Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich My rating: 5 of 5 stars Sometimes the books I enjoy most are the ones I have the least to say about. And what can I add to Toni Morrison’s comment that “the beauty of Love Medicine saves us from being completely devastated by its power”? Because reading this book… Continue reading Ways of being alive together
The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars Lacking a mother to advise her, Natalia, whose ideas of romance and beauty seem to be symbolised by the colour white, which she loves to wear, is picked up by a douchecanoe so selfish and arrogant he takes her… Continue reading A hell below this one
A Ripple from the Storm by Doris Lessing My rating: 4 of 5 stars The third book in Martha Quest’s story is best read after the foregoing instalments. Here there is a shift in subject matter; previously Martha’s political activities were not a dominant part of her life, and she engaged in them alongside other… Continue reading Thistledown of History
The Incomers by Moira McPartlin My rating: 5 of 5 stars 4.5 stars I bought this book partly because I was so attracted to the beautiful manga style cover art centred on a gorgeously drawn black woman’s face. While her necklace looks African to me, her rakish curls of hair, sceptical eyebrow and thick gold… Continue reading Against the Party Line
The New York Stories by Elizabeth Hardwick My rating: 4 of 5 stars For me this collection divides along a line between story-driven episodes that unfold ideas & characters from a narrative, and pieces that dissolve these elements in a diffuse, intensely poetic, emotionally charged meandering. But perhaps I’m being overly convergent in seeing a… Continue reading Ecstasy of a Feminist Tragedian in New York
Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye My rating: 3 of 5 stars Three abrasively unpleasant stories snagged on overlapping locations, like Khady’s torn leg and torn ear, snagged and then torn loose by impersonal brutality, a world that wounds. NDiaye’s style reminded me of other extremely ‘interior’ texts, in particular The Hour of the Star.… Continue reading Three torments
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez My rating: 4 of 5 stars I think I’ve decided not to re-read this, so I can’t review it properly because I’ve forgotten my thoughts. I’m glad this was brought to my attention by the year of reading women selection because it’s an amazing story and… Continue reading La mariposas
Granada by Radwa Ashour My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is my second Ashour and takes its place beside The Woman from Tantoura as one of my favourite books. Once again, the author deals with tantalising and difficult material with poetic and thematic subtlety and affectionate warmth for her characters. It opens with a… Continue reading Dreams & Nightmares of Al-Andalus
The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars New millennium, new rhythm. I think that’s what’s going on here. South Africans walking to the beat of hyphenated identities, flow and stutter, bounce and glide, at the mercy of beauty and ruthlessness… Gordimer’s ear to the ground heard this as it… Continue reading The Pickup: a few unfinished thoughts
Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired “Upstairs, Downstairs” and “Downton Abbey” by Margaret Powell My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars This is a brisk and efficient book full of interesting observations on interwar British society from a working class perspective. Powell grew up in a poor family in Hove, a… Continue reading How the bigger half lived
(I am because you are) 