Browsing the Bookshelves

...over the New Year, provided the perfect opportunity to do some real reading, not least because the weather celebrated the holidays with a chilling wind and driving rain, making what are usually tempting cliffside walks seem more like a cruel and unusual punishment. I finished Jonathan Frantzen's The Corrections (this month's selection for the BBC bookclub), and then tucked into Property by Valerie Martin, which one the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2003. I often find award-winning books a disappointment and find myself struggling both to understand the judges' decision and to enjoy the book, but Property deserves to be made an exception.

It's a slim novel which relates the story of Manon Gaudet, the wife of a harsh and humourless slave-owning planter in the American South. Set in the 19th century, it is a vivid portrayal of the effects of slavery on slave owners and the ways in which an evil institution victimises slave-owners as well slaves, although in very different ways. Evocative and disturbing, this single-sitting read lingers in the mind long after you've closed the book.

Next up was a few hours delving into the delights of the latest Good Fiction Guide to tempt me into parting with my money.  Actually, this one, edited by Jane Rogers, stands out from its rivals for its introductory essays which cover specific genres and regional writing.  They are written with enthusiasm and a passion rarely found in such volumes, engendering a genuine, if momentary, desire to 'read everything'. I resisted - but even so, my wishlist grew at an expodential rate for a few hours.

Diving into John Keay's The Honourable Company: A History of the London East India Company, was a sheer delight. Keay, who always writes engagingly, exploits a mass of primary and secondary evidence to present a history of the Company in a manner which reads more like an adventure story at times, although he is not slow to debunk conventional wisdom, especially relating to the foundation of the British Raj, whenever he can.

I started reading Kipling's Kim too, but didn't get much further than the somewhat dry introduction.  I got distracted by Embers by Sandor Marai. 

All in all, a great new year so far.