Bottled Goods … a review

Sophie van Llewyn’s Bottled Goods is written in a serious of flash fiction. This is the perfect plae to start if you are unfamiliar with this style of prose. But basically, it is a series of short sharp chapters that loosely weave a common theme together. They form a novella, a short read. It is the 1970s in Communist Romania, a young woman Alina is in a loveless marriage with her husband Liviu. And when her broth-in-law defects, they both find themselves under the intense scrutiny by the Secret Service.

Llewyn’s style is fluid and reminiscent of Anne Enright’s prose, I though. The book relies on magic realism to present Alina’s escape from the drudgery of her humdrum life. And as she plans it, she must make peace with her mother. She relies on her Aunt’s help, but it isn’t the kind you might be expecting. This book, although a work of fiction, creates a believable world.

And as it build into a climax, it is impossible to put it down. By then, I am too invested in Alina’s fate, I am rooting for her, and I am rooting for her identity. As a young woman’s tale of love, loss, betrayal and magic takes shape, a great candidate for this year’s Man Booker longlist is born.

Quote: Alina stares into her nearly empty cup. The coffee grounds have arranged themselves in a pattern like angel wings, but dark. If she had been as skilled in reading the signs as her aunt, perhaps she would have been able to divine her fall.

Americosis vol 4 … a review

Last year, I wrote about Americosis, and then again followed it up with vol 2 and vol 3. I nearly missed Vol 4, as I was away on holiday and although I knew it was going to come out around the time of the POTUS elections, it slipped my mind. Just as well, because I ended up reading it just as the new President got sworn in.

The characters in this book sort of pick up where they left off. As one would expect, this book goes heavier on the plot of Sanchez’s visions and the elections with him and Archer vying for votes. As this sub-plot takes centre stage, the mirroring of reality and fiction becomes clearer. The tension level is high, the drama is much more tightly knit. The Erica part of the plot is also getting less fluffy and more meaty, as she drifts between solving past mysteries only to come up against new ones. All in all, great writing.

What did jump put at me though, is that the language in this edition was a little too foul for my taste. Not that that is any different from reality and all the names that were thrown at Clinton and Trump, it made reading some of the chapter a little hard. Another very short read delivered by Wilks, and if you haven’t gotten into it yet, the four books back-to-back will take you only a couple of days to get through. I might do that, as I wait for vol 5!

Americosis vol 3 … a review

Lat year, I wrote about Americosis, and then again followed it up with vol 2. Vol 3 took a wee while to turn up and it had been on my mind. So when author Haydn Wilkes got in touch, I said yes to reviewing the latest instalment of the series. I had to skim through the last few pages of the previous book to tune my head in again.

The characters in this book sort of pick up where they left off. Now what is crazy is that watching some of the snippets of the Presidential election drama in the US, it is almost easy to believe that this book is based on true events. I mean, are candidates not seeing visions and almost needing psychatrists? I think so! The story of the savior, the presidential candidate, and the human virus carrier are intertwined again, but this book was more election than the other two subplots, which I liked, because it meant that there was less ‘jumping about’ between chapters.

It does end on a cliffhanger, and unlike my prediction, we still don’t know who the people are going to vote for. Again, writing this up with the Season Finale of Amrica all over my newsfeed, it seems surreal. The human virus storyline does not progress very much at all, which is a wee bit disappointing because that was really hooking me in. But I guess that’ll keep me waiting eagerly for the next part/

A very short read, this is a good series to get into. If you wait until it finishes, the whole series read back-to-back on travel time will be a full length book sized read! Enjoy.

Intimacy … a review

It is the saddest night, for I am leaving and not coming back. Tomorrow morning, when the woman I have lived with for six years has gone to work on her bicycle, and our children have been taken to the park with their ball, I will pack some things into a suitcase, slip out of my house hoping that no one will see me, and take the tube to Victor’s place.

In the first two sentences, Hanif Kureishi establishes everything about the novella. A man is walking out of his marriage. They have children. His wife does not know. He is sneaking away. Their lives have been hitherto ‘normal’. He has no concrete plans upon leaving. There is a sense of tremendous loss and melancholy. This sets the vein for everything that follows. Kureishi is a tremendous writer.

I picked this book up at the library because the first two sentences form the blurb of the book and I was instantly hooked. I was not disappointed. It read a lot like Anne Enright but only much, much better. The entire book only spans a day and a half, but speaks of a lifetime of memeories, life, laughter, and pain.

I loved how each thought in the protagonist’s head spins off into some sort of memeory. It is not exactly ‘stream of consciousness’ though. Just a beautiful series of images that take a reader through his past and made me think that life is so strange that if you think from the point of view of the wife, she actually has no idea at all. And this immense sense of loss is so deep. The characters are all suitably flawed as well, and the author does a good job of laying their insecurities and inadequacies bare.

This is not a very long read, took me two or three hours at best.So it s a good read for a short travel. But it does leave you with a sense of displacement and sadness so I would account for that and not read it if you’re going to a party or something!!

Americosis vol 2 … a review

A few months ago I wrote about Americosis, which I liked a lot. Now volume 2 is out and I was surprised that it came out so quick. I believe the author may have lined it up earlier? Anyway, as with all such books (and TV series!) I tend to go back to the former and skim through a few pages before I start reading the next part. It sort of tunes me in.

The characters in this book sort of pick up where they left off. The story of the savior, the presidential candidate, and the human virus carrier and mix and supplement each other. But to me, the book was a little lopsided. I’d said in my previous review that the Savior story appealed to me the least. But it seemed to have the most footage in this book. I may have to swallow that complaint later on as I have a feeling that this story will be centre-stage.

But like I predicted, the presidential candidate seems to be losing it, calling another man Antichristian in one of his speeches no less! I really like the character of Erica, the psychiatrist and will be looking forward to reading more of her in the next parts. The human virus bit also kept me entertained, even if I felt that I would have to wait for the next instalment to see how it really slots in.

All in all, at a very short length, this is a nice thriller series to pick up. I have a feeling the author won’t disappoint and I like the simplistic lucid style of writing – perfect for a travel read!

Americosis … a review

There’s a new author to watch out for! Haydn Wilks, whose Americosis is a sort of prelude to a longer series, was a really good read. Here’s the blurb:

 “A naked man arrives in New Mexico claiming to have traveled through time.

He says that he’s America’s savior.

A bizarre sexually-transmitted infection in New York takes control of people’s bodies and burns them out in an incessant drive to infect others.

And a Presidential candidate is conversing with angels.

His aides think he’s crazy.

The electorate might not agree with them.

It could all be madness. It might be the apocalypse.

Americosis.

An epic genre-bending mash-up of sci-fi, horror, thriller & dark comedy.”

That was enough to get me quite interested. It is a novella, 200 odd pages long, and did not take a great deal of time to finish. But what it did was really build the curiosity up to read the actual series for when that’s out.

This book has three parallel storylines. The one with the naked man was the least humorous, as it involved some scary monstrous animals and little children. Quite dark and strangely comical, it also reminded me of The 100-year-old Man, which I enjoyed greatly.

The other two plotlines are connected – one of the carriers of the disease and the Presidential candidate’s psychiatrist are married to each other. The interesting thing to note is that I could somehow predict what was going to happen, but not quite. It is definite that the sexually transmitted virus story will involve a lot of couplings between humans and not-quite-humans. And moving forward, that will make for an interesting story. And I always love a good psy thriller, so I’m hoping the Presidential candidate loses it and then my favourite character can figure out how to fix him without his electorate finding out.

This book has made for a brilliant teaser; I recommend it highly. You can also read an interview with the author about his previous book, here.