Showing posts with label relationship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label relationship. Show all posts
Thursday, August 13, 2020

Everything Under by Daisy Johnson

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Everything Under by Daisy Johnson seems to explore the identity conferred on an individual via family. "Seems to" is important her...
Monday, July 6, 2020

Why did I write Eileen McHugh, a life remade?

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I wanted to explore several strands, the first and most important being the interrelationship between popular and populist, understanding t...
Sunday, July 5, 2020

The Wall of the Plague by Andre Brink

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A t the heart of the book is an obvious but tenuous parallel. Andrea Malgas is an attractive – even stunning – coloured woman from South ...
Saturday, March 31, 2012

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively

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Time is undoubtedly linear, but our perception of it is not. And for Claudia Hampton, the principal character of Penelope Lively’s novel, Mo...
Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Republic Of Love by Carol Shields

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Republics do not have kings or queens, nor princes or princesses, so, we must assume, fairytales are out. Winnipeg is not exactly a republic...
Monday, December 19, 2011

A Northern Ireland Childhood - Patrick Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

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Patrick Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle is an unusual, highly original account of life in a Northern Ireland Catholic household. Written from...
Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

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In his novel, The Glass Room, Simon Mawer starts with a picture of privilege. Through that he explores human relationships, families, histor...
Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Temporary residents - a review of Waxwings by Jonathan Raban

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Waxwings by Jonathan Raban succeeds at every level. It’s one of the best novels I have ever read. Its apparent simplicity continually reveal...
Friday, March 4, 2011

None To Accompany Me by Nadine Gordimer

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Life often presents an illusion of constancy or even continuity. They are illusions, of course, because ultimately we can never take anythin...
Sunday, October 31, 2010

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

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On the face of things the two families featured in Zadie Smith’s On Beauty are fairly functional. The Belsey family lives in New England, ne...
Saturday, May 2, 2009

Love, etc by Julian Barnes

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It’s hard to imagine a more perfect marriage of form and content than Love, etc, in which Julian Barnes continues the story of characters th...
Friday, January 9, 2009

The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares

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The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares is thankfully a short novel that describes life, or rather the end of it, in a Pyrenean village called A...
Friday, October 24, 2008

The Destiny Of Natalie X by William Boyd

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An aspect of William Boyd’s writing that always seems close to the surface of his work is an examination of selfishness. At the very least, ...
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Monday, October 6, 2008

Lives In Time - The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

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For me, The Amateur Marriage represents the sixth time I have read one of Anne Tyler’s novels. On the surface it’s the story of Michael and ...
Saturday, September 6, 2008

The South by Colm Toibin

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The South by Colm Toibin is an intense, though fitful chronicle of a woman’s life, a life as yet incomplete. It presents a patchwork of deta...
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is a compelling portrait of people on the downside of a dystopia. Like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Ta...
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The End Of The Affair by Graham Greene

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Anyone who has lived in London could place the Common that forms a geographical centrepiece in The End Of The Affair by Graham Greene. It do...
Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Two Weeks Since My Last Confession by Kate Genovese

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Two Weeks Since My Last Confession is a novel by Kate Genovese. It is a family saga, featuring the O’Briens from Boston, Massachusetts. On t...
Sunday, May 25, 2008

The Door by Magda Szabo

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The Door by Magda Szabo is a detailed, intimate account of a relationship between two women. Paradoxically, it was the distance between them...
Friday, May 2, 2008

Double Vision by Pat Barker

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Double Vision by Pat Barker is a novel that defies description. Within its pages there is war, crime, murder, rape, love, hate, sex, artistr...