In fact, despite the fact that she has amnesia, it doesn’t follow the usual narrative associated with amnesia.  This is partly because her old self isn’t really gone.  In fact, almost half the book is taken up with letters from her old self.  Letters she wrote to her future self, because she knew she was going to lose her memory.  She knows that while her body will survive, her personality will die.

And this is where the story shines.  Sure, there are weird and wonderful supernatural characters and events, imaginative action scenes, cunning detective work and humorous observations aplenty, but it’s the differences between the old and new versions of Myfanwy that I found the most interesting.  They’re quite different characters, both have the same nature and the same supernatural abilities, but where post-amnesia Myfanwy is a blank slate in terms of nurture, everything about pre-amnesia Myfanwy is affected by her life to that point.  It’s a credit to Daniel O’Malley that he manages to pull this distinction off in a believable and compelling way.

Michael L.

We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver

We Need to Talk About Kevin is an uncomfortable book.  We know from the start that it is a book about a young boy who ends up shooting and killing staff and students at his school in a Columbine-style school massacre.

The story is told from the perspective of Kevin’s mother, Eva Khatchadourian, in the form of letters she is writing to her estranged husband.  In these letters she examines the life of her son, trying to find the seeds of his horrible act of violence.  She is plagued with guilt over the possibility she is somehow responsible for her son’s violence or that there may have been a way to reach her son to turn him from his murderous path. 

We Need to Talk About Kevin is available as a book group set at Maribyrnong Library.

Housewife Superstar: the Very Best of Marjorie Bligh by Danielle Wood

This biography introduces you to Tasmania’s very own domestic goddess, the bright and charming Marjorie Bligh; the rumoured source of Barry Humphries’ much loved character Dame Edna Everage. Danielle Wood takes you on a tour of the highs and lows of Bligh’s life. Three times married and a lover of  all things domestic, her skill and resourcefulness makes her a lovable and entertaining figure.  A ferocious competitor in local agricultural shows, her blue ribbon skills lead her to becoming an advice columnist in the local Launceston  paper.  Bligh went on to publish several  books of advice,  recipes and household management.

Bligh is an impressive character and you cannot help but love her as you learn of the colourful life she lead.  Never one to sit still and waste time,  she found a way to knit while breastfeeding her children.  Having grown up in the Great Depression,  Bligh never wasted household items and her crocheted rug and matching outfit made out of old pantyhose is a testament to that.  The book is littered with hints from Bligh’s advice books and I recently taped slices of garlic to my feet to ward off a cold on her advice. Who knows if Bligh’s eccentric advice worked but like the book it was very amusing.

Though the book never resolves whether Bligh was the basis of Dame Edna,  Household Superstar is a highly satisfactory read.  This entertaining and informative book is a resource to  all those interested in Australian historical characters and household resourcefulness.

AG

Blackout – Connie Willis

Blackout is the first book in a two-book series, (All Clear is the second novel) that tells the stories of a group of time travelling historians stuck in England during different periods of World War II.  While it’s a stand-alone series, Blackout is not the first novel set in this universe and unfortunately it shows.  Blackout won both Hugo and Nebula awards for Science Fiction, but the book contains very few sci-fi elements.  The plot centers around the use of time travel, but time travel is never explained. 

I really enjoyed the early chapters of this book where, due to some mysterious circumstances that are tantalizingly hinted in early chapters, our time travelers are frantically trying to get ready for their trips back in time whose departure dates have suddenly been brought radically forward leaving them underprepared for such a dangerous period in history.  Unfortunately, those mysterious circumstances are never explained.  It was the most interesting hook in the book, but as soon as our time travelers have made it to their destinations in World War II England, they promptly get stuck there and the rest of the book is essentially comprised of WWII stories as told by panic-stricken narrators. 

And our narrators are some of the least likable characters I’ve ever encountered.  Despite knowing how and when the war ends, where every bomb falls  in London and believing that they cannot change the course of history no matter what they do, every character allows themselves to be pushed around by others and they worry constantly about alterations to the timeline.  Also, despite knowing something has happened to prevent them from returning to the future, when our characters finally manage to meet up (after a series of ridiculous co-incidences that prevented them from doing so for most of the book) do they discuss their number one problem?  No.  They’re too worried that their fellow time-travelers are too mentally fragile to handle such a discussion. 

Ultimately the plot feels contrived, the characters are unlikable and the one decent plot hook goes frustratingly undeveloped from chapter four onward.  How this novel won both a Hugo and Nebula award I’ll never know, because despite persisting with this book long after I normally would, I cannot bring myself to continue the story with All Clear.

Michael L.