What I've been reading

Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson

"What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to?"

I found this book fascinating once I'd worked out what was going on. It is about a particular individual who is reborn at the same instant, in a snowstorm, every time she dies. So the same period of time is revisited a number of times with different outcomes, and it seems that in later iterations she has flashes of remembrance of a previous life which often propel her to make different choices. As time went on I became more interested in how the book would end, what point might be made, what conclusions drawn, and to be honest I was a bit disappointed when it fizzled out. I'd love to create my own version and see what I could do. I'll have to add it to the 'Things To Do When I Retire' list.

Peter Pan
by J. M. Barrie

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"One starry night, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell lead the three Darling children over the rooftops of London and away to Neverland - the island where lost boys play, mermaids splash and fairies make mischief. But a villainous-looking gang of pirates lurk in the docks, led by the terrifying Captain James Hook."

Always interesting to revisit classic stories that you believe you know, because there's usually something you've forgotten, like Dorothy having white shoes in the book of the Wizard of Oz. In this book it was the degree of brutality including the children actually killing the pirates, Mr Darling living in the dog's kennel until the children come home, and then the finale when Wendy is grown up with her own daughter.

Barchester Towers
by Anthony Trollope

narrated by Timothy West

"The rather incompetent new Bishop, Dr. Proudie, led by his formidable wife, and ambitious chaplain, Mr. Slope, begin to create turmoil with their desire to shake up the church establishment in Barchester with new policies and practices. However, the established clergy of Barchester led by Archdeacon Grantly are equally determined to keep things just as they've always been."

This was a good book and an excellent reading by Timothy West, although I would say that Trollope doesn't write love affairs very well. I was glad that the right people got married in the end but I never felt the attraction, and it made an interesting contrast with Galsworthy who makes me root for his lovers from the first. Then I wanted to know whether the authors were contemporaries, and they aren't because Galsworthy started his Forsyte saga 50 years after Trollope wrote this, but then I discovered that Daniel Deronda and Uncle Tom's Cabin were written in the same era as Barchester. Such utterly different books - Eliot's set in the towns and cities featuring squires and Jews, Trollope focusing on provincial clergy, and of course they have nothing in common with the situation of slaves in North America. It almost makes me want to study a bit of history, and that has never happened before.

Under the Net
by Iris Murdoch

"Jake, hack writer and sponger, now penniless flat-hunter, seeks out an old girlfriend, Anna Quentin, and her glamorous actress sister, Sadie. He resumes acquaintance with the formidable Hugo, whose ‘philosophy’ he once presumptuously dared to interpret."

What a peculiar reading experience this was. No doubt that it was well written - I didn't experience any heartsink moments and let's face it, it's Iris Murdoch and she's supposed to be good. But I couldn't follow what was going on - or rather, I understood what was happening, but not why. And the number of times people happened to bump into one another made it feel as if it were set in a village rather than London (or at one point, Paris). You don't go to a Bastille Day firework display and happen to catch sight of the person you're looking for, follow her into a wood, pick up the shoes she leaves at the base of a tree - and then lose her, never to meet her again? Well written yes, but it makes no sense. I enjoyed reading the scene about the four drunk friends swimming in the Thames at midnight, or releasing a large dog from a cage, or escaping from a police raid on a Socialist rally in a film studio (really?) but none of these fitted together or helped the plot to progress. It was my first Iris Murdoch, and her first novel too. I'll read some more on the assumption that she gets better.

The Soldier's Wife
by Joanna Trollope

"When Dan Riley returns to his adored wife, Alexa, and their children, his army life still comes first. Alexa thought she was prepared to help him, and the whole family, to make the transition to normal life again - but no one had told her how lonely and near impossible the task would be."

Easy reading in a tent in a field. I liked it even though it was fairly shallow. Probably because it was fairly shallow.

The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. Gregor attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible, verminous creature Gregor has become."

An interesting short story - very famous of course, and as peculiar as can be. There is no explanation of why the metamorphosis had happened, and nobody in the story questions the transformation, they just react and respond to it. If I could be bothered I would research what the author might have intended to convey, or the meaning that scholars have suggested subsequently. But I probably won't.