Kathy Hamilton That’s right, it’s time for What I’ve Been Reading Lately: November! We’ve reached the penultimate instalment of 2018’s monthly mini reviews! Can you believe we’re racing headlong into a new year? I’ve only got two books to share with you this month a doorstop and a quick read. I’m all about balance you see!
No Name by Wilkie Collins
Magdalen and her sister Norah, beloved daughters of Mr and Mrs Vanstone, find themselves the victims of a catastrophic oversight. Their father has neglected to change his will, and when the girls are suddenly orphaned, their inheritance goes to their uncle. Now penniless, the conventional Norah takes up a position as a governess, but the defiant and tempestuous Magdalen cannot accept the loss of what is rightfully hers and decides to do whatever she can to win it back. With the help of cunning Captain Wragge, she concocts a scheme that involves disguise, deceit and astonishing self-transformation.
The first thing I have to say is, word to the wise…when you’re buying a book online, make sure you check the page count! No Name by Wilkie Collins is nearly 700 pages long! Perhaps I would have enjoyed this one more if I was thoroughly prepared to read such a big book? Either way, although I did enjoy reading No Name, by the end I was thoroughly sick of the sight of it. As with so much Victorian Fiction, I always think there are chapters which a more ruthless, or modern, editor would get rid of. However, as a depiction of the patriarchal injustices meted out on women, it’s a fantastic think piece. Magdalene refuses to settle into her allotted role of silent, biddable women and you appreciate her all the more for it. Sensational, witty, but perhaps best tackled over a longer period of time than I gave it.
What We Owe Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde
Tehran, 1978: Nahid and Masood, both eighteen, are young lovers and young revolutionaries, determined to overthrow the Shah’s regime and help to bring about democracy. Their clandestine activities are dangerous, but with youth, passion and right on their side, they feel invincible. As the revolution sours, Tehran is no longer safe for them, and now they are expecting a baby; they need to get out before they lose everything. Thirty years later, Nahid lies in a hospital bed replaying her life, raging at her carers, at her recent cancer diagnosis, at Masood, at her – now pregnant – daughter, and at her exile among people who while purporting to understand know nothing of what she has been through.
Next up in What I’ve Been Reading Lately: November is What We Owe by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde. This is a sparse, ferocious novel told with startling honesty. In other words, a complete departure from a lot of the books I’ve been reading lately – especially Willkie Collins! It’s short and sharp but still manages to cram so much life into its pages. Alternately mediating on guilt and dreams for a better life it invites us to ask “what is a good life” and importantly “how do you know if you’ve lived one?” I knew next to nothing about the Iranian revolution but after reading this book I have had my eyes opened to its impact. Far from being a gentle rumination on life, What We Owe is filled with the indignant rage of a woman who has been through trauma and loss, known grief and regret and yet still clings to every scrap of life left to her.
That Rounds Up What I’ve Been Reading Lately: November
It’s a funny thing to spend nearly 30 days reading one book, isn’t it? You begin to forget what it’s like to read anything else. The characters take up residence in your mind. And in spare moments you find yourself what is coming up next for them. Then it’s always like plunging your head into ice water when you start reading a new book! That sums up What I’ve Been Reading Lately: November perfectly I think. One long, slow read and one sharp shock to the system. What have you been reading lately?
