The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Gosh... What an amazing story! This was such a lovely book to read and I was very sad when I came to the end and had to put it down :( Have you ever read a book where it feels like it was written by someone who knows you very well, and who wanted to write a story for you? I don't mean as in the actual literal story-line. I am certainly not the wife of a time-traveler! But in the references and the quotes used within the story. So many of the book, film and music references within this are things that I know and love and that makes it so much more enjoyable to read. Plus there is this thread of 'Britishness' running through it also which adds another area to relate too. And then on top of that, the story is simply brilliant, intelligent and incredibly cleverly and sensitively written.

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You would think that a book written about time-traveling, where one of the characters is constantly jumping from time to time would be confusing to read. You could be forgiven for thinking that it would all be too much effort to try and keep track so why bother. Well, please do bother :) I don't know how Niffenegger does it (other than the fact that she's obviously a very good writer) but the way that she tells the story and how the scenes fit into one another is so easy to keep up with that the whole story is such a pleasure to read. I didn't find it confusing or hard to read at all, not even at the beginning when the dates chop and change a bit as the story starts to get going - which it does, very quickly. Each new chapter gives you more information about what you've read in the past until you begin to build up the whole picture of Henry and Clare's lives. It's so very very clever.

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In real-time Henry is eight years older than Clare, they are married and are completely and utterly in love as much as it's possible for two people to be. Clare first meets Henry when she is 6 and he is 36, but the first time they meet in real-time is years later when Clare is 20 and Henry is 28. This is because Henry sufferers from a rare genetic disease which comes to be known as Chrono-displacement Disorder, meaning his genetic clock randomly resets itself causing him to travel through time and therefore his future is already Clare's past. Thus when they meet in real-time Clare knows who Henry is but he has no idea who she is, since he hasn't yet traveled back to the time when he meets her. But that's all I'm going to say on the jumping around part of the story. Niffenegger does it far better than I ever could hope to so you'll just have to read to see how that part of it all works out. But if you want to read a complete run-down of the actual plot click here as Wikipedia do a pretty accurate description. But personally I'd say read the book. There is so much more happening within it that simply reading the plot outline won't give you a true reflection of what the story is actually about.

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The best thing about this story was Henry and Clare's love for one another and the way Niffenegger conveys this. It's awful for Clare each time Henry jumps out of her time but she handles it stoically, always knowing that he will be back but not knowing what kind of trouble he's in while he's away. The chapters where he meets Clare when she is a child are so sweet. How many people who are truly in love would grasp the opportunity to go back and see their wife/husband as they were when they were children? I think a lot of us probably would. During their meetings when Clare is young he teaches her French and German, about books and all the things he loves and so ends up playing a big part in shaping her into the person she becomes because the relationship for Clare begins to early. Now, don't get the wrong idea - there is definitely nothing sordid about these parts of the story although it's hard not to get the wrong idea since every time Henry leaps in he's obviously naked in front of a 6 year old! For anyone to think these chapters have a Lolita-esque quality would be taking an a level of integrity away from the story and their relationship which it doesn't deserve. Henry's love for her when she is younger is very paternal, which I know throws up a whole load of other psychiatry related questions but that's the genius of the story. It makes you think about so much and formulate so many questions while you read it that trying to keep up with the time-travel aspect is really quite a breeze!

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When Henry time travels nothing goes with him - no clothes, no money, not even teeth fillings. So whenever he jumps he goes there naked and somtimes, if he jumps to somewhere unfamiliar, has a hard time finding clothes to start with. In order get what he needs he has to steal, mug, pick-pocket and fight whilst also dealing with the disorientation of being whipped unexpectedly from the present. Subsequently, when Henry leaps back to the present time he is sometimes bloody and bruised, adding to Clare's anguish in knowing that there is nothing she can do to prevent the man she loves from being hurt. Neither can Henry change the future when he travels back, no matter how much he wants too. Because in reality things that are have already happened and therefore he can not prevent things that are inevitable in shaping the direction of his future, or anyone elses.

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The chapters where they are trying for a baby are particularly heart-rendering to read. Niffenegger has given us such a gem with this novel. Not only has she created a very plausible time-traveling story, backed up with very plausible scientific references (the disease being likened to that of epilepsy and Henry seems to jump usually when he gets stressed, or sees flickering light), she also manages to expertly show us how Henry and Clare are feeling from each perspective. Clare is desperate for baby so that she can always have a part of Henry with her when he goes away. Henry wants to give Clare that baby but at the same time doesn't want to because of the severe difficulty carrying the baby to term caused by his disorder. Not once does Niffenegger slip up with the ever-encircling time-line. Everything within the story made sense to me and the skill with which she weaves the scenes together is so expertly done you just seem to know exactly where you are at all times.

