An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah (40/81)

Category: Around the World
Country: Zimbabwe

Horrific political regimes do at least seem to produce some interesting literature, and this collection of short stories is no exception. The stories are centred around Zimbabwe, mainly as affected by Mugabe’s rule with the soaring inflation, AIDS epidemic and social injustice.

Whilst Mugabe doesn't feature directly in many of the stories, the impact of his oppressive regime and the tragedies of the instability in Zimbabwe can be felt across the collection. The stories cover the whole social spectrum of Zimbabwian society, and although there are glimpses of humour, it is overall a bleak portrait. The quality of the writing is however excellent, making it compelling reading and unlike many short story collections, there aren't any weak points here.

I would certainly be keen to read more by this author and hope there will be a full length novel in the future.

Tropical Fish - Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana (26/81)

Category: Around the World

Country: Uganda

This book is structured as eight short stories which could work as stand-alone pieces (and some have been published in magazines), but they are best read in order as presented here. All of the stories in some way are about Christine and her two older sisters, growing up in Uganda following the regime of Idi Amin.

The stories change perspective, some in the third person, but most in the first person, one as diary entry and another particularly affecting story, as a letter to a former lover. Essentially they are coming-of-age stories, but set against a backdrop of unrest, the effects of colonialism and AIDS. Uganda plays an important part in these stories, ironically even in the one that is set in Los Angeles.

Some of the problems faced by the characters here are specific to Africa, but other feelings portrayed should resonate with everyone. This is a wonderful book which I expect to have a lasting effect on me and I'll be keen to read whatever Doreen Baingana writes next.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (25/81)

Category: Around the World

Country: Nigeria

Purple Hibiscus is a coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of corruption and unrest in Nigeria, but it is also as harrowing story of domestic violence. Kambili lives a life of priviledge with her family, in a large house dominated by her pious Catholic father. When Kambili and her brother JaJa visit the poorer, but freer, happier home of their aunt, it leds to the ultimate disintegration of their family.

From this book I learnt about the conflict between Catholicism and the old religions in Nigeria, and the use of English as opposed to native languages, which was fascinating. There is a lot of "local colour" in Purple Hibiscus, but this is overshadowed by the constant threat of violence. The character of the father is a hypocritical bully, outwardly religious and generous to the community, but instilling fear in his family. Sadly this type of abusive personality is universal.

Purple Hibiscus was an impressive debut, but an uncomfortable read.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (20/81)

Category: Around the World

Country: Dominican Republic

The eponymous character of this novel is an overweight science fiction-obsessed geek, who falls in love too deeply. His story is told by his older sister’s sometime boyfriend, but although his name is in the title, this book is much more than Oscar’s story. It also tells the story of his mother, his sister and grandfather, and of the lasting effect of Trujillo’s tyrannical reign over the Dominican Republic.

As a tale of doomed love and dictatorship, there are some pretty bleak things in this book, but it is written with a such a refreshing voice that it raises it above a chronicle of misery. The narrative is peppered with slang, Spanish and references to science fiction, none of which I was particularly familiar with, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of this.

Equally I knew nothing about the Dominican Republic before reading this, but extensive footnotes explaining the history and key figures of the country provided an introduction for uninformed. The footnotes were not dry academic references, but were written in the same familiar style as the main text, which made it easy to read them along with the story.

If it isn’t already obvious, I loved this book and it was a great book for the Around the World category as the Dominican Republic was central to it.

See Under: Love

See Under: Love by David Grossman 1989 translated from Hebrew by Betsy Rosenberg. Grossman is an Israeli novelist and this is his second novel.
The novel is divided into four distinct sections.
The first section is set in the 1950's and is about a child, Momik, whose parents and neighbours are all Holocaust survivors. There is a wall of silence regarding the War and Momik just has glimpses of the mysterious land 'Over There' and the 'Nazi Beast'. Grossman gets right into the psyche of a young child and creates a small masterpiece in this section as Momik battles 'the beast' on his own. This is a brilliant stand-alone piece that gave me enough stamina to endure the next section which is the most challenging section of the book. Here we find Momik, now a flawed adult, still obessed with the Holocaust even to the expense of his marriage. Communing with the sea, Momik seeks the truth of an alternate fate for writer Bruno Schulz who was shot by Nazis, and here Grossman takes us off into a magical world of the ocean, spawning salmon and Momik himself floating in the sea attempting to find this answer to writer Bruno Schulz's alternate life as a fish.
And on to the third section which takes place in a death camp and there are still magical elements at play here. Momik's greatuncle Anshel Wasserman is forced to tell stories, like Scheherazade, to the Camp Commander Obersturmbannfurer Neigel. These stories are based on the characters of a popular children's series he wrote many years earlier that Neigel loved as a child. Momik has a presence as an imaginary onlooker, a chronicler of the events. Grossman is brilliant here subtly weaving Wasserman and his stories around Neigel until Wasserman’s bitter motive becomes clear. The last section uses encyclopedia entries to take the tale of Wasserman, Neigel and the extraordinary tales of the Children of the Heart to its inevitable end.

