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English literature

ImoReads… ‘Julia’ (2023) by Sandra Newman

Blog Nº 62

“All was false. It was known to be false, but everyone lied about the lies, until no one knew where the lies began and ended.”

It is a brave thing to take on a re-telling of one of the most well-known British novels of all time, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, particularly in so bold a manner as Newman does so. In this story, the object of Winston Smith’s gaze looks back, reclaiming agency to tell her own tale which will both shock and captivate readers. 

Newman has faithfully recreated Orwell’s vision of the future by carefully considering the language and culture of the original novel as well as guiding us through familiar landscapes such as the bleak, dingy factory floor of the Ministry of Truth. Many of the plot points we encounter are familiar to us, though inverted to be from Julia’s perspective. But Newman is able to move beyond the two-dimensional Julia that is portrayed by Orwell. Even by having her clock out of her factory shift due to ‘sickness: menstrual’, the reader is treated to a look at how women fared under the totalitarian regime and how their experience was entirely different to that of men. Seeing Julia at her dormitory hostel, how she interacts with other women there and how surveillance plus a lack of privacy and autonomy weigh differently on them is a compelling new element to this Orwellian existence. 

We learn that sexuality is a key part of Julia’s character and how despite being shaped by abuse, voyeurism and other factors, she still seeks and enjoys pleasure where she can. The focus on how sex and relationships work in an oppressive, surveilled world add nuance to what occurs between her and Winston but also between her and several other characters in the novel. Pregnancy and motherhood (both regime approved and not approved) are also put under the microscope, further providing insight of the uniquely female struggles faced in the Britain (or ‘Airstrip One’) of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Newman also paints a vivid picture of Julia’s childhood which makes her grit and determination to survive, her ‘cheerfully cynical’ nature and how she has so far made it through life under oppression highly convincing.  

The reader continues to be surprised by the twists and turns in the novel, including insight into previously unexplored characters such as O’Brien of the Thought Police, though eventually we arrive at the tragic ending readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four will know all too well. While the torture that occurs in the Ministry of Love and Room 101 aren’t portrayed quite as horrifically and convincingly as in the original, Julia still manages to lay bare the life-altering cruelty that takes place there. 

In Orwell’s novel, no crack in the totalitarian regime is allowed to show at the end. It concludes with no hope at all, with resistance resigned to be a futile expression of false hope. Newman wants to give the reader a dramatic conclusion to Julia’s personal narrative as well, meaning that in this story we get a glimpse into what happens after Orwell’s ending. Some may argue that there is less power in this, but I disagree. While I can’t reveal what happens, Newman absolutely honours the message that Orwell was initially trying to get across, leaving readers feeling equally as uneasy. The only difference is that while it was difficult to remain hopeful for Winston, readers here will be a little more convinced that Julia will endure and survive. 

Happy reading, 

Imo x 

Categories
American Literature

ImoReads… ‘James’ (2024) by Percival Everett

Blog Nº 61

“With my pencil, I wrote myself into being.”

I remember being bought a beautiful edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for Christmas a few years back, which also featured Twain’s other work, Tom Sawyer. I enjoyed both books and can see why they have status as great American novels, despite the moral quandaries they both raise for the modern reader. The Guardian calls James a ‘gleeful reboot’ of Mark Twain which puts the enslaved character Jim in the spotlight in this ‘horrifying, painful and funny’ novel. 

As in Huckleberry Finn, James follows an unlikely pair of runaways, young Huck and the enslaved Jim (here known as James) as they raft up the river in antebellum Mississippi. Huck has fled home to avoid his abusive father while James has run away before he can be sold away from his wife and children. 

In James, the entire escapade is narrated by James himself, offering an entirely different viewpoint. In Twain’s novel, there are moments where Huck and Jim are separated and we only hear what happens to Huck. In James, we get to hear Everett’s ruminations on what happens to James during these periods, as well as James’ imagined conversations with Enlightenment thinkers Voltaire and Locke, in which he calmly deconstructs their narrow views on human rights. There are adventures and escapes in full force throughout; we see James sold to a minstrel troupe, temporarily sold to a new slaveowner, caught up in a scam by vagrants posing as a respectable gentlemen and navigating the fallout of a shipwreck. 

