The Gate – Francois Bizot                      9/10

The Gate details the experiences of Francois Bizot, a French ethnologist in Cambodia during the turbulent rise of the Khmer Rouge, as he recounts two episodes: a period of imprisonment in the jungle in 1971 and then as the official interpreter for foreigners in 1975 during the fall of Phnom Penh.

It is very difficult to find fault with this book. At first I thought it did not quite display the horror I was expecting; as Bizot writes with a description that sounds surprisingly human. Yet as the book progresses there is a creeping element of urgency, despair and fear which mirrors the events and is perhaps in parallel with the rise of the Khmer Rouge as a whole.

Bizot recounts two main events from his time in Cambodia, where he had lived for some years prior to the episodes described. The first section of the book deals with him being captured during the guerrilla war in 1971 and taken to a prison camp in the jungle. Here he is kept prisoner for several months and is interrogated by the now infamous Douch, his every answer being carefully judged and weighed against his survival.

The main theme of this first section is the psychological aspect of imprisonment. He strikes up an unlikely rapport with his captor and perhaps because he is intelligent, or perhaps because he is a French national, he is treated with slightly more leniency than the other prisoners. That being said, this time has clearly had a strong mental impact on the writer and it is a fascinating read.

The second section is equally as spellbinding however. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge forces entered Phnom Penh and after a tense meeting between their leaders and some of the foreign diplomats in the city, Bizot is chosen as the lead interpreter and the only foreigner that is allowed to leave the diplomatic compound until their evacuation is organised.

His primary role thereafter is to find food for the 500-1000 ex-pats that are situated in the city, as well as maintain diplomatic relations with the Khmer Rouge military. As the city descends into chaos and anarchy, this becomes an increasingly difficult task.

As someone who knew very little about this dark period of human history, I found The Gate terrifyingly captivating. Bizot’s use of language is flowery at times, but he is adept at building an impending sense of expectation that weighs on the conscious of the reader. He has clearly seen things that you or I will never see, and he has had to make decisions that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

I don’t want to give any more of the tale away, so I urge you to read it for yourself.

The First Crusade: A New History – Thomas Asbridge                  6/10

This is a non-fictional account of the First Crusade, 1095-1099. The book has a particular focus on the reasons why the crusade started and then chronicles the major events across Europe, Asia Minor and the Middle East, culminating in the capture of Jerusalem by the Christians.

For me, you can divide this book in two. The first three chapters are clearly Asbridge’s motivation for the book, they read like a thesis and the weighting of words given to the section detailing the events leading up to the crusaders actually setting out, is indicative of his priorities. The second section is a more generic account of the main historical events of the crusade.

By no means would I consider myself to be an expert on the crusades, but even I was frustrated with this first section. Asbridge bases his argument for the expedition on the desire of Pope Urban II to expand the power of the papacy and the Christian West. To this end, he downplays tensions and aggressions between Christianity and Islam, claiming the two religions had coexisted peacefully for many years. This opinion flies in the face of prevailing historical thought and ignores a lot of evidence of conflict between the two religions in the 20 or so years leading up to the Council of Claremont, where major Christian strongholds in the near East had been subjugated by the Turks.

Even the scantest research into the topic reveals that there is much debate here, and not many historians agree with Asbridge. That aside, I was almost able to forgive the dreariness of this academic first section, when the liveliness of the second section began to unfurl.

The First Crusade was a marvel of human endeavour and endurance as vast armies from Western Europe marched themselves to virtual destruction before reaching and capturing Jerusalem, their ultimate goal. Asbridge deals with the chronology of events exceptionally well. Lots of the book is given to the year spent trying to capture Antioch for example, an episode that perhaps overshadows the capture of Jerusalem itself, and is thus treated with the significance it deserves.

The major players, the princes of Europe, are brought to life by description. Rightly or wrongly, Asbridge adds character to these historical figures until the reader is entertained by the bombast of Bohemond, the slyness of Raymond of Toulouse and the honesty of Godfrey of Bouillon. He could have dealt with these important people in a more clinical manner, but given that the bulk of the source material that we have from this time concerns the members of the nobility, I think it adds realism to the story.

