Review: The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel

Title: The Land of Painted Caves
Author: Jean M. Auel
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2011
Rating: 3 stars



To start, here is a bit of information about the book, taken (again) from Goodreads.com:

The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel's Earth's Children® series, THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago. THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES is an exquisite achievement by one of the world's most beloved authors.

The Land of Painted Caves is a book that I (and many other people all over the world) have been eagerly anticipating for several years. The Earth's Children series was started by Auel back in 1980; now, more than thirty years later, the series finally comes to an end.

As you can see from this blog entry, I have spent a long time in recent days and weeks thinking about/obsessing over how the series would end. As it turns out, I didn't really need to be that worried. The Land of Painted Caves is written with the same attention to, and depth of, detail that is found in the rest of the series, with the prehistoric landscape vividly brought to life. As for the plot, well... it was a nice ending, I suppose. Everything was resolved, and tied up into a neat little parcel. Of course, there were some tense moments and some exasperating moments, but no issues that hadn't arisen earlier in the series. The good characters were still good - almost painfully so - and the bad characters were still devious and ruthless and malicious. 

I don't know what I was expecting from this novel, and my three star rating isn't to say that I was disappointed. I wasn't. This novel made me happy and provided the right amount of closure to the story. But really, not a lot happened. There were no big dramatic twists (well, not really), and nothing that really moved me. However, as I've said, it was an enjoyable read, and was very well-written. And, of course, meticulously researched. 

All in all, though, it simply doesn't live up to the earlier books in the series. It ends the series with a kind of quiet dignity that is, I suppose, fitting after its long 30-year life, but it is definitely an ending with less of a bang, and more of a whimper.

Three stars: enjoyable and a pleasant ending to the series, but definitely not for you if you're looking for something action-packed and dramatic!

Review: Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson

Title: Grace Williams Says it Loud
Author: Emma Henderson
Publisher: Sceptre, 2010
Rating: 3 stars

To begin, here is a synopsis of Grace Williams Says it Loud, taken from Goodreads.com:

This isn't an ordinary love story. But then Grace isn't an ordinary girl. 'Disgusting,' said the nurse. And when no more could be done, they put her away, aged eleven. On her first day at the Briar Mental Institute, Grace meets Daniel. He sees a different Grace: someone to share secrets and canoodle with, someone to fight for. Debonair Daniel, who can type with his feet, fills Grace's head with tales from Paris and the world beyond. This is Grace's story: her life, its betrayals and triumphs, disappointment and loss, the taste of freedom; roses, music and tiny scraps of paper. Most of all, it is about the love of a lifetime.

Grace Williams Says it Loud tells the story of Grace, physically disabled and “mentally deficient”, as they put it in the book. We follow her from infancy, to the Briar Mental Institute, to a home in Hounslow. She makes friends and enemies, she falls in love with the wonderfully charismatic Daniel (my favourite character in the book), and then she loses him. Twice. We are shown the story of this life through Grace’s eyes, though it is the voices of all the other characters which fill the pages. Grace herself manages to speak only a maximum of two words at a time; the novel allows her thoughts the expression that her body is incapable of providing. It is this contrast, between the richly observant, descriptive narrative, and Grace’s stunted speech and her treatment by the nurses at Briar, that makes for some of the most moving sections of the book.

When I started reading this novel, I honestly couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not. I read it in three sittings: in the first, I reached page 70; in the second, I got to around page 170; and in the third sitting I read right to the end. But what struck me most about this book was that, by the time I reached page 70, I still couldn’t decide whether or not I liked this book. I found its narrative style didn’t quite sit right with me. I still can’t work out why. But what I then realised, whilst I was still puzzling over whether or not I liked this book, was that either way, it had made a significant impression on me in those opening few chapters.

Even now I have finished Grace Williams Says it Loud, I still can’t say whether or not I liked it. It was compelling, yes, and moving, and beautiful, in a way. It’s not a story – or a character – that I am likely to forget in a hurry. But I don’t think I enjoyed reading it. All the way through, the narrative style didn’t seem quite right. Grace’s observations seemed over-done, especially in the opening scenes of the novel. And then again at the end.

So: it was touching and beautifully done, in its own way, but not quite to my taste. Grace Williams Says it Loud was a good read, but not a book that I was able to lose myself in completely.