The most important aspect of Everett’s novel, which makes James a work which employs American history and real-life dystopia simultaneously, is the calculated put on adopted by all the black characters in the novel when it comes to abilities in reading, writing and spoken language. “White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them… The better they feel, the safer we are”, or “Da mo’ betta dey feels, da mo’ safer we be”, in “the correct incorrect grammar” required by what James calls “situational translations.”  

This inversion of Twain’s work is immediately gripping and also allows for a steady build of wry comedy throughout the novel. However, as the reader you also become acutely aware that in James, roleplay goes hand in hand with survival as James and other black characters we meet along the way carefully navigate their precarious situations. 

James is a compelling, thought-provoking read which excels at making the reader both uncomfortable and amused as this portrayal of a dark time in America’s history unfolds through Huck and James’ adventures. This novel will keep you thinking long after you’ve finished. 

Happy reading, 

Imo x 

Categories
English literature

ImoReads… ‘The Little Red Chairs’ (2015) by Edna O’Brien

Blog Nº 60

“We don’t know others. They are an enigma. We can’t know them, especially those we are most intimate with, because habit blurs us and hope blinds us with truth.”

The Guardian describes The Little Red Chairs as ‘a chilling masterpiece’, and after reading it I’m inclined to agree. In terms of style and content it is unique, making for a compelling and thought-provoking read. 

The Little Red Chairs is set in the small fictional Irish village of Cloonoila where the community is tight-knit. It is here we meet Balkan war criminal Dr Vlad, who hides out in the village posing as a holistic healer and sex therapist. The story is told from the perspectives of the women he meets. One woman in particular, Fidelma, is drawn to Dr Vlad. Having suffered two miscarriages with her husband, she hopes Dr Vlad can cure her. Stuck in a lonely and somewhat suffocating marriage, Fidelma embarks on an affair with Dr Vlad and falls pregnant, which unfortunately coincides with Dr Vlad’s arrest and the revelation of his true identity to herself and the rest of the shocked community. The events that follow force us to confront morality, humanity and darkness in this novel that is at once uncomfortable intimate as well as daring and far-reaching. 

Dr Vlad is loosely based on the real life ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ Radovan Karadžić, who is currently serving a life sentence after being convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia after the Bosnian War. O’Brien has cleverly weaved him into the novel as Dr Vlad, the same way that she seamlessly swaps between tenses and character headspaces. All of this culminates in a distinctive narrative style. It can take some getting used to but it’s worth it for the impact the book will have on you. 

The Little Red Chairs is an original novel which will leave you pondering world events, day-to-day struggles and pressing moral questions for some time after. Astonishing when you consider that O’Brien was 85 at the time of publication. A must-read! 

Happy reading, 

Imo x 

Categories
English literature

ImoReads… ‘A Damsel in Distress’ (1919) by P.G. Wodehouse

Blog Nº 59

Lord Marshmoreton: “I wish I could get you to see my point of view.”


George Bevan: “I do see your point of view. But dimly. You see, my own takes up such a lot of the foreground.”

I was given a lovely edition of this book for Christmas and it proved to be a delightful first foray into the world of P.G. Wodehouse. The speed at which I finished reading A Damsel in Distress is testament to how good the book is, but, as with all great books, I also found myself disappointed I wouldn’t get to experience reading it for the first time again. 

The novel begins with a chance encounter between Lady Maud Marsh and American composer George Bevan in London. Maud is looking for another American, Geoffrey Raymond, who she met the previous year. Grappling with her parents’ disapproval of this match, Maud’s visit is on the sly and she enlists the help of a bemused George when she spots her brother Percy, who mistakes George for Geoffrey. 

