February’s second batch of paperbacks includes three I’ve already read, beginning with one likely to be a Marmite book with knobs on for many readers.
One of my books of last year, Helen Oyeyemi’s inventive, playful Parasol Against the Axe follows a hen party which has descended on Prague, Oyeyemi’s beloved adopted home and the narrator of the novel. One of them has come with a copy of Paradoxical Undressing, a most unusual book about the city. Prague guides us through her own streets, telling the stories of the novel’s principal players leaving a multitude of loose ends untied. Oyeyemi slips in episodes from city’s history via the endlessly morphing Paradoxical Undressing, from sixteenth-century nobility to Second World War taxi dancers to the Communist ‘60s although not in that order. Every reader, it seems, has a very different experience of the book, rather like readers will with Oyeyemi’s, I suspect. I wasn’t at all sure at the beginning of her novel but ended up loving it. Best be prepared for some mystification if you decide to give it a try.
Leo Vardiashvili takes his narrator back to Georgia in Hard By a Great Forest, the country Saba left with his father and brother in 1992, aged eight, leaving his mother behind. Eighteen years later, his father has returned followed by his brother and both are now missing. When Saba arrives, his passport is confiscated. Dazed, with nowhere to stay, he’s rescued by a cab driver who spots an opportunity. As Saba and Nodar take off on a dangerous journey which leads them over the closed border into breakaway Ossetia, the narrative takes on the pace of a thriller and the humour of the opening chapters drops away. Vardiashvili spins a good story, laying bare the fallout of the Soviet Union and its effects on ordinary people – the horrors of civil war, the loss of family, the sacrifices made – while reminding us there will always be hope.
I gave up Caoilinn Hughes’s The Orchid and the Wasp but had better luck with The Wild Laughter so have my fingers crossed for The Alternatives. Olwen took on the care of her three sisters when their parents died, all four now adults leading very different lives. When Olwen disappears, her siblings return to the family home to confront their difficult past and look to an uncertain future. ‘Fiercely witty and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland’s most gifted storytellers’ promises the blurb.
Cathy Sweeney’s Breakdown sees a woman walk out of her Dublin home one morning, leaving her husband and two teenage children asleep. Two days later she finds herself alone in a Welsh cottage having spent time in a many different places along the way, including the beds of strangers, no longer able to ignore the breakdown which has been building within her for some time. ‘From one of Ireland’s most provocative and admired writers, this is a story of rage and reckoning, joy and transformation’ says the blurb, whetting my appetite nicely.
February’s second paperback short story collection comes from Bridget O’Connor who died in 2010, aged only 49. After a Dance is a collection of 15 of her stories all but one first published in the 1990s. Most are hardly more than a few pages, some quite striking, ranging from the titular story in which a young girl spends the night with a boy she meets at a dance finding it an unsettling experience, tossing and turning all night while he snores beside her, echoed by his uncle downstairs, to the final darkly comic piece in which a clifftop cafe owner shares what she plans to be her last supper with a criminal, inadvertently rescuing him from impending trouble. O’Connor’s stories explore human nature with sharp observation and a black humour, sometimes with a dash of the surreal.
That’s it for February. A click on a title will take you either to my review or to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with part one it’s here. New fiction is here and here.
I wasn’t sure about the Oyeyemi but I’m very encouraged that you ended up loving it!
I did but I’m fairly circumspect about recommending it!
I’ve struggled with Oyeyemi in the past so will probably give her latest a miss. Interesting about Hughes – I admired her writing in The Wild Laughter but just could not get into it. Maybe I should try her again. I love the cover of the O’Connor.
I think that’s a wise plan with the Oyeyemi – I was already a fan and struggled to begin with. The O’Connor lives up to that jacket, and has an excellent introduction by Constance Straughan, her daughter. Made me laugh out loud!
The Alternatives was one of my favourites of last year – I’m still thinking about the characters. Haven’t read any of her other books but now own them – saving them for the future (binge-reading an author in the past has always led to disappointment!).
That’s encouraging. Often better to delay gratification!
Haven’t read any of Hughes yet, although The Alternatives has gotten good reviews in Ireland. I loved Cathy Sweeney’s book. I gave it to my mother who is much older than the protagonist in the book, and she said she could relate to her and why she made certain decisions. A good road trip story, as well as a contemplation on motherhood and female identity. She also writes for the news press in Ireland, some wonderful observations on life and society. I am intrigued by O’Connors’ work as I had not heard of her until recently, I believe she was an Irish ex-pat in England. Like Edna O’Brien, but O’Connor may have not gotten much recognition for her work during her lifetime.
I’ve a copy of The Alternatives working its way up the tbr pile. I’m glad your mother rated The Breakdown. Cathy was very enthusiastic about it on her blog (Cathy746 – I’m not sure if you follow her but if not I think you’d enjoy her reviews). O’Connor was so young when she died. Hardly time enough to get properly established.
The Alternatives looks good to me in this moment! I think I’ll skip this Oyeyemi; I have my fill of mystification in reality just now.
The Alternatives seems to be popular choice. The Oyeyemi’s mystifying in a hood way (at least, for me) but I know what you mean.
Gosh the Irish have the literary market sewn up at the moment, haven’t they? And it’s sheer talent. I have a 99p Kindle version of The Alternatives which I will give a go this year, hopefully. Fingers crossed for that one. I do own several Helen Oyeyemi novels already and haven’t read any of them! She represents the kind of author I’m both curious about and slightly afraid of – hence the multiple unread books!
They most certainly do! One of these days I should work out what proportion of my reading is made up of Irish writing.
I loved the Oyeyemi but wouldn’t recommend it as a starting point!
I enjoyed both The Alternatives and Breakdown. I’ve had good experiences with Oyeyemi before so that also appeals.,
I remembered that you’d enjoyed Breakdown, and I’d love to know what you think of the Oyeyemi if you get to it.
Well I have tried Oyeyemi in the past but just can’t get into her style at all.
Best steer well clear of this one then. If I’d not already been a fan I’d have given it up.
I’ve never tried Oyeyemi but the idea of place as narrator rather appeals; Hard by a Great Forest sounds good too!
She’s very much an acquired taste! Hard By a Great Forest was very well done, quite a page turner.
Well. The Oyeyemi, the Vardiashvili and the Sweeney are all in my library, so best begin with thise! And Harrogate Library’s ordered the O’Connor. Job done. Almost.
That’s a pretty good score for Yorkshire’s library system. Happy reading!
NYCC Libraries is doing us proud in these difficult financial times. I keep my fingers firmly crossed at all times!