Karl's Reading List

Published by Virago Press: London, England, 2001 (2000). The Blind Assassin is not one narrative, but three interwoven ones. There is the “main” narrative, in which Iris Chase reflects on her life, particularly her young life growing up with her sister Laura. In this narrative we are immediately informed that Laura will eventually die in a car crash, and the majority of the story is filling the reader in on just what led up to that event.  Laura has had a book published posthumously, and this book (also titled The Blind Assassin ) is told in excerpts, making up the second narrative. In this narrative a nameless man and a nameless woman carry on a secret affair, while the man continually moves locations to avoid discovery, and creates stories to tell the woman. The first of these stories is a pulpy fantasy, in which a main character is a blind assassin, finally giving the novel’s title some context, and making up the third narrative. As the novel unfolds, these three narratives...

Published by Flamingo/Fontana Publications: London, England, 1984. Originally published 1970. The Booker prize given to the 1970 novel Troubles,   by J.G. Farrell, was not given in the year it was published, but was retroactively awarded much later, due to a change in the Booker judging system meaning that one year was neglected. I wonder if the much later award has anything to do with the book chosen, which feels like a more contemporary selection than I had anticipated. Farrell uses language beautifully and is able to express layers of meaning even in straightforward description. An early passage reads: "Although he was quite sure that he had never actually proposed to Angela during the few days of their acquaintance, it was beyond doubt that they were engaged: a certainty fostered by the fact that from the very beginning she had signed her letters 'Your loving fiancée, Angela'. This had surprised him at first. But, with the odour of death drifting into the dug-out in ...

Published by Abacus: London, 2013. Originally published 1969. After the relaxed pace and plotlessness of Saville, it is very noticeable to me how quickly The Elected Member begins. Norman Zweck has hallucinations of silver-fish crawling all over him, and is committed to a mental hospital by his father and sister in the first few chapters. Once there, he begins trying to score drugs from another of the patients rather than face his own addictions, while his father and sister battle their guilt for committing him. Everyone in The Elected Member is carrying immense guilt and each has it manifest in different ways. Norman’s drug addiction and mental issues arise from guilt over influencing the relationships of various family members and friends in negative ways, His sister Bella metaphorically refuses to grow up because of guilt over not supporting Norman more and over their brief incestuous tryst when younger, their younger married sister carries guilt over abandoning the family through...

  Published by Vintage: London, 1999 (1976). Saville, by David Storey, is an interesting book. I’m not quite sure what to make of it to be honest. The style of writing is engaging and keeps me reading, yet the story itself meanders, failing to really pick a direction to head in. An early example of this is when the mother of the main character goes to hospital and appears to be dying, yet returns after some time instead, continuing to be a part of the narrative. The story appears to be building up to the idea that the main character will be driven by the loss of his mother, and that this will greatly influence the plot. But this is not the case. Another example of a fledgling storyline that is dropped soon after is the father’s determination to build an underground shelter in case of bombs. This takes up a good chunk of an early chapter, yet when the shelter is finally to be used it is revealed to have flooded, and all references to the shelter are pushed aside soon afterwards. ...

Published by Victoria University Press: Wellington NZ, 2013.  After my previous encounters with 'Booker books' I was really hoping for something good with The Luminaries . It did not disappoint. The story in itself, set in Hokitika, New Zealand during the gold rush of the 19 th century, is enough to draw the reader in, with its central mysteries unfolding gradually but with just enough pace to keep the reader engaged. But the way it is structured adds so much to the reading experience! As with Life and Times of Michael K , a little extra knowledge on a certain subject (in this case, astrology) would probably help understand the themes of the book better, but unlike the former book this one presents the reader with enough information about what is going on to highlight the theme. Therefore, even if (like myself) a reader comes to The Luminaries with very little understanding of the planetary movements in relation to the various constellations, the book in itself provides...

Published by King Penguin: Middlesex, England, 1985 (1983). To be honest, I'm struggling to figure out why this book won a Booker Prize. Michael K is a simple man with a harelip, living in South Africa during a fictitious civil war. His mother wants to move from the city to a farming area she remembers from her youth, so Michael creates a trolley for her to be wheeled around on, and sets off. On the way his mother dies, and from then on Michael wanders from one incident to another, barely ever taking charge of his situations. At the end of the book, Michael is befriended by a pimp, who “gifts” his time with a prostitute – another incident Michael passively allows with no real enthusiasm – before he returns to the apartment block he and his mother set out from, and the story ends. I don’t generally want to give away the whole plot of the book, but although I have left out a number of adventures, the summary above gives an idea of how pointless the story seems. Now, I do unders...

  Published by Picador: London, England, 2005. The 2005 Booker Prize winner, The Sea is written by Irish author John Banville. This book is much shorter than Staying On was, and much quicker to read style-wise as well. I started reading it one evening and was finished two days later. The structure of the story is also more “modern”; both Staying On and The Sea are told in a non-linear fashion, jumping back and forth in time, but whereas Staying On would stay in one time period for a whole section, The Sea jumps from one time to another mid-paragraph. The story is told as memories by the main character, Max, and feels almost stream-of-consciousness at times. Reminiscing on his childhood will remind him of time with his wife, before something in the “present” will catch his attention – and the narrative. To start with, this threw me off balance; I took a while to get my bearings on exactly what I was reading, and which time period I was in at any given point in the narrative, bu...

Published by Arrow Books: London, England, 2005 (1977). Staying On opens with the statement “Tusker Smalley died…”, which would seem to be an odd choice – a spoiler - considering that the majority of the novel is about Tusker and his wife Lilly. Yet, by letting the audience in on the conclusion, Scott injects a sense of inevitability and tragedy into the story, which is about missed opportunities, and a couple who, rather than working on the issues they face, are more content to antagonise or conceal from one another. Even in their best intentions, Tusker and Lilly manage to clash more than connect: Lilly assumes Tusker will not want a visitor, so conceals an impending arrival from him in order to “spare his pride”. Meanwhile, Tusker seeks to reconnect with Lilly, but rather than talking directly with her, insists on setting up meetings and events, which Lilly cannot bring herself to attend. The title Staying On , then, works on a number of levels. The Smalleys live in India, in a bu...