Tower and Town, February 2023 (view the full edition)A Good ReadIt feels like a-g-e-s since I had to write a column, as if my reading and writing muscles have gone rusty, but here I am again, and looking back I've read a variety of goodies during the break. I've caught up on a couple of things I've had on my list for a while. Blurb Your Enthusiasm (the author, Louise Willder spoke at the Literature Festival) was a lovely light, dip-in-and-outable book, just right for holiday reading. Writing the 'blurb' on the dustjacket of a book, intended to entice the reader, is one of those unsung, unregarded arts, and Willder has been doing it for over 20 years. Did you know that the first printed advertisement in English was for a book? With a fluent, chatty style, Willder gives us insights into how we're persuaded to pick up a particular volume. I'd have liked more detail in some sections, but her style is, understandably by the nature of her profession, fairly concise. I enjoyed the faintly acerbic tone of some of her comments, especially regarding the challenges involved in promoting 'literary' fiction - the kind of novel in which nothing actually happens, but it's so beautifully written. It confirmed my own preference for, you know, an actual story. The action in The Dazzle of the Light, by Georgina Clarke is loosely based on some of the activities of the 'Forty Thieves' an actual gang of women criminals in south London in the early part of the last century. Following a chance encounter, two women, from different backgrounds, develop a toxic fascination, to the point of mild obsession with each other. We see how both are to a large extent hampered in their ambition by the rules of their respective societies, the criminal and the 'respectable' political class. Detailed and twisty, the plot gradually reveals the envy and desire, and the connections and corruption which lead to downfall and thwarted aspirations. Stolen, by award-winning Swedish author Ann-Helen Laestadius is a good winter read, a detailed and slow moving coming of age and crime story, with a heroine from a Sami reindeer-herding clan. The Sami are subjected to discrimination and prejudice by many in mainstream society, and the police are dilatory in investigating attacks. The heroine also has to deal with the tensions arising from the clash of modern contemporary ideas and the deeply rooted traditional culture. (It's being filmed for Netflix.) Did you read Love Marriage, by Monica Ali when it came out? If not, the paperback is now available and I loved it and all its fallible, well-meaning characters. Debby Guest |