Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

I've just finished reading Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. What an experience. The only other graphic novel I've read is V for Vendetta, also by Alan Moore, which I loved reading but this was something else.

The artwork by Dave Gibbons is incredible - I spent ages just staring at the almost cinematic imagery on the first page! If you clicked that link then you'll probably also gather that this is not a story about kittens and bunnies. It's a pretty bleak tale and contains plenty of violence - not one for children.

The story is set in an alternative 1980s America where the threat of an all-out nuclear war is very real. It follows a group of retired super heroes (although as with the exception of Dr Manhattan they don't actually have super powers perhaps it's more accurate to describe them as a group of volunteer vigilantes) whom someone is, or appears to be, picking off one by one. What I quite liked about the book as I was reading it was that I was never quite sure who was a goodie and who was a baddie, possibly because no-one is ever really either, and that really helped to build genuine suspense as I didn't know where the story was headed and I could see that the clock was ticking down the minutes... The ethical and political points made in the story are as relevant today as they were in 1986/7, when the comics were first published and this makes for a thought-provoking, as well as entertaining, read.

It's being made into a film, directed by Jack Snyder who also directed the visually delightful 300, which will be released 6th March 2009. This should make for interesting, of dark, viewing but I really can't figure out how they'll manage the transition of some of the sub-plots. The costumed actors in the publicity stills look pretty impressive though so fingers crossed it's a good one.

The Witch of Portobello - Paulo Coelho

"This is the story of Athena, or Sherine, to give her the name she was baptised with. Her life is pieced together through a series of recorded interviews with those people who knew her well or hardly at all - her mother, colleagues, teachers, friends, acquaintances, her ex-husband. The novel unravels Athena's mysterious beginnings, via an orphanage in Romania, to a childhood in Beirut."

We know from the outset that Athena, who has been dubbed 'The Witch of Portobello' for her seeming powers of prophecy. has been murdered. Each chapter is a transcript of an interview with someone who came into contact with her and gradually the reader comes to understand how Athena/Sherine has developed her spiritual philosophy and how her influence on those around her may have resulted in her death. The first person narrative allows each character to provide differing views of Athena and project an interpretation of events unfolding that allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about their impartiality.

I've not read any of Coelho's other books, although I am sure I have a copy of The Alchemist lurking somewhere, and I admit that I approached reading this one with some caution. I think I was expected it to be a bit more inaccessible and mystical. There is a lot of exploration of the religion of the Mother and how to attain communion with her and achieve happiness that's not based on dependence on others/materiality however this is mixed in with a decent plot where you care about (most of) the characters and want to know what events happen that lead to her death.

Based on this, I might dig out that copy of The Alchemist if only to find out why it's "a global phenomenon". Or so the blurb says.

For non RookRabbiters

They're giving away free books to the first 1000 people who upload bookshelves and tag five books. New registrations only so that's me out but I might as well spread joy since I utterly failed to get my act together in time to participate in BAFAB week.

I feel even worse about this as I won a book today over at Oxford Reader's blog. Rumours I bribed Andrex the rabbit are false, I tell you. False! *cough*

I'll run a random one myself soon though. Promise! Or I could plan something insane for the next one in October. Food for thought!

Apologies...

My sincere apologies to anyone on a feed to this blog. I've just spammed it with the book posts that I've been meaning to finish off/write/get around to for the last couple of weeks. At last I am up to date though and people who've come here via a path that was not a feed will never know the difference.

Oh.

Except I just told them.

Bother.

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

I finished A Thousand Splendid Suns last night by resisting the lure of sleep and reading until my eyes were burning. It was so worth it.

The story is set in modern Afghanistan and follows the lives of two young women over the course of three decades starting with the illegitimate Mariam who is fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry a successful shoemaker, Rasheed, who is 45 at the time of their wedding. Many years later, following personal tragedy, their beautiful neighbour Laila, who is also just fifteen, moves in with them. Initially distrustful of each other, circumstances mean that the women grow to love and protect one another against a backdrop of political upheaval in their country.