What follows is an amusing set of events at Maud’s family home, Belpher Castle, wherein a complicated network of friendships, romantic entanglements and household whisperings make for a delightfully funny read. 

One of my favourite comic tropes in both theatre and fiction is the use of mistaken identities. A centuries-old device often used by Shakespeare, it never fails to bring a smile and a laugh to the reader. A Damsel in Distress is littered with examples of mistaken identity, some accidental and some rooted in purposeful deception. Wodehouse amplifies this technique by juxtaposing the drama between Belpher Castle’s residents with the presumptions of the ever-watchful household staff, always keeping the reader as the only one with the full picture of knowledge. 

Wodehouse is known as one of the most accomplished and widely read humourists of the twentieth century but this was my first experience of reading one of his novels. Even in non-climactic moments, his writing style and narration had me grinning with amusement throughout. The humour is so quintessentially English that I wonder whether translations into foreign languages can really do his words justice. 

I can now call myself a Wodehouse fan and since reading A Damsel in Distress I have acquired two more of his books. While it might be a bit ambitious to try and read his whole catalogue (which contains over ninety books, forty plays and two hundred short stories!) I look forward to delving into many more of his comic escapades. 

Happy reading, 

Imo x 

Categories
English literature

ImoReads… ‘Small Pleasures’ (2020) by Clare Chambers

Blog Nº 58

“A lifetime of quiet watchfulness had convinced her that the truth about people was seldom to be found in the things they freely admitted. There was always more below the surface than above.”

My mum bought me this book for Christmas after reading it herself – compelled to recommend it to several others as well as myself, I knew I was in for a good read. I found Small Pleasures to be quietly humorous as well as gut-wrenchingly sad, and thought it revealed interesting insights into everyday life in the 1950s.

The novel focuses on Jean Swinney. Approaching 40, her hopes of achieving fulfilment in life are swiftly fading. Her time is taken up with the mundane routine of everyday life – namely caring for her live-in suffocatingly dependent mother and working at the local paper on content mostly related to housekeeping. With no social, romantic or family life to speak of, Jean takes her relief from her repetitive suburban existence in small pleasures – the first cigarette of the day, a glass of sherry before Sunday lunch.

Everything changes when Jean gets a new assignment; an investigative piece on a local woman (Gretchen Tilbury) who claims to have given birth to her now ten-year-old daughter Margaret without any involvement from a man. Jean conscientiously tries to substantiate Gretchen’s story by delving into her past and having medical tests done on both mother and daughter, all the while becoming closer to Gretchen, Margaret and Gretchen’s husband Howard.

Something that struck me about this novel is that the life Jean is living is one that many people probably found themselves stuck in during the post-war period. To the twenty-first century reader, the food eaten by Jean and her mother is lamentable. Livers and hearts and things in tins that really shouldn’t be. When paired with their rather drab furnishings & clothing attire, lack of treats and unwillingness to spend any money on anything, you do get a real sense of that continuing aftereffect of the war. 

It is why you become very easily invested in the unexpected romance which blossoms between Jean and Howard as it brings both of them a new lease of life. While his marriage to Gretchen is more of a companionship anyway, you feel very pleased that these two unprepossessing individuals have found love in each other when they both previously felt that all hope was lost in that regard. As Jean becomes more and more intwined with the Tilburys – becoming friends with Gretchen, falling in love with Howard, becoming very fond of Margaret – her investigation into the so-called putative birth becomes complex and arguably, somewhat morally compromised.

Small Pleasures is a real page-turner; the plot line of the virgin birth investigation aligns seamlessly with that of Jean and Howard, both of which reach a particularly anguishing conclusion. I would highly recommend this novel – you will find yourself getting sucked in immediately and thinking about it for days afterwards.

Happy reading,

Imo x

Categories
English literature

ImoReads… ‘Impossible Creatures’ (2023) by Katherine Rundell

Blog Nº 56

“I need you to tell people this; I need you, when you get back, to tell them: the brutality is terrible. And yes: the chaos is very great. But tell them: greater than the world’s chaos are its miracles.”

