The Long Answer by Anna Hogeland
GoodReads Review
Sisters and stories are what stay with me after reading this novel. The narrative leads us through a number of relayed stories about other fellow women, all dealing with various emotions and experiences related to pre-parenthood, pregnancy, miscarriage, grief and motherhood. The novel opens with a sister telling of her older sister's sharing of her miscarriage whilst she herself is pregnant. I am an older sister and I empathised with the distanced sister, even though I myself have not lost a baby. I felt the voice of the sister telling the story was not fair in speaking of her sister's distance and lack of close communication through the years. I was glad to realise that her perception of her sister's lack of care and disdainful older sister persona she put on was mistaken and that actually their sisterhood needed to be accepted by her in order for it to thrive and be of support to her.
The narrative feels strange in the opening chapters since as a reader, you will feel as if you are listening in on conversations between the characters and it doesn't quite sit right, but this is clever since as you read on you realise that this is the point. We hear so many stories as relayed tales, imagined experiences, overheard conversations, real-life experiences and arguments that truly alter and affect the way we feel going into thinking about parenthood and fertility, our bodies, our pregnancies, losses and relationships with each other and with our children.
However we may view our fellow mothers, sisters, females in our lives, the message I've taken away from this novel is that things are often never the way you seem. There are so many intricate underlying reasons, emotional drives, trauma-inducing or causes for action and reaction, that we must simply support each other, listen to each other's stories, however they may be told and respect the connections that do exist, however loose, taut or obvious they may be.
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
I Have some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
When you finish reading this novel, the cover choice makes sense. At first glance, the shadows, the bleeding of words, the intrusive title implies a horror, which this historical realistic fiction, albeit with embedded psychological trauma, is not. Yet it is horrific. Makkai addresses a number of troubling realities about what almost all of us will have faced growing up. I'm an '80s girl and Makkai's descriptions resonated with loud and stark nostalgia for me.
A literary mystery, bound to be a classic, that is insightful as well as informative about why so many issues (murder, sexual abuse, #metoo, race, collective memory, social class intimidation, bullying, importance of safeguarding, responsibility, police conduct and interrogation, teacher-student relationships, the justice system, social media, power... the list goes on) must be better understood. Though perhaps far too ambitious a project to use all of these subjects under the same story heading?
A gripping read. Clever structure and style of narration. This was my first Makkai read and I enjoyed her literary skill. Early chapters may take a while to absorb your attention...but once you're in, whoah, there's so much to grip thoughts about your own past teenage life, even if an indirect way. I also loved the references to film and media study.
Yes, I wanted to read this novel so put myself on the Large Print copy waiting list at the library, rather than wait to get to the top of the normal print copy list.
As a side note, I haven't read My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell or True Story by Kate Reed Petty, which other reviewers have said deal with similar subject matter more successfully.
I expect I'll be looking out for Makkai's The Great Believers, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, soon too. I wonder if I'll enjoy that one as well, if not more.
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah
"Abbas has never told anyone about his past - before he was a sailor on the high seas, before he met with his wife Maryam in Exeter, before they settled into a quiet life in Norwich with their children, Jamal and Hanna. Now, at the age of sixty-three, he suffers a collapse that renders him bedbound and unable to speak about things he thought he would one day have to.
Jamal and Hanna have grown up and gone out into the world, yet while both were born in England, they cannot shake a sense of apartness. When Abbas falls ill, they return home reluctantly to confront the dark silences of their father and the secret he has been hiding from them all."
For those who know I'm writing a novel about an older male character who has a secret, just like Abbas in this novel will see why I picked this prizewinning novel up. I was initially drawn by the colours and front cover design which I LOVE, though this tale is "a subtle and moving tale of a family coming to terms with itself.' (Aminatta Forna, Financial Times), which is a theme I hope readers will one day see in my novel (though on a separate founding topic).
The deep-felt turmoils and powerful issues addressed by Gurnah in this novel are written with a fragmented, multiple POV collection of tales and I was captivated by how disconnected the groupings of characters were, which is very much part of the message of this novel. There's a lot of sad reality about how people in Britain can be so unassumingly racist, against immigration and anyone who may be considered to be from a minority group, not to mention those who learn to disrespect their parents' backgrounds and life stories, thinking there is no option but to dismiss all except their current place in their generation.
Such an interesting read. Highly recommend it and I'll be looking out to read Abdulrazak Gurnah's other novels: After Lives, Desertion, By the Sea and Paradise (all with equally beautiful colour combinations on the covers).
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Goodreads Review
This novel is marvellous in a haunting way. Napolitano's writing is superb and her lyrical word choices are complex, yet allow the reader to traverse through her chapters and storyline with such ease. However, I cannot get away from the fact that after having read both Dear Edward and Hello Beautiful, I have felt profoundly unsettled, if not incredibly low.
I want to love this book and I do adore the front cover and the title. I wanted to feel included in the discussion of sisterhood as being the best of the best, yet somehow I left with a sort of sorrow and self-deprecation that didn't do me a whole lot of good!
That's not to say that the social comment on families, societies and relationships isn't artfully conveyed. Napolitano sets the story rolling with a spectacular summary-style opening chapter introducing us beautifully and comprehensively to one of the main characters, William and the tragedy his parents and he suffer in losing his sister at the the age of three. This sets us up for pitying or wanting to protect William.
As a result when we are shown the female character who marries William and pushes the story forward with her proaction and forthright organisation, we're not overly enthused by her. And this is where I perhaps lost my love with the novel, since I am the eldest sister in my family, I have always been a bit of a perfectionist or even a control-freak and I found myself hating myself and wanting to distance myself from being compared to the character of Julia. Her actions are so abrupt and harsh, as in her ruthless organisation of her life choices, her career and her relationship, her self-absorbed focus and all-or-nothing decisions that ultimately affect her marriage, her relationship with her mother and sisters and her daughter.
I have been brave here in openly noting my own self-obsessed thoughts. There are a number of actions that Julia takes that I would not have done though. Also, there are a number of decisions that characters in the novel took which do not seem entirely plausible. However, I did read the novel as an exaggerated version of L.M. Alcott's Little Women, as I believe it was intended, so all relationships and circumstances were a little extreme and symbolic.
Sylvie is the second sister and in places she seemed like she could have been the oldest in her actions. She is sweet and an appealing individual, quite like my younger sister, in fact!
The youngest twin sisters were also interesting and well-embedded into the storyline though did not hold as much focus for the reader as they might have done.
Overall, my review ought to be seen as a positive one, especially since this is a literary novel and I expect Napolitano wrote it to be controversial and thought-provoking! She's a marvel and one of those authors whose writing you need to read, absorb, ponder for a while, chat and argue about and then put up there on a pedestal!
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