I always find it very hard in these circumstances to describe what it was that I found so good about a book without giving away spoilers. As I knew nothing about this book, other than being told I "must" read it by the friend who pressed it upon me a couple of weeks ago, I will do my best to leave anyone reading this post in the same state!

Hosseini writes this powerful story with talent and depicts the everyday lives of these two woman, and their supporting cast, with empathy and compassion. For me, what's remarkable about this book is that the plot is centred on the lives of just a handful of people living in a country where there must be thousands of women leading very similar lives. It also gives an insight into Afghan life over the last forty years or so that I found very troubling. I'd not realised the swift pace of change that's taken place there within just a couple of generations let alone just how extreme that the swing in political regimes was. Almost casual brutality is part of everyday life during war that ripped the country apart and in a very patriarchal society women and children suffer without recourse. I'd like to think that life was easier for people living in Kabul in 2008 however I suspect that it's not all that different.

Having enjoyed this book, I clearly should finally get around to reading The Kite Runner and I am positive that I have an un-read copy of The Bookseller of Kabul somewhere that might make another good companion piece.

What Was Lost - Catherine O'Flynn

What Was Lost is the first book by Catherine O'Flynn and was winner of this year's Costa First Novel Award as well as being long listed for the Booker and Orange prizes. Not bad for an author who was first rejected by 20 publishers and agents...

What Was Lost opens in 1984 with a private detective, the very inquisitive Kate Meaney, and her cuddly monkey Mickey investigating potential "crimes" in and around the new Green Oaks shopping centre. Although very likable, Kate is clearly a very lonely little girl who is using her self-imposed surveillance routine to escape a lack of love, understanding and friendship at home.

Kate's only "real" friends are also misfits. There's Adrian, the graduate son of the local corner shop owner, and a new girl at school, Theresa, who clearly has a very unpleasant home life and doesn't fit in either. The delightful innocence of this section of the book is overshadowed by the knowledge, from the blurb on the back of the book, that a little girl went missing 20 years ago.

The story jumps to 2004 and centres on one of the Green Oaks night security staff, Kurt, and his developing friendship with Lisa who is the a fed up deputy manager of a Your Music branch. Catherine O'Flynn used to be the deputy manager of an unnamed chain music shop and I strongly suspect that the keenly observed stories in this part of the book are toned down. Some of the customer character assassinations and the view that the staff have of management store visits are just too darkly accurate to be entirely fiction.

Gradually, you come to realise that most of the people in the modern section of the book are somehow connected to Kate Meaney and have been affected by her disappearance in one way or another. As the book concludes, the threads are neatly pulled together and you learn what really happened in 1984.

This book is about more than the story of Kate and the lives she touches - it's also about consumerism and its impact on the way we live today. The claustrophobic setting of the Green Oaks shopping centre, with its miles of serivce corridors populated by miserable staff works well. It's an enclosed environment where people routinely go to fill their lives by buying goods that they don't really want, spend time with people that they don't really like and where that they think that they want is dictated by advertising. Some of the end of chapter monologues are very effective at demonstrating this almost hive mentality.

Finishing this funny/sad book left me with a real sense of loss - it's an impressive debut novel and I look forward to reading her next book. I've seen that Catherine O'Flynn is due to appear in the Literary Tent at Latitude Festival in a couple of weeks and fingers crossed she's scheduled for the Saturday as that's when I've got a ticket!

June Reading List

It's so much nicer to sumarise the month's reading in one post and link to the posts about each book. Even if I am having to back-date this post as I didn't quite get it all written up in time! Must. Try. Harder!

• The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
• Slam - Nick Hornby
• Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen
• Notes from an Exhibition - Patrick Gale
• The Painter of Shanghai - Jennifer Cody Epstein
• Hearts and Minds - Rosy Thornton
• The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
• The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged & Last Argument of Kings - Joe Abercrombie
• Sepulchre - Kate Mosse
• The Woman in the Fifth - Douglas Kennedy
• Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones.
  
• The Highest Tide - Jim Lynch
• Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones

After much deliberation, partly caused by how very subjective my POTM* award is, I hereby name Notes From An Exhibition the winner for June. No prize though - just honour!

* Pick of the Month!