“There was Tolkien, there is Pullman and now there is Katherine Rundell” says Michael Morpurgo in his review of Impossible Creatures. Other glowing reviews place her alongside JK Rowling, C.S Lewis and Lewis Caroll for this remarkable work full of imagination, magical delight and wonder. I suspect that the fantasy realm of The Archipelago revealed to us in Impossible Creatures will join Narnia, Hogwarts, Neverland and Middle-Earth and many more in the fantasy hall of fame in no time at all.

Impossible Creatures follow Christopher Forrester, who has been sent up to Scotiand to stay with his grandfather. One day he rescues, somewhat in disbelief, a drowning baby griffin from a hidden lake and suddenly his life changes irrevocably. The adventure that follows takes him to The Archipelago, a hidden cluster of islands where mythical creatures and humans still live side-by-side. There he meets and befriends mysterious girl on the run Mal with whom he will transform the destiny of not just The Archipelago but the world in its entirety.

Given the name of the novel I feel like I must discuss the creatures encountered by Christopher and Mal as the story weaves its course. Some will be familiar to us all – dragons, unicorns, centaurs, krakens, griffins, mermaids, sphinxes – but there are even more that Rundell introduces us to, inspired by myths and legends from histories and cultures spanning the entire globe. Never before had I heard of the al-miraj, a large horned hare, first mentioned in medieval Arabic literature. Rundell describes them as possessing dazzling beauty and as seekers of the wise and the good. Longmas, originally of Chinese mythology, are winged scaled horses that boast breathtaking speeds and strength.

Both Christopher and myself as the reader were almost the most astonished to read about the most harmless creatures in the novel, the Borometz, also known as the vegetable lamp. Originating from seventeenth-century legend in Central Asia, Borometz’ are zoophytes (animal plants) thought to grow sheep as their plants. Connected to the plant by a tendril / umbilical cord, once the sheep has grazed the land around the plant both itself and the plant will die. Therefore, kindly folk in The Archipelago carry seeds with them at all times to plant around a Borometz when they encounter one. Readers will be pleased to know that Impossible Creatures begins with a incredibly handy and beautifully illustrated ‘Guardians Bestiary’ so you can get to grips with the bewildering range of creatures you are soon to meet.

While classified as a children’s/young adult novel, Impossible Creatures can be enjoyed by all ages, much like Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter and Wendy, The Chronicles of Narnia and others classified in the same way. It takes great skill as a writer to create something multilayered and engaging to read for such a wide audience. It was a joy to see someone’s imagination bursting forth to portray such a unique world filled with vibrant, quirky characters, sharply funny lines and a gripping overarching plot. You know that a book is good when you feel like you’ve entered its world yourself and that each time you have to put it down is a lingering struggle.

As we head into a cold and wet British autumn you might be in need of an escape from the banalities of everyday life, particularly if you are in your grown-up stage of life – Impossible Creatures will do that for you and more.

Happy reading,

Imo x 

Categories
American Literature World literature

ImoReads… ‘Play It As It Lays’ (1970) by Joan Didion

Blog Nº 54

“There was silence. Something real was happening: this was, as it were, her life. If she could keep that in mind she would be able to play it through, do the right thing, whatever that meant.”

Play It As It Lays is my first foray into the writing of famed twentieth-century writer Joan Didion. I agree with its label of an instant classic and can see why it is credited for helping to define modern American fiction.

The relatively short novel follows 31-year-old former model and actress Maria Wyeth. It is made up of Maria’s stream of consciousness after a stint in a psychiatric hospital as well as flashbacks which hint at her impending mental breakdown. We hear about several disturbing occurrences that play a part in Maria’s collapse and indicate why she chooses to withdraw from the world and become entirely numb to her surroundings, even when they are morally ambiguous.

