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Dec 2021
10:34am, 24 Dec 2021
50,852 posts
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McGoohan
Elmet by Fiona Mazel-Tov as chozzen by Bint is the first book group book choice book book of 2022 and was booklisted for the Booker Book Prize.
Book a place now on this journey of bookscovery. Starting with your thoughts, herewith.
Runaround, starting.... now!
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Dec 2021
10:37am, 24 Dec 2021
50,854 posts
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McGoohan
Current favourite 1-star review from Amazon:
Tomasz
1.0 out of 5 stars terrible reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 September 2017
Verified Purchase
i hate the voice of reader
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Jan 2022
12:25pm, 5 Jan 2022
50,899 posts
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McGoohan
Daddy went to gi’ bloke good hiding. He dindt know what werr gonna hit him. I did. It were Daddy.
”As’ll be raight back,” Daddy said, wiping blood off his knuckles from last bastid he whelped. As he stepped out door he looked back and he were framed as though Phoebus has sent forth rays from the veritable sun to enshrine his savage yet noble features and we knew that herewith was a modern-day Herakles transmuted from antiquity to our stoop. ‘Appen.
Then I slipped back into me accent like I dindt never leave it. Sister said, “Life is worthless Daniel, tha knows. Int it?”
“Nay lass, tha’s raight wrong,” I said.
“If only I had words to describe,” she said, cuddling t’pet rabbit. “But like a fiery phoenix from far-flung Pharos I fling my feeble, fractured words into the fulminating furnace of …” She broke off, unable to continue. “You see Daniel? I am functionally illiterate. By ‘eck.”
Then she pulled head off rabbit and I made a simple rabbit au vin with some locally sourced shallots and a plain but effective Beaujolais. ‘Appen as like as ‘appen as not.
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Jan 2022
11:35am, 16 Jan 2022
52,294 posts
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LindsD
Finished this last night. Started it Monday - so a week. Admittedly I have been on holiday. I liked it, though funnily enough, when I came to think about reviewing it, I kept thinking of things that I didn't like. Hm.
I have to admit to skipping a lot of the descriptions, both beautiful nature and disturbing violence. I'm just more interested in people than descriptions of surroundings. I did get that part of the point of the book was the interaction of their lives with their surroundings.
I pretty much knew what was going to happen from the beginning (ooh, clever me  ), but that didn't matter. I really liked the way we learnt things through Daniel's eyes, and had to put together the pieces from our own experience. I also thought about the characters after I finished the book and would like to have known more of their story. Who was Vivien and why was she intertwined with the family? What exactly was wrong with their mother - I'm guessing she was a drug user, but would have loved to have known more. The small community aspects really rang true to me as an escapee from a small, narrow-minded town.
I gave it an 8. I think I would read another of her books, but only if it wasn't more of the same.
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Jan 2022
11:37am, 16 Jan 2022
52,295 posts
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LindsD
Love your review, McG. Nailed it. Bit of a Secret Garden vibe going on there, too.
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Jan 2022
9:39pm, 18 Jan 2022
21,536 posts
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Columba
In the early stages I felt "oh no, not another doleful delivering-a-message book". But it turned out to be more than that. On the whole I appreciated it, but did feel it relied far too much on characters giving lucid accounts of the sequence of events in order to tell the story, in situations where lucidity would have been impossible, or where the characters were simply too young to have expressed themselves in that way. However, it's the writer's first novel, and lzater ones are to be looked forward to.
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Jan 2022
9:43pm, 18 Jan 2022
21,537 posts
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Columba
What Linds said about Vivien and how she was connected with the family; and about Daniel and Cathy's mother.
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Jan 2022
7:11pm, 26 Jan 2022
12,700 posts
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Little Nemo
This was an interesting book but ultimately I found it a little thin. It was beautifully written but I found the story a bit lacking. Maybe because the narrator was oddly passive or because there was a lack of resolution. Why did the father steal the money and what happened to it? Will Daniel carry on looking for his sister or will he see sense and live his own life?
I did like the gender reversal - the boy being weak and ineffectual while the girl was strong and brave. It challenges how you think about gender norms, I suspect the story would have seemed less unusual if the roles had been swapped.
It wasn't a cheerful book and I always wonder why people go ahead with plans that are so obviously doomed. If it was me I would have cut my losses and moved!
I gave this book a 6.
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Jan 2022
7:24pm, 26 Jan 2022
12,701 posts
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Little Nemo
That's an interesting viewpoint, LindsD. Most of my growing up was in London so I probably missed the small-town aspect.
Also forgot to say thanks to Bint for choosing it as I would never have heard of it otherwise. Although it wasn't completely successful I'm still glad I read it
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Jan 2022
7:40pm, 26 Jan 2022
52,538 posts
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LindsD
Yes, thank you Bint! But yes, definitely not cheerful.
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