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There is a brilliant scene where Henry and Clare get married in the present day but because Henry is stressed (wedding nerves and definitely not wanting to jump on that day of all days) he inevitably jumps out of real time. Fortunately just before he does, he sees his future self turn up and it is actually his future self that ends up marrying the present Clare. Later at the reception the present Henry returns (after spending a pleasant few hours talking to younger Clare) and the future Henry jumps back to his real time somewhere in the future (another classic scene in the book!). Henry and Clare then get married for real a couple of days later since they didn't really marry on the day they were supposed too. Confused? You won't be, trust me :) The following discussion as to whether Clare is a bigamist because she's married Henry twice is quite funny but goes to show how much attention to detail Niffenegger has lavished on her story and characters.

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I don't want to give anything away, especially if you haven't read the plot, but I think it's safe to say that you know really from the very beginning that the story will end sadly :( No one could ever really believe this kind of story would have a happy ending. I can't pin-point exactly what it is that Niffenegger does but there is definitely that undercurrent of unavoidable risk lurking just below the surface of the story. But knowing that it's coming makes the end a little more bearable. The final chapter is so incredibly sad that it seems not even Niffenegger can find the words to do the scene justice. Instead, she leaves us with an extract from Homer's The Odyssey and leaves the intensity and joy of their final meeting our own imaginations. And this is the last time I will say it I promise - but this book is just simply amazing: clever, intelligent and fantastically written. I challenge anyone who reads it not to enjoy it. You will lose :)

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Finally, for the record I would just like to say that, like Clare, I too will leap tall buildings and wash-up when it's not my turn in order to get it. Any girl who knows what's good for her would do :D

No Name - Wilkie Collins

I was given this book for Christmas by a good friend of mine and this old edition was published in the early 20th century. I’m not the kind of girl who just likes to collect old books purely because they are old. It has to be something that I want to read – and anything by Collins will fall into this category. The pleasure I get from reading old books is wondering who else has read it before me. Who were they? When did they read it? Did they enjoy it? How did it come to be in my hands? I love thinking about all these questions almost as much as I enjoy actually reading the story.
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No Name is another complex and intricate story from the marvellous imagination of Wilkie Collins. As with everything I read by Collins, I have to compare it to my favourite story The Woman in White, and again I have to say that I don’t think this one can surpass that either. Having said that, No Name is a very, very good story (it’s just that The Woman in White will always be great in my opinion!). Collins’s characters are, as always, well rounded, deep and believable.
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The story tells of the misfortunes of the Vanstone family, focusing primarily on the characters of Magdalen and Norah; two sisters. The Vanstone family live a well-off and comfortable existence in their family home of Combe-Raven in Somerset. One morning, on receiving a letter from New Orleans, Mr and Mrs Vanstone immediately make arrangements to travel to London offering no viable explanation for their visit except for reasons relating to Mrs Vanstone’s health as she is expecting a baby. After two weeks, they return and life at Combe-Raven returns to normal. Magdalen and her older sister Norah are as much complete opposite in character as they are able to be. Magdalen is the extrovert character; noisy, passionate, colourful and opinionated. Norah in comparison is quiet, reserved and accepts the course that life directs her in without question.
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A few weeks later Mr Vanstone is killed in a railway accident while returning on business, and Mrs Vanstone, reeling from the shock of her husband’s death and compounded by her ill-health and delicate pregnancy, dies a few days later. Her premature son also dies a few minutes later. Trust me, this son is significant! Distraught Norah and Magdalen, burdened enough by their triple death of their parents and brother, then find out that they have inadvertently and unintentionally disinherited by their fathers will. As it turns out, Mr and Mrs Vanstone were not married at the times when Magdalen and Norah were born because Mr Vanstone was married to someone else. The mysterious letter from New Orleans informed him that his wife has died and the equally mysterious errand to London was undertaken so that Mr and Mrs Vanstone could actually be married without anyone else’s knowledge. Thus they returned to Combe-Raven, legitimately husband and wife and no one was any the wiser. However, Mr Vanstone becoming married makes any provisions he made for his two daughters through a Will inconsequential until he makes a new one to reflect that he has married otherwise the law will automatically transfer his estate to his wife and any legitimate children he had. This is fails to do before his death and subsequently the estate passes from next-of-kin to next-of-kin until it ends up in the hands of his estranged brother. Although it was always Mr Vanstone’s intention to leave his estate to his two daughters, his brother does not honour this and casts Norah and Magdalen into the world with nothing but one hundred pounds each, and in the eyes of the law they are ‘nobody’s children’.
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The rest of the story follows Magdalen as she attempts to reclaim her father’s fortune in any way she can. She is essentially a good character, driven to extremes by the forces of her circumstances. She becomes unrelenting in her struggle to retrieve what has been lost to her and Norah, the resulting breakdown in her character is both heart-breaking and dreadful to witness. Fortunately there is a happy resolution for all (yay!), in a manner not anticipated by anyone, least of all Magdalen. The circumstances in which the Combe-Raven money is returned to Norah and Magdalen highlights the fight of good over evil. The suffering which Magdalen inflicts upon herself and others in the tunnel-vision of her plight is brought into sharp contrast at the end by the actions and nature of her elder sister.
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I think that one of reasons that I didn’t enjoy this as much as The Woman in White or The Moonstone is because I’m a bit of an old romantic and a sucker for a love story. But even three quarters of the way through this there was still no sign of a worthy suitor for Magdalen’s affections. In fact, it’s very hard plant your flag of support in completely in Magdalen’s corner anyway, such are the lengths of cunning and scheming her ideas go to. However, there is no doubt that her naturally fiery nature and the circumstances under which her fortune was stripped from her elicit sympathy to her cause. You can’t help but hope that she eventually gets what she had worked so hard and sacrificed so much for.
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I have read in the past that Collins, being taught in law himself, was not in agreement with the class system evidently apparent in Victorian times and the sympathy with which he treats his characters of all levels in his novels is communicative of this. The laws then which led innocent children to pay the price of their parents mistakes was obviously something he endeavoured to bring to the readers attention when he wrote No Name. The barbarousness (is that a word?!) of a law which cast out children who were evidently loved by their parents because it saw them as ‘illegitimate’ was clearly something which he had strong feelings on. No Name is a very good story in which the inadequacies of a time and a class society evident in the 19th Century are highlighted extremely well. A definite good read for anyone who loves an intricate plot full of twists and turns.

