Great Circle, by Maggie Shipstead

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Great Circle, by Maggie Shipstead

25 September 2021

Great Circle is an aviation term, and in the context of Los Angeles based American author Maggie Shipstead’s novel of the same name (published by Penguin Random House, 4 May 2021), refers to flying around the world, from say the North Pole to the South, and then back. This is what Marion Graves, the pilot at the heart of Shipstead’s third novel is attempting.

However Marion never makes it home during the 1950 flight. Sixty years later a filmmaker is adapting the story of Marion’s life and ill-fated flight to the big screen, and casts Hadley Baxter to portray Marion. Fearing she has become typecast by her part in a recent film franchise, Hadley is keen to take on a role that will cast her in a different light.

But as filming progresses, Hadley becomes drawn into Marion’s rich and varied life, and develops a fascination with her final flight. In learning what she can about Marion, it seems Hadley may have stumbled upon a clue as to the lost pilot’s ultimate fate. Weighing at six hundred pages though, you may want to clear a few other books from your to-be-read list, before beginning Great Circle.

Bewilderment, by Richard Powers

24 September 2021

Bewilderment (published by Hutchinson Heinemann/Penguin Random House, 21 September 2021), is the thirteenth novel by American author Richard Powers, and his second work to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It tells the story of the recently widowed Theo, an astrobiologist, and his nine-year-old son, Robin.

They live in a chaotic world, confronting climate change and animal extinction, in a country once on the brink of civil war. The administration of a populist president wants to cut scientific research budgets, something that could bring an end to Theo’s work, searching for extra-terrestrial life on other planets.

While Robin is intelligent and creative, he is also deeply troubled, and prone to aggressive outbursts. His school is threatening to expel him unless he is given medication to control his moods, but Theo is against the idea. He would prefer to try an experimental neurofeedback treatment, based on the recorded brain patterns of Robin’s late mother.

No One Is Talking About This, by Patricia Lockwood

22 September 2021

Quite possibly you’re connected to, on, or in the portal, as you read these words. The simplest definition of the portal would be the internet, though most likely there’s a world of difference between the two. The portal could perhaps be regarded as a hard core social media experience, one that all but consumes those who enter its purview. Does this somehow sound familiar?

No One Is Talking About This (published by Bloomsbury Circus, 16 February 2021), is the debut novel of American poet and author Patricia Lockwood. It tells the story of an unnamed social media influencer who is so caught up in the seemingly inescapable domain of the portal, she appears to have lost sight of what is meant to be the real world. This abruptly changes though when she receives word of a family emergency, and is forced to bring herself back to the here and now.

No One Is Talking About This, which has been named on the shortlist of the 2021 Booker Prize, places the protagonist in two starkly different realms, to the point the novel feels like two novels. In doing so, might the suggestion be the portal and real life can, in some way, co-exist? I don’t know; does a choice even exist?

A review of Anuk Arudpragasam’s novel A Passage North

21 September 2021

Isn’t Bookstagram awesome? Soon after writing about Anuk Arudpragasam’s novel A Passage North, I found this eloquent review of his work written by Aloka.

While sitting in my living room I was transported to a train anywhere in the subcontinent looking out into grassy fields for miles spotted with cattle and small mud huts with thatched roofs paddy fields and streams and stations with hot chai in tiny plastic cups and samosas. Berths with thin white sheets and packed dinners leaking with yellow oil. A recent cross country train ride I did just my older son and I where we spent sometime just staring out of the window each with our own thoughts.

While I’m yet to read A Passage North, it seems to me these words capture something of the novel’s essence.

A Passage North, by Anuk Arudpragasam

21 September 2021

A Passage North, (published by Granta Books, 15 July 2021), is the second novel of Colombo, Sri Lanka, born novelist Anuk Arudpragasam, and was included on the Booker Prize shortlist last week. Set in the wake of the thirty year long civil war that devastated much of northern and eastern Sri Lanka, the story follows Krishan, a young Tamil man, as he makes his way from Colombo to the war ravaged north.

