Focusing on life in the very small community of Pagford, perhaps similar to the small communities Rowling herself grew up in as a child in Gloucestershire, Rowling emphasizes the pettiness, the rivalries, the back-biting, and the cruelties of “ordinary” life as people tryto cope with the messiness of existence as it unfolds. There is no magic here to offer any hope of change, no wizard to sweep down and offer aid, either to the characters or the reader, and as the action progresses, with its focus on the unpleasant and often violent aspects of many lives, the reader is forced to examine the elements of chance which can devastate everything that one might dream of. The style which was so effective for Rowling when she was writing Harry Potter is less effective in this “adult” novel. Here she creates characters who are memorable for some aspects of their characters without being unique, while on the level of plot, the conflicts and crises, based on real life, are already familiar to devoted readers of contemporary fiction and, I regret to say, feel trite. At five hundred pages, this novel gave Rowling many opportunities to introduce broad themes and to develop them with sophistication and attention to universal values. Instead, she gives us a long novel which is sometimes exciting on the limited level of plot, but which remains on that limited level, never soaring into broader realms of wider scope. What starts in Pagford stays in Pagford, unfortunately.
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In this startling and ingenious “biography” of Lazarus, told with a light, often humorous touch, Richard Beard defies the limits of “biography” by mixing known elements from the Gospel of John (and from historical research) with elements from his own imagination. Often “proving” his theories about the relationship of Lazarus and Jesus by drawing on the equally fertile imaginations of many other novelists and artists, who have also explored the story of Lazarus, Beard then adds additional elements of fantasy, where necessary, to flesh out the story and make his points. The result is a unique look at the life of Lazarus – and of Jesus – which will surprise and delight readers who have a flexible view of scripture and a sense of perspective, if not humor. I hasten to add here that Beard is not in any way writing a satire or a farce, and he is especially careful in his presentation to avoid any sense of disrespect toward the religious context of his story – he is simply offering some alternatives to a contemporary reader while giving new meaning to the term “fictionalized biography” as he depicts Lazarus.
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In her previous novel, Wolf Hall, author Hilary Mantel, recreates the dramatic story of Sir Thomas More’s trial and execution in July, 1535, during the reign of King Henry VIII. As she opens this novel, set just three months later, More’s downfall is still fresh in the minds of everyone at Henry’s court. Thomas Cromwell, who prosecuted More on behalf of the king, is now Henry’s chief minister, firmly ensconced in the power structure of the Tudor Court. He will have plenty of work to do over the next seven or eight months. Katherine of Aragon, Henry’s queen of twenty years, is now living in her own court with her daughter Mary, her marriage to Henry having been annulled in 1533, while Henry was living with Anne Boleyn. Now married to Anne, a calculating but beautiful woman who has never been shy about using her wiles to get what she wants, Henry has wearied of her. Though Anne has given birth to Elizabeth, she has been unable to bear a son, and with the marriage less exciting than it once was, Henry has convinced himself that she never will bear him a son. Assigning Cromwell to find a way to free him from his new queen, Henry begins to pursue the plain and modest Jane Seymour, whose virginal ways stand in sharp contrast to those of Anne. A brilliant novel filled with unique and well-drawn characters who are revealed through their dialogue and clearly understood motivations.
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In this unusual novel about an unusual and touching friendship, author Georgina Harding tells the story of life in a rural community in Romania beginning in the 1930s and extending through World War II and the Communist Occupation. As the novel opens, a sick and starving man has just arrived by train in Iasi, a place with which he is completely unfamiliar. He is looking for a woman, but he does not know where or how to find her. Eventually, he sees a nurse dressed in white walking past him and, thinking she is an angel, he follows her to a hospital, where he collapses. The man is Augustin, known as Tinu, and he is looking for Safta, a childhood friend whom he has not seen since they were separated by the war and Communist Occupation. Tinu is both deaf and mute, uninterested or unable to learn sign language. His only form of communication is through haunting drawings which he makes with soot and spit on found materials – paper, boxes, wrappings, pieces of cloth – and these drawings reflect an unusually selective view of the world. On my Favorites list for the year.
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In one of the most stimulating novels I have read in many years, Djibouti author Abdourahman A. Waberi, now living in France, explores issues of crucial contemporary importance while examining the history of religious extremism and how young people are drawn to it. He does this within the context of an intriguing, often poetic, novel which contains mysteries, a spy narrative, secret identities, a writer speaking from the grave, and a mystical, real-time connection between two characters who never meet during the narrative. Though I was glued to the pages of this short novel, I am still thinking of all the mysteries raised here for which, intentionally, the author offers no easy answers as he takes the reader in new directions.
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