The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston

source: public library

The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston

I've had The Witch's Daughter loaded on my pocket electronic device for the last little while. I've listened to it while commuting and shoveling snow, and most recently while suffering from the flu and not having the energy to do much anything else.

The Witch's Daughter is the story of a tenant farmer 17th century England who essentially becomes a witch to escape persecution for witchcraft (as should be obvious from the book's title, Bess' mother hanged) and then spends the next 400 years running from the warlock who aided her transformation (and who wants to claim her for himself). The book is set in 2007, but it includes long flashbacks to various periods in the titular character's life: the plague-ridden early 1600s, in which Bess should have lived out her entire life, Victorian London (complete with Jack the Ripper), and Flanders during World War I. The book long at 400+ pages or 13+ hours, but it didn't drag for me.  

My pet peeve about the story is that Bess, each time she reinvents herself, uses some form of her actual name (and she maintains her appearance complete with her distinctive white widow's streak). Of course her nemesis is going to find her again and again when she does such a poor job of hiding. The fact that Gideon (the warlock) disguises himself so well really highlights this failing of Bess'.

Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali (and Brick Lane)

Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali

I read Monica Ali's debut novel, Brick Lane, in 2006 (see below). I enjoyed it so I'm not quite sure why it took me almost three years (bookcrossing tells me that I've had Alentejo Blue on my shelf since March 2009) to read Alentejo Blue. I do wish that I enjoyed Alentejo Blue as much as Brick Lane.

Alentejo Blue is a novel centered on a rural village in south-central Portugal. Its chapters focus on individuals living in or visiting the village (it opens with an elderly man finding his friend--and sometimes lover--has hanged himself, the second chapter follows a British author who has sex with two inappropriate partners just because it's something to do) making it read, at first like a collection of short stories set in the same place rather than a novel. As the novel progresses, threads begins to tie the various chapters together. While the novel had some moments, I found it bleak. Honestly I finished reading Alentejo Blue out of stubbornness.

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

Here's what I thought about Brick Lane when I read it in 2006 (from my copy's bookcrossing journal):

I can understand why this book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I'm amazed, though, that this was the authors debut novel. What an achievement!

Ali explores universal themes on a very personal level. The driving force of the novel, the protagonist, Nazneen, is fully realized and sympathetic.
The novel has a certain weight and urgency, which makes it all the more readable, though it did seem to drag at times.

This is one of my favorite passages:

How had it happened? It was as if she had woken one day to find that she had become a collector, guardian of a great archive of secrets, without the faintest knowledge of how she had got started or how her collection has grown. (313)

I also loved the ending.

Corduroy Mansions

Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith

It's no surprise that I enjoyed Corduroy Mansions, the first book in McCall Smith's newest serial novel series, since I so enjoyed 44 Scotland Street (see post) and its sequels.

Corduroy Mansions is quite similar to 44 Scotland Street. It's been touted McCall Smith's "first internet novel" as it's published on The Telegraph's website, but in practice I expect the writing and publication work the same way as 44 Scotland Street did with The Scotsman.

Corduroy Mansions follows the lives of the residents of mansion-turned-apartment building located in the Pimlico area of London as well as some of their associates and associates' associates. One of the book's most memorable characters is Freddie de la Hay, a Pimlico terrier (see Tea Time for AMS for a discussion of the breed). He comes to live with wine merchant William French who owns the top flat of Corduroy Mansions and hopes that Freddie's appearance will encourage his 24-year-old, dog-hating son to finally move out.

My favorite character, though, is Terence Moongrove. His connection to Corduroy Mansions is a bit tenuous: he's the uncle of the vile Oedipus Snark, MP, whose personal assistant, Jenny, shares the middle flat. He's a complete crackpot (following a Bulgarian mystic, he practicing sacred dance as a way to connect with "beings of light" he also drives an ancient Morris Traveller that he's often to absentminded to remember to gas) and his presence adds so much to the novel.

Part of the reason that I like Corduroy Mansions and 44 Scotland Street so much is that McCall Smith's sense of humor really shines in the series (or maybe the humor in these two is just much more in line with my own). I'm not saying that there are not funny moments in his other books, but these series seem to yield many more laugh-out-loud-moments for me.