Overall this book was a reading experience - challenging, complex, rewarding and also very frustrating. The characters of the child Momik, Wasserman and Neigel are memorable. The magical elements of the book almost overwhelm the reader, some of the crazy characters and plots in Wasserman's stories add to your reading perplexity, but why should reading about the Holocaust ever be easy. While the first part of the book brings elements of the Israeli film - The Wooden Gun to mind the later part of the book is more David Lynch with generous sprinklings of Pans Labrynth.
I definitely recommend reading the first section of this book even if you don't feel like tackling the rest. I’ll be reading more books by David Grossman and am especially keen to read his children’s books. I’m also interested in reading some Bruno Schulz. CarlosMcRey has just reviewed one of Schulz’s books on his 999 thread http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.ph... #43
My 999 thread can be viewed here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/49981

Distant Star by Roberto Bolano (16/81)

Category: Around the World
Country: Chile

I picked this up in my local library because of all of hype surrounding the publication in English of Bolano’s 2666. I shy away from long books at the best of times, but 2666 sounded particularly daunting. So I thought I would start with one of his shorter works.

It is about a mysterious poet who becomes both a celebrated artist for his sky-writing poetry and a murderous soldier in the early days of Pinochet’s regime. The early part of the book was excellent. The sinister atmosphere of this time and place in history where it became the norm for people to “disappear” was chilling, as was the glimpses we were given the central character.

Unfortunately, in the later part of the book becomes more concerned with endless literary name-dropping of mainly Latin American writers and poet, plus a chunk on Les Miserables too, which was completely lost on me. I imagine it is this high-brow stuff that earned Bolano his reputation but I preferred the atmospheric part with a plot!

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (10/81)

Category: Around the World – Afghanistan

I assume that everyone other than me has already read this book, so I won't outline the plot and will just give my impressions.

I put off reading it for a few weeks after a colleague loaned me her copy, because I was never quite in the mood for what I assumed would be a depressing read. So I started it with some reluctance. However, after about 50 pages I found myself being pulled into the story and I finished it in one evening.

Of course, the story it tells of women’s treatment in Afghanistan is not a happy one, but the prejudices and abuse faced by the two main characters never seemed melodramatic for the sake of it. The recent history of the country made an interesting backdrop to the personal struggles of the central characters.

Despite the unpleasant circumstances described, I found this a surprisingly easy-read that was well-paced, encouraging me to read on. I don’t think it is an amazing piece of literature and it won’t make my favourites list but I can see why it has been so popular and I’m glad I finally read it.

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (1/81)

Category: Around the World (9 different countries)

Country: Australia

Cloudstreet is about two families, the Pickles and the Lambs who live together in a large house at Number 1 Cloud Street in Perth, Western Australia. The families are very different, Sam Pickles is a doomed gambler, his wife Dolly is a drunk, whereas Lester and Oriel Lamb are hardworking Christians who have suffered a crisis of faith since their middle son, Fish was nearly drowned and left brain-damaged. The book follows the fortunes of these characters over a twenty year period, from the end of the Second World War to the 1960s.


I know shamefully little about Australian literature, but saw this book recommended in a discussion on this topic and thought it sounded interesting as I like books about quirky characters and dysfunctional families. However, this book is much more than a standard family melodrama and has definite literary merits.

Cloudstreet has a fragmented structure with each chapter broken down into titled sub-sections from varying perspectives that switch occasionally from the third person to the first person. The book begins with a beautiful poetic description of a picnic by water, but the significance of this is not immediately obvious, but is revealed later.

The narrative is touched with hints of magical realism including a talking pig, and rich with symbolism, with the house and water taking on greater meaning. But along with these mystical elements, the book is grounded in history, with the spectre of war and the Depression looming over much of the narrative, Australia's politics and relationship with Britain mentioned repeatedly and the true story of a serial killer intersecting with the family lives.


I enjoyed the story of these two families and was compelled to find out what would happen to them, but equally I feel this was a good choice for a book from Australia. Perth and how it changed over this period is vital, many of the characters do seem typically Australian without ever becoming stereotypes and the dialogue is littered with Australian slang (which should be familiar to anyone who has watched any Australian soaps!)