Play It As It Lays is undoubtedly a blistering dissection of American life in the late 1960s. Set in California, the novel captures not only the illusory glamour of life in Hollywood but also the culture at the time – namely, an entire generation feeling the ennui of contemporary society in a swiftly modernising world. The sparse, intense prose further emphasises this, showing not only Maria in crisis but a whole society.

Divorce, illegal abortion, drug and alcohol abuse, infidelity, mistreatment by men and loneliness plague Maria and her friends’ lives. Maria begins compulsively driving into the Mojave Desert for hours at a time as well as suffering from delusions as a result. It is a compelling but disturbing look at the gradual shattering of a young woman who should be in her prime.

I would highly recommend Play It As It Lays – while not particularly joyful, it is a riveting look at the broken façade of the young Hollywood American Dream.

Happy reading,

Imo x

Categories
English literature

ImoReads… ‘Flashman at the Charge’ (1973) by George MacDonald Fraser

Blog Nº 52

“It ain’t always easy, if your knees knock as hard as mine, but you must remember the golden rule: when the game’s going against you, stay calm – and cheat.”

Harry Flashman

I am always delighted to reunite with our morally ambiguous Victorian hero Harry Flashman, this time in Flashman at the Charge. This instalment of the Flashman Papers sees our friend unwillingly wrapped up in some of the British Army’s most famous offensive and defensive actions of the Crimean War, and of all time.

The novel opens with Harry once again enjoying a debaucherous existence in London. He unwittingly meets one of Queen Victoria’s young cousins, William of Celle, in a billiards hall, only to later on be assigned as his mentor and protector by Prince Albert, on account of his valiant reputation as a soldier (which we the reader know to be questionable). As a direct consequence of this, Harry finds himself being shipped off to the Crimean War to show young William what soldiering is all about. Despite William’s untimely death on the battlefield, Flashy is not spared from further military action. He is directly involved in The Thin Red Line, the Charge of the Heavy Brigade and the Charge of the Light Brigade. Powered only by fear and flatulence he reaches the Russian guns ahead of the other surviving chargers where he promptly surrenders and is taken to Russia. 

Imprisoned comfortably in Count Pencherjevsky’s castle, he reunites with old schoolfriend Scud East who has also been taken prisoner. A failed escape attempt sees Flashy imprisoned with warrior Yakub Beg, who are both rescued by fellow Uzbek and Tajik resistance fighters. Many adventures ensue which eventually see Russian supplies being taken out by Congreve rockets and Flashman arriving safely in British India, armed with yet another heroic tale.

Like the other Flashman instalments, Flashman at the Charge is full of wit, amusing but sound societal commentary and Flashman’s unabashed desire to save his own skin by any means necessary. Flashy once again manages to manoeuvre through some of history’s key events – with a good dose of female company, drunkenness and cunning thrown in – to further cement his repuation as a brave and gallant British military hero.

As ever, I look forward to delving into the next chapter in the Flashman saga to see what one of my favourite literary characters gets up to next.

Happy reading,

Imo x

Categories
American Literature World literature

ImoReads… ‘Cassandra at the Wedding’ (1962) by Dorothy Baker

Blog Nº 52

“So go, girl. We should have been one person all along, not two.” 

I thoroughly enjoyed Cassandra at the Wedding, getting through it in a couple of days as I was so enthralled by the impossible, brilliant protagonist Cassandra Edwards. Baker has produced what the blurb describes as an ‘entrancing tragicomic novella’ and I can only agree with this conclusion.

Our heroine Cassandra is a graduate student at Berkeley, who is on her way home to her family ranch in the foothills of the Sierras to attend her identical twin Judith’s wedding to a young doctor from Connecticut. However, Cassandra – at once brilliant, frenzied, nerve-wracked and miserable – is determined to do whatever it takes to ruin the wedding and ‘save’ her sister. It is impossible to predict the course of action which Cassandra at the Wedding takes; besides the plan to sabotage, Cassandra must also grapple with her complex feelings towards her family. Namely Judith who Cassandra believes should be her alter-ego, plus her whiskey-soaked father, her dead mother and her kindly grandmother. This book is a story of self-discovery, family relationships and facing your feelings.

