New book reviews

Elizabeth Strout

Exploring the complicated nature of love and familial relationships, My Name Is Lucy Barton begins with a lonely mother-of-two confined to a hospital bed in New York City in the mid-1980s. Forced to confront the challenges of her past when her estranged mother comes to visit, Lucy also has to contend with the fact her future lies in the balance unless she recovers from a mystery illness which appears following the removal of her appendix.

From the very first page, author Elizabeth Strout sucks you into an exquisitely written story, which is anecdotally retold in perfectly constructed short chapters. From Lucy's troubled and isolated childhood, to her current day marital problems and parenting dilemmas, it's a brutally honest, absorbing and emotive read.

Although the novel is primarily driven by Lucy's voice and explores her familial and romantic relationships, the reader is also privy to the failed marriages and emotional breakdowns of friends, relations and acquaintances from the past. These riveting cautionary morality tales revealed by Lucy's gossiping mother at her bedside are interwoven seamlessly within the main narrative, adding another layer of poignancy to a story which takes an unflinching look at the complexity of human relationships and, in particular, the notion of female autonomy.

Previously winning a Pulitzer for her much-lauded novel Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth's follow-up is just as powerful, insightful and unforgettable. One of the book's biggest achievements is that it never once strays into over-sentimental or mawkish territory, instead taking a tempered look at very complex and emotional topics. The author has a keen eye for detail and a graceful way with words that her make her fifth novel an absolute joy to read. The one and only problem with it is that you won't want to put it down when you get to the last page.

The High Mountains Of Portugal

Yann Martel

The long-awaited new novel by Life Of Pi author Yann Martel. This new book is really three novellas: the first set in 1904 about a grieving young man called Tomas travelling across the country in search of a religious relic; the second, the tale of a pathologist who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation; and the third is about a Canadian senator who takes refuge in Portugal following the loss of his wife. Sounds simple enough doesn't it? The difficulty I had with this novel was the detail, the minute details of the inner workings of Tomas' car, the horrendous description of the autopsy, not to mention the senator's chimpanzee companion, made me want to put it down. Add to that the surreal elements, one of the protagonists walks backwards and a living woman (amongst other things) is sewn inside a dead body, and my overriding emotion is bemusement. Having said that, if you liked Life Of Pi, you're sure to find enough similarities here to enjoy it.

Nobody Told Me

Hollie McNish

I first encountered Hollie McNish's poetry when I watched her video performance of Embarrassed on YouTube - a striking, exasperated burst of frustration at Britain's stigma surrounding breastfeeding in public. Embarrassed is contained in this 448-page book of poems, prose and diary entries recording McNish's motherhood, from the positive test to her daughter "Little One" heading off to pre-school. It wavers between the confessional - "nobody told me" and "I'm not very good at this" are refrains - and observational; McNish vents frustration at corporations cashing in on new parents and expresses horror at abuse of pregnant women worldwide. She addresses birth and sex and reassuring relatives and public disapproval and politics and the disparity between aching for sleep, yet staying up to stare at a sleeping child's face. There is no need to interpret these works - the preceding diary entries explain exactly what McNish was thinking when she wrote them. Some of the poems are not good, some are funny, some burbling; most are trying to encapsulate feelings simultaneously fleeting and all-encompassing. It's like listening to a friend who's had months of bad days.