Review: Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos

Last summer I had booked a spa day at Mr B's, and it just so happened that on the same day they were hosting an Author Event, so I decided to book both, and read the author's first book Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (JP) in preparation.  Mostly so I would have some clue as to what he's talking about... I figured if I didn't enjoy it I could always cancel going to the author event.  I thought it was great and got really excited about attending the session.  So anyway, here's a bit more about the book.  Article about the event to follow.

I thought it was a brilliant little book, a novella rather than a novel, but a great read.  I've borrowed the blurb from Goodreads, as I couldn't possibly have described it better:

Tochtli lives in a palace. He loves hats, samurai, guillotines and dictionaries, and what he wants more than anything right now is a new pet for his private zoo: a pygmy hippopotamus from Liberia. But Tochtli is a child whose father is a drug baron on the verge of taking over a powerful cartel, and Tochtli is growing up in a luxury hideout that he shares with hit men, prostitutes, dealers, servants and the odd corrupt politician or two.

I've never read anything that left me feeling so uncomfortable, but which I think is so completely excellent. It is a masterpiece of writing that can entertain (there's a lot of black humour) and deeply disturb you at the same time. I am not a writer, as you can plainly tell reading this, so I'm afraid I don't have the right words to express what this book made me feel.

The black humour serves as a device to drive home the point that Tochtli's world is vile and corrupt. His innocence, and acceptance of terrible violence as normal serves to highlight the horror of the world he lives in, and JP achieves this spectacularly well.

“It's like a competition: the one who wears the crown is the one who's made the most corpses.” 

Corpses are so commonplace and normal to Tochtli that you feel these words are delivered in the same way that people might say 'Dead bodies are just so last week'.  Corpses are just no big deal. Fodder for pet lions and nothing more.

Tochtli's exposure to the world is extremely limited.  He reads dictionaries and while he uses the terms literally his favourite words are awful.

The book is sensational in my opinion, and leaves a mark. I don't think I will ever forget reading it.

Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov

At my third book spa a few months ago I was presented with Death and the Penguin.  I had previously rejected it (wasn't in the mood for bleak Russian drama), but I figured if it had been selected in two out of my three book spa’s then I may as well have done with it and give it a try.  Despite what turned out to be a fairly accurate description I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book.

It’s set in Kiev, Ukraine, and tells the story of how Viktor and his pet King Penguin Misha become caught up in the middle of a mafia war.  A frustrated writer Viktor finds a job at a newspaper writing obituary articles for the famous and infamous of Kiev who haven’t died yet.  At first able to pick and choose who he writes about nobody seems to be dying, after a while the first death happens, and the Editor starts sending lists and bio’s for people he wants articles for.  Viktor’s life becomes increasingly complicated and dangerous until the rather surprising (to me) ending.  Throughout there is a tone of melancholy.  Viktor is a man to whom life happens.  He doesn't ever seem to feel he has a choice, or control over events.  He also has a strong sense of not being able to form good relationships with people, or Misha, and he and the story are a little frustrating at times.  I just wanted to grab him and shake some life into him.  In actuality Viktor is the personification of the general feeling of decline of Kiev described in the book.  Powerless people just trying to earn what little money when and where they can and stay alive. 

It sounds bleak and terrible, and yet it’s not.  The book has comedic moments, and you do just have to keep reading.  I had to keep reading to see if Viktor realised what his articles were being used for, and why.  I had to see what happened to him, Misha the Penguin, and the few people that Viktor acquires along the way.  I will definitely be reading ‘Penguin Lost’, the sequel.

When I was reading up about the book I found this article onThe Guardian website, where it appears that the story was rather prophetic.  First published in Russian in 1996, it was around the time of it’s publication in English in 2001 that real life events appeared to be imitating the book.  For an audience like me, who is not all that aware of what life in the Ukraine is really like it set things in a whole new uncomfortable light.

Well worth a read in my opinion.

Review: The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman

November challenge rocks!

I’d heard so many good things about this novel, and I really love a book that makes me feel something, so when this was on a multi-buy offer at Smiths I couldn’t resist.  Nor could I leave it sitting on the shelf for ages waiting for me to pick it up.

It’s one of those rare books too that had me thinking about it when I couldn’t read it.  Great for my reading experience, very bad for working life!

Short Synopsis:  Tom is a soldier returned from WW1 to live off the coast of Western Australia where he is a lighthouse keeper.  He marries Isabel and they’re madly in love and desperately sad that they haven’t been able to have children, so when a rowing boat containing a baby and a man’s body wash up on the shores of the lighthouse they make a decision that will change many lives forever.

The story is wonderfully written and draws you into Tom and Isabel’s world until you feel what they feel.  When they struggle with the decisions they’ve made I felt for each of them, and when faced with harder and harder choices my heart just ached.  The ending was beautifully handled and you will need a book of tissues close to hand.

