Tower and Town, August 2021

  (view the full edition)

A Good Read

If I tell you I’m recommending a really marvellous book about a disparate group of people who, over the course of forty years enjoy art, and the art of living, and love and sunshine and fresh peaches in Florence – you could be forgiven for going “Really? Yawn…” But bear with me, Still Life is by Sarah Winman, one of my favourite authors, so it’s not cliched or predictable. Sarah Winman’s writing is clear and clever, and the book is joyous and evocative, full of funny and touching detail, and just fantastical enough to be interesting without going too far into magic realism. It’s about the power of art and beauty to bolster the human spirit, and about generosity and constructing one’s own family. It's all about connection really, and yes, E M Forster does make an appearance, in a room, with a view. It made me grin, and it made me weep, and halfway through I had to consciously slow down because I didn’t want to come to the end. I loved it. (Can you tell?)

A quick canter through some other titles I’ve enjoyed – judging by the sales I know a lot of you may have already read Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, but if you haven’t then please do. A reporter on a local newspaper investigates an extraordinary claim in this beautifully constructed and detailed, slightly melancholy story of constricted suburban lives in the early 1950s.

I’m a fan of Nick Hornby’s ‘useless-bloke-lit’ as I call it, and I very much enjoyed Just Like You, in which the central ‘bloke’ is actually almost the least useless of the characters. The story of an unexpected, unlikely, and on the face of it, unworkable relationship it’s a sweet reminder not to make assumptions and not to over-think human interaction.

Anne (Meet Me at the Museum) Youngson’s second novel is another ‘second chances’ story, and again, could be cliched, but absolutely isn’t. Three Women and a Boat is well-constructed and witty, a tale of women facing or making changes in their lives, and forging friendships. Youngson reminds us that making a change doesn’t have to be dramatic or drastic, a slight tweak of the dial may be all it takes. It’s a warm and sweet-natured book (but not sentimental).

 Finally - I’m not racist, and neither are you, obviously. But. Do read Assembly by Natasha Brown. It’s a very slim, sparingly written novella, which skewers the blindness of privilege, in relation to both race and class, as well as sex. Both explicitly and implicitly Brown describes the effort involved in code-switching, as her narrator reflects on whether the work involved in assimilating is worth any potential reward. The author is appearing at this year’s Marlborough Literature Festival, I’m hoping for a front row seat.

Debby Guest