The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

Currently I am ensconsed at my mum's house in Ireland for Christmas and New Year. Being in the middle of nowhere there is one convenience of modern living yet to reach their peaceful and idyllic hamlet: Broadband!

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I love this book. I know I’ve said it a million times before, but I do. The plot of the story is so complex and ingenious you can’t help but get drawn into it. Coupled with this are the characters within which are brilliant and which introduces to us two of the finest characters I think to be created in Victorian fiction.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a musical (yes I know, a musical!) based on this novel by Collins and I remember going to see it in London in 2005. The ending of the story and the discovery of the treachery involved is so complex I was mostly intrigued as to how Lloyd Webber would present this on stage. I would say that if you haven’t read the book then go and give the musical a look. However, if you have read the book and if you love it as much as I do, then don’t bother. Lloyd Webber gets around the difficulties in presenting this kind of fiction on stage by completely rewriting the end of the story. Sacrilege!
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Anyway, back to the book. I will try and give you the basic plot (which is hard not only because it is so involved but also because every time I read it discover something new!) with giving too much away and without confusing you, or me for that matter…
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Walking on his way back to London from Hampstead a poor drawing master (class and status is very important in this book) named Walter Hartwright meets a woman all dressed in white. She asks his for assistance in getting back to town as she has just escaped from an asylum near by. Walter agrees to help her after ascertaining that she has been falsely imprisoned there by a man whom she will only reveal as having the title of Baronet. They walk back to London together where he sees her safely on her way to a friend's house.

The next day Walter travels to Limmeridge House in Cumberland where he has secured temporary employment as a teacher of drawing to two young sisters. Enter Laura Fairlie and (the amazing marvelous) Marian Halcombe. These two are half sisters with their mother in common hence the difference in surname. Walter tells Marian of his adventure with the mysterious woman in white because she had mentioned Limmeridge (and Mrs Fairlie) to him on their walk back to London as being a place she had been happy in her childhood. Marian resolves to try and identify this woman by scouring her mother's letters for any reference to her as a child and finally concludes that her name is Anne Catherick.

In a nutshell, Walter and Laura fall in love but 20 year old Laura is unfortunately already engaged to 45 year old Sir Percival Glyde (Baronet!) by the wishes of her father and the promise she made to him on his deathbed. The only reason ages are important here is to reveal that Laura, being not yet of age is not legally able to speak for herself, and also that it is unlikely she will die before Sir Percival since he is so much older than her.

