Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
"Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter'. For the life ahead of him he will need all that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty and addiction aren't ideas. They're as natural as the grass grows. For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves are as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he's willing to travel to try and get there.
Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between."
[From Faber UK publication]
The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers
I chose to read this novel because of its central male protagonists and relationship as well as its awards and literary recommendations. Unique and fascinating in its structure and the representation of a story about crop circles tightly connected with history from a British past of the 1990s. I did enjoy the narrative approach which is ordered poetically with a beautiful lyrical style. Benjamin Myers has writing prowess which I look forward to reading again in future. The predominantly male mindset of the characters and focus on solely those two central figures may not appeal to all readers (maybe not for women's fiction readers). Though the style is actually exactly what you'd expect if there were something called 'men's fiction', which is likely why I liked it and why it appealed to me!
The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan
Enjoyed the narrative of this novel a great deal. Each chapter is only two pages in length. The voice of the novel is honest and humorous with a strong Irish dialect. The central protagonist is Saoirse. She is introduced with the simple declarative statements 'She was born. Small but healthy, a fortnight early.' Immediately we are introduced and invited to grow with this iconic character who is direct and will take no prisoners with her approach to the world she finds herself in. Her father was killed in a car crash that same say she was born so there's a lot of grief and unravelling emotion that Saoirse experiences through her mother, her Nana and those she meets as she grows up in Nenagh, County Tipperary.
The title of the novel references 'the ... dirt island' which is the narrow strip of land, adjacent to Eileen, Saoirse's mother's childhood home, left as inheritance for Eileen, in spite of her having been estranged from her parents after having had Saoirse out of wedlock. A battle ensues between Eileen and her brother, yet this is a secondary plot detail which does not deter from the quiet but feisty family interactions that drive the novel.
Donal Ryan's writing is lyrical and poetic, described as 'so musical that your eyes will dance through its pages.' (Joanna Canon), his prose also said to 'drip[s] like honey off a spoon.' (Sunday Times)
I can't finish this review without mentioning one of its mid chapters, titled 'LOVE' in which I was amazed by how apt Ryan's words are in describing feelings of the first days of motherhood, breastfeeding, responsibility, love ...
Here are some quotations that I love from this chapter entitled LOVE:
'She hadn't been prepared for the force of it. She couldn't quite contain it for the first while. It was as though its magnitude was too great for her being...Mother and Nana understood. It was familiar to them.'
'They didn't tell her to cop on as she would have expected but were solicitous and ever present; like two adults watching a child carry a full glass of water across a room...'
'A clicking feeling of sharp, momentary pain travelled from the top of her head to the ends of her toes as the baby clamped its gums around her and started to suck, subsiding into a warm, pleasant, dragging sensation, a feeling of rightness and relief.'
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
'A Room of One's Own' is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, and encompasses the words spoken in two lectures delivered in 1928 at two women's colleges, Girton College and Newnham College, at Cambridge University.
Wo0lf speaks of the status of women and in particular those who are creatively minded and potential artists. She asserts that ' a woman must have money and room of one's own if she is to write.' Of course, this is well known as a text that has developed the feminist viewpoint and the theory of connections between gender and writing.
I found Woolf's style powerful and witty. I most enjoyed her telling of Jane Austen's way into writing and the irony of her having discreetly written her classic Pride and Prejudice on the lid of the piano in the sitting room, not in a secluded room of her own, but instead interrupted and surrounded by the reality of a woman's life duties. Dare I say, back then?! I know for a fact that many writers find themselves jumping backwards and forwards to the addition of words to the page in the kitchen, whilst cooking dinner or whilst waiting to pick up children from daily activities etc. I'm not certain a whole lot has changed for many.
I also valued Virginia Woolf's accolades and praise for writers of the past who have paved the way and forged forwards with their creativity and writing prowess. Forgive me for those I miss from this list: Christina Rossetti, Aphra Behn, Jane Austen, Currer Bell, George Eliot, George Sand...
Check out my Instagram post where I'm posting a few selected quotations from Woolf's writing.
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Goodreads Review
I keep coming back to Elizabeth Strout's novels since there is something that I adore about her honesty and deep connection with real emotions. I find her characters fascinating and Lucy Barton is a reticent but powerful female. Sh is Strout's narrator in this concise novel and she conveys her personal interiority (she is an author after all!) in first person, flitting between dropping hints about her childhood, what she knows of her mother's past trauma and the experience of her hospital stay for a ruptured appendix. Each chapter is short and offers marvellous soundbite glimpses to her inner character. She has clearly lived a troubled younger life though she is so humble in her telling of her abuse. She loves her mother, with a fear and her memories are at odds with the frequent times she repeats her love for her mother. There is one memory of her father which paints such a strong image. Sadness emanates from the page though.
Motherhood is tough. Lucy comments without accusation of her acceptance that her own daughters do not ever stay with her, preferring the company of their stepmother and father. Lucy is a broken character and the way Strout gives her a voice is heart-rending but unbelievably strong. I imagine there are many women with similar connections to her.
Novels by Elizabeth Strout I still have to read are Lucy by the Sea (the last in Lucy Barton's sequence of stories from 2022) and Abide with Me (2006).
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