The death of Rana, his late grandmother’s former carer precipitates the long train journey. While travelling to Kilinochchi, Krishan contemplates an email from Anjum, his ex-girlfriend whom he met while living in Delhi, India. This message is the first contact with her in four years, after she ended the relationship to prioritise her activist interests.

Arudpragasam’s work is influenced by late Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, and this manifests itself in the long sentences and paragraphs that are replete throughout the novel. Dialogue is non-existent, as is a focus on story and setting, and it is this less than standard approach to writing that sets A Passage North apart from other works of literature.

The 100 Most Influential People of 2021, but where are the writers?

20 September 2021

The City we Became, by N. K. Jemisin, book cover

Time Magazine’s list of the Most Influential People of 2021, contains the names of icons, pioneers, titans, leaders, and innovators, but it’s only in drilling down into the artist category, that a single writer comes to light; American author N. K. Jemisin. First and foremost congratulations to Jemisin for being included, but it seems unfortunate more writers aren’t recognised here. How do we remedy this situation?

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authors, fiction, writing

The Promise, by Damon Galgut

20 September 2021

An unfulfilled, decades old promise divides an already dysfunctional South African family of five, in The Promise (published by Chatto & Windus/Penguin Random House, 17 June 2021), the ninth book by Cape Town based playwright and novelist Damon Galgut.

In her final days, family matriarch Rachel extracts an undertaking from her husband, Manie, to provide Salome, the well-off family’s long serving housekeeper, her own house on a block of land. Amor, a daughter of the Pretoria based farming family, overhears the conversation, and is determined the commitment be honoured. Her frustration grows though as the years pass, and the family fails to deliver.

The Promise, the third of Galgut’s books to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, switches its storytelling perspective between the troubled family members. The pledge to take care of Salome is an analogy of sorts for a hopeful South Africa emerging from the apartheid years, and the challenges confronting the country in moving away from its past.

The Fortune Men, by Nadifa Mohamed

17 September 2021

The Fortune Men (published by Viking/Penguin Random House, May 2021) is the third novel by London based author Nadifa Mohamed. The year is 1952, and Mahmood Mattan is a Somali sailor living in Tiger Bay, the docklands area of Cardiff, Wales. Married to Laura, with three children, he is something of a larrikin character and a small time criminal.

When a local shop owner is murdered one evening, and Mattan is named as a suspect, he isn’t too worried at first. He had no part in the atrocity, and is certain he would be cleared by the justice system should charges ever be laid. But when a customer present at the store at the time of the murder changes their statement, Mattan is convicted of the crime.

While later found to be a gross miscarriage of justice, from which he was posthumously exonerated, The Fortune Men is a fictionalised account of Matten’s trial and conviction. In being included in the short list of this year’s Booker Prize, Nadifa Mohamed becomes the first British Somali novelist to achieve the distinction.

Booker Prize 2021 short list announced

16 September 2021

The work of Nadifa Mohamed, Anuk Arudpragasam, Damon Galgut, Patricia Lockwood, Richard Powers, and Maggie Shipstead, have been shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, 3 November 2021.

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books, fiction, novels

The Banksia House Breakout, by James Roxburgh

16 September 2021

It’s a breakout, but not the sort of breakout you’re thinking of. Eighty-something widow Ruth Morris has been moved into Banksia House, a retirement home in Sydney, by her son, Michael. While the name of Ruth’s new abode may sound homely, Ruth instead feels homesick and isolated, as she pines for her past life of independence.

But when Ruth receives word her best friend Gladys is unwell, she hatches an escape plan in The Banksia House Breakout (published by Simon & Schuster, September 2021); the debut novel of Sydney based Australian writer and audiologist James Roxburgh. And with some help from her new found friends at Banksia House, Ruth makes a dash for Queensland.

But the journey is filled with trials and tribulations as Ruth, Beryl, and Keith, head north, hoping they’ll reach Gladys in time. While dealing with all sorts of problems on the road, the trio has to constantly outwit the home, and their families, lest they be stopped. Blending humour with the stark reality of aged care living, here’s another title for your reading list.

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