Laura is sent a letter by Anne alluding to Glyde’s unsavory characteristics and conduct but as Laura is tied by her promise she can’t claim her release from Glyde. Walter tracks down Anne in Limmeridge churchyard (it’s a long story) and is struck by the extraordinary likeness that she and Laura share. Laura tries to entice Glyde into releasing her from the marriage by telling him that she is in love with Walter and that her heart will always belong to him. This however, only seems to make Glyde love her more (sneaky bastard). It is worth mentioning here that Glyde has cunningly devised a marriage settlement whereby he will stand to inherit all of Laura’s fortune in the event of her death before him if she leaves no children… hmmm…! Seeing that there is no future for himself and Laura, Walter sails off to Central America and Laura marries Sir Percival to begin her miserable life as Lady Glyde.

Forward six month later and Laura returns from Europe with her new husband to reside with her sister Marian at the rundown Glyde property, Blackwater Park. Here they are all joined by the other great character in this story: Count Fosco, whose wife the Countess is also Laura’s aunt. The plot thickens. Count Fosco is the evil genius of the story and after his introduction the true level of deceit and betrayal against Laura, Anne and Marian begins… (although he can’t be that clever if he thought he could get one over not just one woman, but three of them – one of them being the remarkable Marian!). However, the sheer level of Count Fosco’s Machiavellian quality is brilliantly presented in his character by Collins. He is the puppet-master of them all.

I’ve totally skimmed over the plot, and haven't even tried to explain the second half to you... but it’s so utterly involving and intricate that I think anyone would be hard-pushed to give you a complete guide to the ins and outs of the story without simply re-writing the whole thing in the process. To be honest this kind of sensationalist fiction (of which this book is widely considered to be the first of its kind) is something that you really have to sit down and read in order to be able to appreciate the true brilliance of it. I have yet to come across an adaptation in film, theatre or television that truly does it justice.

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The opening lines of the story are among my favorites:

“This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure and what a Man's resolution can achieve”

And one of my other favorite lines is found in Mr Gilmore’s narrative when preparing to address Marian. He wisely states that:

“No sensible man ever engages, unprepared, in a fencing match of words with a woman.”

Excellent advice!

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Trust me. It’s a really, really great book. The Woman in White and I are off to get a room…

Grasshopper - Barbara Vine

Hmmm.... what to say about this one... I am going to go out on a limb here and say that it's a very very good book. Don't ask me why. I will freely admit that I didn't get the relevance of some/most of the sub-plots going on within this story. And at the end, I personally found it lacking in direction and hard-going. But I think this had more to do with me than the story because even having said all that I would definitely read it again. Don't ask me to put my finger on why though. Maybe it's because there is so much going on within that you can't possibly process it all at once? Or maybe it's because Clodagh and I experienced the same meaningless existence when attending college in London after an 'event' (although mine certainly wasn't as bad as hers)... Who knows...

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Blamed for a terrible accident on an electricity pylon resulting in the death of her boyfriend, Clodagh is dutifully sent to London to attend a polytechnic Uni and begin a mundane course she has no interest in. Living in a dark and dingy basement flat lent to her by an intellectually arrogant but no less flawed family friend, it seems to Clodagh life can get no worse. Then she meets misfits Silver, Liv, Winn and Johnny and her life roaming the roofs of Maida Vale begins. However, during this time they all make a discovery with regards to inhabitants of Torrington Gardens, which inevitably lead to tragic consequences for them.

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There is tons of atmosphere in the book generated by Vine's writing. Being set in the area of Maida Vale I imagine you would get a whole lot more out of this than someone like me who doesn't know the place so well. The high point for me however was when Vine mentions the local paper the Ham & High - which is the paper I first learnt my trade as a newspaper planner with :) But Vine does a good job describing the area and such. The story lines all intertwine and it is very cleverly written although at times I did find it lagged - but I'm putting this down to the fact that I don't think I fully 'got it'.

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I do find it ironic that Clodagh is scared of being in confined spaces and being underground when nothing has ever happened to her here, yet she loves being up high on the pylon and the roofs and has met with tragedy here several times. But again, just another aspect of the story I didn't understand the reasoning behind.

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But I will recommend it to you anyway. Like I say, I don't know why - but I would definitely give it a go if you happen to pick it up. And for those that don't happen to know; Barbara Vine is Ruth Rendall :)

Lily - Cindy Bonner

Hurrah!! At last... a spaghetti-western book for girls!

