claire_fuller_writer's reviews
1027 reviews

Hmm. And I don't normally hmm at Ian McEwan books, normally I love them. Clean, crisp writing; good stories. But The Children Act was just too dry, too many explanations of the law's processes, which felt like they were repeated. I just didn't engage with Fiona or the state of her marriage, or even the boy in hospital.

And one plot point that I have an issue with or don't understand, is why would Sherwood Runcie give Fiona the news (which I won't say here), just as she was about to go on and give her concert? I can only presume that he hates her, wants her to be distressed enough to make a fool of herself on stage, but unless I've missed something, I didn't get the impression that he hates her. But if he does, why does he?

I read this thirty or so years ago when I was seventeen and it was only seven years since I had moved with my family from a rural Oxfordshire village to a nearby town. Without remembering what the book was about I remember loving it, and finding in so many familiar things about village life.

And having just re-read it, I still got that delicious feeling of a tight-knit community, English eccentrics and the countryside which was all mine to explore. Of course the reality probably wasn't so idyllic for me or for Laurie Lee, but that's fine.

The book is a prose-poem about a life that's gone, full of sweet nostalgia. I loved it this time around as much as the last.

I read this in less than two days and had to hide it under the sofa when I was writing so that I didn't stop to read it.

Frances' character and her slightly skewed view of life crept up on me slowly. I love how her hyper self-awareness, what other characters might be thinking, and her control and manipulation of them and relationships becomes scary because it feels like it is only one step further on from how we all do it.

There were many echoes in Alys, Always from my life, but it wasn't just that I recognised myself in some of the situations (not that I'm like Frances!), but that it has some damn fine writing, and is a remarkable debut.

I wasn't sure if this novella was meant to be funny, but I certainly laughed out loud at many parts, especially the ribald sections - and there are many. It's an odd little book, nicely absurd (sometimes reminding me of a milder Brautigan), with lots of little vignettes in which the characters are only slightly linked by the environmental destruction of a local pond. It seemed much more dated than 1982 however - especially with its depiction of women.

Recommended to read in one single swallow.

Like a piece of dark chocolate - intense, rich and satisfying, but you don't want too much. And this was just enough beautiful poetic prose.

I loved this. I got George's story first, and what a great story is was - full of so many teenage things that I remembered from thirty years ago. Francesco's story took me longer to get into, and although I understand that mixing a bit of both stories is part of the point of this book, it was these sections that worked less well for me. The parts when Francesco was only talking about his history of painting and growing up really kept me fascinated. Very occasionally I felt that something was there simply to make sense for those people who would read Francesco first. But all that shouldn't put you off. Highly recommended.

I finished this ten days ago or so, and although I know I really enjoyed it, a lot of it hasn't stuck with me. It was beautifully written, very sad, sometimes funny and at times shocking, but I wish I hadn't known before I read it that much of it was based on Toews' life. I didn't understand how the part about the narrator's aunt also being ill added to the story. I suspected (although I might be wrong) that this happened in real life, and so it stayed in.