The achievements of the first crusaders are unparalleled, yet out of a possible 100,000 Europeans who set out, fewer than 15,000 survived to reach Jerusalem. The hardships and disasters faced make for a riveting tale and Asbridge has delivered on this to the point that I am definitely intrigued to read more about the crusades.

If the first section had been as strong a read as the second in terms of entertainment, then I would have scored this higher. I still think it’s a great book for anyone who wants to learn about this period of history, but I would advise that the first three chapters should be read alongside other historians.

Agent Zigzag – Ben Macintyre                               5/10

The true story of Eddie Chapman, a ‘gentleman criminal’ who after a series of events, ends up working for both the German Abwehr and then MI5 as a double agent during the Second World War. 

Why write a sentence once, when you can then reword it three more times and make it into a paragraph? This must surely have been Macintyre’s mantra as he systematically bulked-out what would otherwise have been a fairly compelling story. In fact, there is so much down time in the book that I became increasingly frustrated waiting for the next actual event.

The story itself is good though: The pre-war Chapman is a likeable, cheeky criminal burgeoning into ever more audacious crimes, when he is convicted and sent to prison in Jersey. On mainland Britain he would have been imprisoned for 14 years, but as Jersey is invaded by the Germans he sees a way to escape prison by offering to spy for the German secret service, the Abwehr. After a stint in a hellish prison in France, his application is accepted and he trains with the Germans before being parachuted into Britain as a spy, whereupon he promptly turns himself in to the British authorities and begins life as a double agent working for MI5.

It is an exciting tale that sees Chapman visit several countries across war-torn Europe, particularly reminiscent of James Bond as he is complete with gadgets and girls (Indeed, links to Ian Fleming and Terence Young are mentioned), yet it is told with a desperate lack of panache.

Despite the lack of urgency in the writing, Macintyre does do a few things right. The book is extensively well researched for one. He delves deep into each of the secret services and explains how they operated in detail; the training Chapman receives from the Abwehr for example is especially intriguing.

I also commend Macintyre for taking great pains to remain objective, both with his treatment of Eddie Chapman and with the war as a whole. Chapman is undoubtedly a rogue and at times he is a questionable character. Macintyre does well to maintain this air of unreliability throughout the book, as a reader I don’t think I was ever fully on Chapman’s side. The writing is not jingoistic either, I think factually the British come across as more competent than that Germans, but there is very little flag waving.

I think in the hands of a more experienced thriller writer, this could have been a brilliant book. As it stands, it is still a good read, but it doesn’t quite make the cut for me. Great if you like spy glasses, spud guns and The Eagle, not so great if you’re a fan of good story telling.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak                             7/10

Narrated by Death, this book details the story of a young girl, Leisel living in a small German town on the outskirts of Munich during the Second World War, the relationships she has with the town folk, her burgeoning love of reading and the major events surrounding her adoptive family harbouring a Jewish man called Max Vandenburg.

This is certainly one of the freshest books I have read in a long time. With the old author’s maxim ‘write about what you know’ the current book market is flooded with tales of suburban angst. This novel however, immediately turns this idea on its head by setting the tale in Nazi Germany, leaving the modern reader to be set up with an instant prejudice.

Using Death as the narrator is also an interesting literary device. He provides a politically neutral voice and is a contemplative character. His musings are often used to break up the story with small injections of thought or episodes that are set in bold text in the middle of the page to highlight them. These short passages reminded me of a kind of literary version of the title screens Quentin Tarantino uses before introducing a new scene in some of his films, which I found to be a unique and interesting style once I had got used to it.

Throughout the book we are given hints at what is coming. The reader is left in an ultimate position of dramatic irony due to the nature of the book being set in the past, during an historic period that still resonates strongly in the mind today. However, this layering of dramatic irony as the narration jumps ahead, then back, adds a seductive quality that lures the reader in.

War produces a set of moral dilemmas and contradictions for humans that the book attempts to address. Was everyone living in Nazi Germany a bad person? Of course not, and the characters of Hans and Rosa Hubermann are inherently good. Rudy Steiner strongly participates at Hitler Youth meetings and yet he has a love for Jesse Owens that directly contradicts that ideology. There are Nazis in the book, but even they aren’t all bad, although the state is presented in an almost Orwellian style as all controlling and fearful. A passage where Hans Hubermann is whipped for giving bread to a passing Jewish man is supposedly taken from Zusak’s own life and is particularly emotive.