There is something about characters named Cassandra; though the Cassandra in this novel is more emotionally unstable, she is as vibrant and interesting to read as the Cassandra of Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. Both are frank, open and highly captivating. Throughout the course of Cassandra at the Wedding, we witness Cassandra variously as heartbroken, pitiful, conniving, unsure, self-aware, absurd, intelligent – yet always impossibly sympathetic and at times highly amusing. Despite the book being published just over 60 years ago, Cassandra is enduringly modern, insightful and relatable to twentysomethings today. Baker clearly has an adept understanding of the complexities of the heart and soul, and I was very sad to say goodbye to Cassandra as I reluctantly finished the novel.

An enduring theme of Cassandra at the Wedding is sisterhood, which is particularly strong in this instance because Cassandra and Judith are identical twins. For Cassandra, it is difficult to accept the fact that Judith decided to go to a different college and there met a man she wants to marry, who will thus become extremely important in her life. It is quite clear that Cassandra is in some ways enveloped in a childlike fantasy of the sisters always remaining inseparable and Judith remaining under her influence; this indicates why she feels compelled to sabotage the wedding and ‘save’ her sister from a situation that Cassandra cannot believe she would want to be in. Yet at the same time, Cassandra is desperate to establish herself as an independent person from her sister, creating an interesting paradox. It is significant that for a small section of the novel, Baker switches the narrator from Cassandra to Judith so we hear her perspective first-hand, understanding them both as individuals but also witnessing the unknowable bond shared between twins.

I would highly recommend Cassandra at the Wedding for anyone seeking a read full of freshness, emotion, plot twists and vigor. For me, it will become one of those books that I wish I could read again for the first time!

Happy reading,

Imo x

Categories
English literature

ImoReads… ‘A Perfect Woman’ (1955) by L.P Hartley

Blog Nº 51

“This was likely to happen when a woman of slightly superior social standing, decidedly superior brains and greatly superior imaginative capacity married a dullish man and lived in the provinces”

I’m a big fan of L.P Hartley so I always look forward to reading one of his novels. A Perfect Woman is a story of an ordinary husband and wife becoming entangled in an extraordinary situation. As ever, Hartley draws us in to this compelling story with wit and literary grace.

A Perfect Woman follows the Eastwoods – Harold, a conventionally-minded chartered accountant and his wife Isabel, who has a keen interest in the arts and literature. They have two children and are living out an unremarkable middle-class married life in the fifties. Until one day, when Harold chances to meet charismatic novelist Alexander Goodrich on a train. Alec finds Harold’s knowledge of income tax useful so the two of them begin a business relationship. When Alec comes to visit the Eastwood home, Isabel is immediately smitten, so entranced by his embodiment of a cultured, literary gentleman. However, it is Austrian barmaid Irma that takes Alec’s fancy when he and Harold visit the local pub. Isabel embarks on a mission to procure Irma for Alec, persuading Harold to take her out to dinner to discuss the idea with her. However, Harold soon starts an affair with Irma while Isabel begins a relationship with Alec on her trips to London. While initially improving their marriage, Isabel’s discovery of Alec’s latest manuscript means things take an unexpected and shocking turn.

Hartley is an astute social commentator, and A Perfect Woman is a classic example of what can happen in marital apathy. And yet, I was still astonished by how easily both Harold and Isabel began their affairs, and how not guilty they felt about it. On first appearance it is certainly an advert for what not to do in marriage, although later on it is revealed as the key for Harold and Isabel rediscovering their fondness for each other. Both Irma and Alec live up to typical stereotypes for illicit partners desired by men and women – one a young, foreign, attractive barmaid and the other a wordly, intelligent creative in touch with his emotions. The novel indicates that any relationship can be rocked by the arrival of sexy new strangers.

A Perfect Woman is an excellent social drama filled with unexpected twists and turns, and I would highly recommend it.

Happy reading,

Imo x