This was a cool book. I've not read many westerns in my time admittedly, but the ones I have read; Lonesome Dove and Comanche Moon by McMurtry are among the best. Can you class Cold Mountain a western too...? Anyway, this book has it all. Bandits, outlaws, robbers, religious do-gooders, gun-fights - great! And all told through the eyes of a woman/girl - 15 year old Lily.

The story follows mother-less Lily and her relationship with Marion Beatty, a supposedly no-good, bank-robbing murderous charmer. Bonner does well with Marion's character. You never really work out if he's a good guy or a bad guy. Marion and his brothers are known throughout the county as trouble-makers, but Marion always insists that it's his brothers who make the trouble, not him. So you have to make your mind up yourself really. I base my judgement on the way he treats Lily, so i reckon he's a good guy :)

It's quite a sweet little story - not very long, won't take ages to read. But you really get on board with Lily and Marion and their plight. Lily leads a pretty meaningless existence looking after her younger brothers and sister, and her farmer father, all of whom rely on her too heavily to take the place of her dead mother. When Lily meets Marion she realises what love can be like, and what life outside of her family circle can be. Her and Marion arrange times to meet in secret because her father will not allow her to associate herself with a Beatty. Then after a Beatty led rampage on a newly built church, Marion and Lily run away together but unfortunately the law is on their tail. Marion is caught and taken back to McDade and a now pregnant Lily follows and returns briefly home when she is accepted back in disgrace. But realising she can not live without Marion and can not go back to her old life, she makes plans to stand by his side and to help him to escape the jail-house.

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This is one of those stories which leaves you hanging at the end. But I found out recently that the story continues somewhat in Looking After Lily, also by Bonner, which is told through the eyes of Marion's brother Haywood, who he and Lily has to leave when they run away after a good old fashioned western-style shoot out in the town high street. I really enjoyed this book anyway. Lily has guts and determination and her attempts to tame her wild gun-slinging husband, although vain, make for some good story-telling :)

Our Yanks - Margaret Mayhew

This book was okay for a holiday read but I didn't really enjoy it I have to say. It was a bit disappointing but there was always part of me that knew it wouldn't be as good as Bluebirds. Having said that, I really don't think that even if i'd've read this book entirely on it's own without ever having read Bluebirds, I still don't think i would have enjoyed it that much to be honest.

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It's a nice story for sure, don't get me wrong, But the characters weren't brilliant. There was no one character that I really latched on to or took any real interest in. The stories within the story were all okay, chugged along pretty well. But there was no magic moment when i thought "yeah, exactly! What a fab book this is". And I really like it when that happens :)
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As far as the story goes, it's about how a small village in the country is affected when the Americans take over the local air base during WWII. Some of the locals like them, some don't. All the girls love them, all the lads think they joined the war to late etc, etc. Mayhew tried to get into the emotional side of war - what it was like for the yanks to leave their homes and come to fight, how the villagers left behind felt about the war, especially when they had friends or family fighting overseas. I don't feel like Mayhew ever went deep enough into the minds of her characters to get me interested enough to be honest. If writers are going to delve into the human psyche then I like them to get right in there with all the nitty gritty - not just skim the surface. But then if Mayhew had've done this then the whole book may have been a wholly depressing read... so maybe it's a good job she didn't.

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So I'd say, if you have the time then definitely give this book a go. Make up your own mind and see if gets you excited. On the plus side, I am determined to read more of Mayhew's work - I know she's good and I'm sure that there are other works she's done that I'll like as much as Bluebirds (fingers crossed!). Alternatively, the next time I find a book I really really love, maybe I will just have to not read anything else by that author ever again...

Call the Midwife - Jennifer Worth

There's not must to say about this really apart from it gives a factual and hugely graphical insight into the lives of women living in 1950's London. Worth is a good story-teller and paints a good portrait of the women, their husbands, and what it must have been like to give birth at a time when a woman's job was considered that of homemaker and baby-maker. Some of the scenes are quite graphic and enough to put you off having kids forever! But remember that these were the days when most children were born at home and going to hospital was not something many cockney dockers wanted to do since many hospitals were converted workhouses. All in all it's a good book if you fancy reading a documentary.

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The only annoying part of the book is that Jenny Worth hints quite regularly about her life before she became a midwife and working with the nun's at Nonnatus House. The only bits I can gather were that she was deeply in love with a man who, for whatever reason, she had to leave behind and forget - but she never tells you this story!