Review: The Swimmer by Roma Tearne

Title: The Swimmer
Author: Roma Tearne
Publisher: HarperPress, 2010
Rating: 4 stars

It’s been a little while since I’ve written a review of any books, so to get me started, here is a synopsis of the novel, taken from Goodreads.com:

A gripping, captivating novel about love, loss and what home really means.  

Ben is a young illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka who has arrived in Norfolk via Moscow. Awaiting a decision from the Home Office on his asylum application, he is discovered by Ria as he takes a daily swim in the river close to her house. He is twenty years her junior and theirs is an unconventional but deeply moving romance, defying both boundaries and cultures – and the xenophobic residents of Orford. That is, until tragedy occurs.

Forty-three year old Ria is used to being alone. As a child, her life changed forever with the death of her beloved father and since then, she has struggled to find love. That is, until she discovers the swimmer.

The Swimmer is an incredibly moving story told through three different voices, each section of the novel still centring around (as the title suggests) the swimmer – Ben. A Sri Lankan doctor seeking asylum, Ben finds himself stranded in rural Suffolk when his money runs out and he is unable to reach London. He begins working illegally whilst waiting to hear back from the Home Office, and meets Ria as he struggles to survive, stealing food from her kitchen and swimming in the river close to her house to keep clean. It is an unlikely friendship between them which soon blossoms into romance, and still they await the decision from an impotent Home Office with regards to Ben’s asylum application.

This beautiful relationship is painted against a backdrop of barely-concealed racism in the Suffolk village of Orford. While the whispers of terrorism and news reports of ritually slaughtered animals fail to make an impression on Ria, we see the village closing in on itself, leaving Ben stranded on the outside. And then the sounds of gunshots ring out and their tragic repercussions echo through the rest of the novel.

Through the voices of a lover, a mother, and a daughter, the novel personalises the asylum process and the tragedy of loss and dislocation that is at the heart of this book. The three distinct voices of three very different women work to bring together the political and the personal, encouraging us to understand the predicament faced by so many refugees in this day and age. Writing at a time when immigration is a key issue in British politics, this novel sensitively gives us a glimpse at ‘the other side’ of the debate. For Ben and his mother Anula, Britain is a source of hope in their war-torn home country, a chance for a better, safer life. What we are shown in this novel is just how easy it is to put your hope in the wrong thing.

The Swimmer moved me to tears more than once – something I always consider to be the mark of a good book. Tearne’s writing is beautiful in the precision with which she depicts her characters and their world. The tensions between the characters are beautifully managed and conveyed; for me, it is Anula's section of the novel, filled with her undirected rage and her unarticulated hatred of Ria, which is most striking. This beautiful, heartfelt novel is Tearne's fourth, but my first look at her writing. I'll definitely be taking a look at some of her earlier works - this is a wonderful, touching work of fiction that I enjoyed immensely. Highly recommended.

Orange Prize for Fiction: Longlist announced

The Orange Prize for Fiction announced its longlist this morning. The Prize is now in its sixteenth year, and is the UK's only annual award for books written by women. The Prize exists to celebrate the work of talented, original women writers all over the world. This year's longlist of twenty books features writers from twelve different publishing imprints and, most excitingly, nine of the twenty books are debut novels.


The full longlist is as follows:

• Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate)
• Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)
• The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury)
• Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber)
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
• The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury)
• The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape)
• Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre)
• The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair)
• The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber)
• Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking)
• The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus)
• The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking)
• Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent's Tail)
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus)
• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail)
• The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press)
• Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape)

Of these twenty titles, I've only read Room by Emma Donoghue, which I really enjoyed. The novel is narrated by a five year old boy, Jack, who has lived his entire life in a single room with his mother. This was something fresh and original, with an engaging and believable child narrator. If you haven't read it, I thoroughly recommend it.

With less than a month before the shortlist is announced on April 12th, I want to try and read a couple more from this list. I'm going to try and get through Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile, Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson, The Seas by Samantha Hunt, and The Swimmer by Roma Tearne.

Let's see how I get on with these, shall we?

For more info on the Orange Prize for Fiction, see their 2011 page where the longlist and further details about the prize can be found.