BOOK 4 - THE WALL (John Lanchester)

My aim this year was to read books I wouldn't ordinarily pick up, books recommended by other people, book clubs, bookshop recommendations and so on.

Already only four books in, my success rate of books I have enjoyed is pretty poor. Four read, four not really enjoyed. All I can say is that I am fast pinpointing genres I enjoy and eliminating those I don't!!

John Lanchester is an established author with a big fan base and so when I saw that the Telegraph Book Club had chosen this book as its book of the month for February I felt I could not go far wrong. All the reviews I read beforehand indicated that this book was the Orwell "1984" of its time.

So definitely not the case in my opinion.

This book has at one point in the early stages a long list of words repeated over and over again - particularly the word "concrete". How boring is a list of words you might say? Yes. It is. Very boring. As is the book.

There is really no plot. Nothing really happens. Page after page of boring dialogue about what it is like to guard a concrete wall for hours on end. None of the characters have any substance at all, there is no depth to their feelings or thoughts (maybe that's what the author feels we will all be like in the future), no action, nothing. There is no action. I longed to turn the page and find a mad manic plot twist, a strange course of action to attract my attention. Sorry. That doesn't happen.

I might have enjoyed the book more if the language had been evocative or interesting or visually descriptive. But no. Lots of boring simple sentences, with boring simple words.

I can only think that this novel will appeal to those doom mongers among us - climate change, illegal immigrants coming across the channel to take our livelihoods, low birth rates, a lack of joy in any recreational pursuit, a relentless toil to fund a capitalist economy.

Once again, not a book I would want to read again. I certainly wouldn't recommend it (unless you fall in the category of individual described in the paragraph above!) and sadly, this does not make me want to read any of his other novels.

BOOK 3 - UNSHELTERED (Barbara Kingsolver)

I was intrigued to read this book based on a clip I heard read out on a radio show. The clip centred around a female scientist who was allowing a Venus Flytrap to nibble her finger for hours in order to prove a scientific point of discussion she was having with Charles Darwin.

I have never read any of Barbara Kingsolver books before and based on this one alone, I feel that it may be longer before I read another.

This book has a great plot line - the stories of two families who live in the same house, but at different times (actually it's not exactly the same house as it turns out).

Both stories are set amid political and social upheaval and turmoil, both sets of families are troubled with difficulties in maintaining their house and their families. Unemployment, debt, broken love affairs and troubled marriages. There are parallels in both timelines.

I have to say that some of the story lines that I found most ludicrous were all the historical ones...and it turns out that they were all true. Never was the phrase truth is stranger than fiction more appropriate.

The "Unsheltered" of the title seems to come to mean that love will conquer all, that material things don't matter and community spirit and sharing should be the way to go. This actually brings us back round to the historical story line, where these things were tried and found wanting.

Although I wanted to put the book down on a number of occasions I read through to the end and then was disappointed as I felt there were many questions unanswered - what did happen to Mary Treat and Thatcher Greenwood? And too many neat and tidy endings in the modern story line - why didn't Zeke come back? Or did he? What happened to the family? Did the crumbling demolished house really provide them enough to live on? Was Tig's home with the baby a historical building that saved them all?

I did not find the modern day characters wholly convincing - Tig just a bit too environmentally friendly, Nick far too antagonistic and rude (surely no one of his generation would be quite so bad?), Zeke too selfish - would be really abandon his baby? However, the historical ones were better drawn - maybe because they were in fact (mainly) real people.

Finally, the politics. I love to read, but I do not like to be lectured at. I am not American, but the constant harping on about the inadequacies of medical care, student loans, employment prospects, dying industries, climate change, and so on, made me want to throw the book at a wall on a number of occasions.

I have no doubt that Kingsolver fans will like this novel, but another book this year that is not for me.