What I liked most: The setting, the emotional drama, the characterisation.

What I liked least: There were a couple of moments that I felt the story could have moved a little faster, but that might be my impatience to resolve the pain everyone is going through.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Publisher: Hesperus Press
ISBN: 1843913720

In a word - Hilarious!

If you read my review of Advent you'll know that it suffered from a reading break half way through.  The same thing happened with this story, but unlike Advent picking up the story again was seamless.

The story centres around Alan Karlsson who is about to celebrate his 100th birthday, but he'd rather avoid the whole thing and so decides to escape the nursing home by means of the window and shuffle away in his slippers.  He encounters some criminals and makes new friends along the way, all the time pursued by the Police.  Interspersed with this present day storyline is the history of Alan's long and remarkable life.

Somehow, though a series of highly improbable events Alan unwittingly involves himself in many of the major events of the 20th century.  It's a brilliantly inventive way to examine our recent past, though Alan is fictional of course, the dates, times and characters are I believe otherwise accurate.

It is pretty much a farce from start to finish, and I have not laughed at a book so much in ages.  You do have to read this in that light, if you tried to take it seriously I think you'd really struggle with this one.

What I liked most:  Anticipating the next thing Alan was about to do, the surprise when things turn out differently (but better-funnier).  Vladivostock just got funnier and funnier.  Herbert Einstein.

What I liked least: drawing a lot of attention to myself in the restaurant at work laughing about Vladivostock.

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Publisher:  Atlantic Books,

Not yet available in paperback in the UK. ASIN (Amazon Standard ID Number): B00A25NLOU

Released in the UK this year for the Kindle, it popped up on Amazon as one of those 'Other customers also bought' books when I was looking for references for my review of Advent by James Treadwell. It's generally well thought of on Amazon and Goodreads, and the plot appealed to my love of books and bookshops, so I thought why not?

I found it really enjoyable, highly entertaining, engaging and hard to put down.

Out of work web designer Clay finds a job in a dusty old bookstore with a mysterious set of books and customers. Curious about the goings on, which clearly aren't normal, he embarks on a quest to find out more about the bookstore, his employer and what these people are up to. Using modern technology Clay and his friends and associates attempt to solve a 500 year old mystery at the heart of the bookstore.

It was laugh out loud funny, the characters were interesting, the puzzle of the books was engaging. The bookstore was so well described it was pretty much a character in the book.

What I liked most - the puzzle, the mystery, the bookstore itself, the humour. The epilogue-y bit at the end, I love a good epilogue.

What I liked least - how short it is, or at least how short it felt. It took me only a day or so to read, and I could have happily spent some more time there.

Favourite Quotes: there were a few good ones, but this is the one that induced the outburst of mirth that made me grateful I was on my own: "Don't forget your ruler on your first day of cult "   I could also quote the entire last paragraph or two, but that would give away too much.

Highly recommended, and if you choose to read it I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen

Publisher: Vintage

ISBN: 978-0099572473

Sweet, melancholy, charming, beautifully told, and pretty much plotless.

The Vanishing Act is a simple story about a young girl called Minou who lives on a remote island years after a major war, though you don't know where (other than it is extremely cold in winter therefore is likely to be far north or far south), or when/which war.  It is ultimately about the search for truth which so often eludes us.

Minou lives on this island with her Papa, Priest, Boxman, and No-name the dog. Other than Minou the only other character who has a name is the founder of the island who died many years before. This seems to have the effect of isolating the island even more than it is geographically, it also speaks to the truth of us.  We are not our names, we are the things we do and the way we live our lives (oops, in danger of getting a bit deep here). The only people to visit the island are an Uncle, and the boat men who deliver supplies once a week, and the dead boy who washes up on the beach of course.

A year before the book is set Minou's mother leaves the island, though it is not known if she walked off the island and drowned, or was saved. Minou clings to the idea that she was saved, and proving this takes up much of her focus. Minou is of course very innocent, and it's through her recollections that we learn about the other islanders, her parents relationship and probably the reason her mother vanished.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book though the lack of plot was a little frustrating to me. By the end of the book nothing is resolved, though we understand more about life for Minou and her little family. 

I started the book thinking about how peaceful a life on an isolated island might be, and wouldn't that be nice. I have always liked the idea of getting away from people and the world, but by the end I had completely changed my mind.  I suppose I have found some truths of my own.  Maybe this is the kind of thing that Erin Morgenstern meant with her quote on the cover - that this is the kind of book that changes you.

What I liked most - beautiful writing, the mystery of Minou's mother.

What I liked least - I got tired of the references to Philosophical method and Descartes.