Other Useful Numbers by Sarah Broughton

Other Useful Numbers

One of the joys of putting books on my wish list for later purchase is that when I get round to reading them I have forgotten all about them and so can encounter them completely fresh without the mind being directed to a certain reaction on the basis of a review etc.

Other Useful Numbers is one of those books, and it is a clear strength of the writing that front a standing start I was hooked on it before turning the first page.  Within a sentence or two you are inhabiting the mind of the central character, Tracy, and that is at times an uncomfortable place to live.  She probably depressed, is struggling to come to terms with the break down of a long term relationship, is estranged from family, is seemingly unable to maintain a friendship for more than a few weeks without causing it to implode.  In lots of ways she is a very easy person to dislike, however for all the failings my reaction was one of great compassion.  Maybe it is because I feel like as much of a fish out of water in most social settings as she does, have spent hours at parties standing on my own in the corner getting (not that) slowly pissed because I can't do small talk.

I really loved this novel and would highly recommend it.

A Century of Olympic Posters by Margaret Timmers

A Century of Olympic Posters

The story of Olympic Posters is used by Timmers to tell the story of the ideas and ideals that shaped the Games as much as it shaped the art work used to promote those Games. It is a century when advertising came of age and so the Posters chart the rise and rise of the visual as the key element of communication.  This also links into the way the Games have become since the Second World War a truly Global event and therefore the Posters have to work beyond the reach of mainstream European Languages and cultural settings.

Even those on a mission to by pass the Olympics this summer would still find this a worthwhile couple of hours read. 

The One from the Other by Phillip Kerr

The One From The Other

Reading this back to back with Resistance was probably a bit unfair to Kerr as the whole style and objective of his writing is different, I would try to resist a comparison of better or worse.

It is fast paced and everything you want in a crime thriller, my only worry was the times when it starts moralising which is something beyond the capacity of such a framework. It is again the risk, as there was in Resistance, of taking on history and especially a period that is just are the edge of memory.  Here the back drop is the search for Nazi war criminals and this remains a touchy subject for many, why some were punished and other rehabilitated, and even today old men are being unmasked and put on trial.  You can't talk of the Holocaust without speaking of the horror, but where Kerr is strong is showing that while there might be some bad "bad guys" there are no real "good guys", war and a system such as the Nazi state leave no one entirely innocent.

The story manages to escape being dragged down by its historical setting - but only just...

 

Resistance by Owen Sheers

Resistance

To take on history and turn the tide of the Second World War on its head is a brave step for any writer, and could easily spell disaster for the narrative, yet Sheers creates his alternative history with such skill and populates it with such natural characters that you are drawn in and inhabit with them this new and dark reality.

Part of the skill is to have placed the drama well away from the centre stage, the whole novel revolves around the fact that the valley is forgotten, beyond the back of beyond.  Therefore history is hinted at without the need for grand set pieces, Hitler visits London in a rumour rather than a fully form account.

There is a deep sorrow under this story and as it came to a conclusion you wished for other choices to be made yet you accepted that there were no "other choices" open. What it says about love is hard to understand, what it says about the power of women is in the end uncomfortable.  It is writing at its best and this will linger on.

From the weak reviews of the film adaptation it would appear that failed to live up to the quality to the novel.