It is not without its faults of course. I felt the setting up of Leisel’s life before the arrival of Max Vandenburg is drawn out and at times unnecessary. I would have liked a bit more of the wider context at times as a developing hysteria in the country isn’t really reflected enough for me. Also, the style of Death appears to change throughout the book and I don’t think it’s intentional. He is more flippant at the beginning and his interludes are more frequent, before fading a bit at the end.

Despite these minor things it is a very strong novel. I read that in America it was marketed as a children’s book which surprises me because despite the fact it primarily focuses on the child characters, there are some very strong and moving themes and at times it can be quite dark. That said, there are still scenes of hope and I would recommend this book to anyone.

Jerusalem - Guy Delisle

Jerusalem – Guy Delisle                         9/10

Firstly, I should point out that this is quite different from the other books I have previously reviewed for this blog. For starters it is non-fiction (although I’m not adverse to reviewing non-fiction – Selling Hitler for example is mostly non-fiction) and secondly it is a graphic book. I think it falls into the genre of ‘Graphic Novel’ but it is not really a novel and is in fact more of a ‘graphic travelogue’.

Jerusalem is the fourth such graphic travelogue that Delisle has produced. During his early career he worked for a Canadian animation studio and it was through overseeing the outsourcing of the animation work to the Far East, which took him to China and then North Korea. His first two travelogues (Shenzhen and Pyongyang) depict his stays in each of these countries, often for months at a time, where he adjusts to working with people from a different culture and the challenges that presents, especially the loneliness of living out of a basic hotel room. These books are at times funny, slightly sad and overwhelmingly oppressive as he literally paints the picture of the restrictive regimes.

Fast forward ten years and Jerusalem follows the pattern set out in Burma Chronicles (his third such book) where Delisle is now married with two children and is travelling primarily because his wife works for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders). The book chronicles his day to day life still, but he is now not tied to a job, not a nine-to-five job at least. He has more freedom of movement (relatively speaking, it is still Palestine after all) and is able to explore the country more fully.

The book is broken down into monthly sections, but really it details small events that can range from a page of six to eight panels, through to four or five pages worth. Each of these events is an episode during their stay in Jerusalem and some can be as mundane as taking the kids to a new park he finds, through to the terror of the action around the Gaza War of 2008-2009.

Palestine and the Middle Eastern question is not really alien territory to graphic novelists, Joe Sacco has widely covered the subject from inside Palestine. From the Israeli perspective we have the very successful Waltz with Bashir, as well as Sarah Glidden’s How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less and the work of Rutu Modan.

This book however, tries very hard to play down the politics. It is ever present, just as I think the politics of the Middle East are ever present when you are there, but Delisle also shows the normality of people’s lives. The family chooses to live in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of town, which is a politically motivated decision, yet the politics of it are not forced onto the reader. Deilisle plays it off as his wife’s work and he is just going along with what she tells him. He is more concerned with going out for a beer, or having a bit of free time away from the children.

The comic moments are the excellent comic moments of everyday life. The ice cream seller that won’t sell him an ice cream because Passover is two days away and it might contain yeast, despite the fact that he is not Jewish, is typical of the sort of ridiculous bureaucracy that we have all experienced at some point. The exasperating nature of the restrictions is also dealt with comically, despite the obvious dangers.

Clearly, I like his work. I don’t know much about art but his drawings seem simple, and accessible. This is certainly his ‘cleanest’ work to date, but that I mean it looks less sketched and more polished. I also think it is my favourite of his books so I heartily recommend it. The great thing about graphic novels is that because there is so much going on in the images, you can follow the narrative easily, but then re-read the book fairly quickly in order to catch bits you missed the first time round.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Marina Lewycka                  8/10

Lewycka’s debut novel is the story of an elderly, widowed father Nikolai Mayevskyj and his two daughters Vera and Nadezhda, our narrator. Two years after his wife’s death Nikolai plans to marry a glamorous, young Ukrainian woman, Valentina, who is 50 years his junior and trying to obtain UK citizenship. The book details the ensuing events and the reactions of each of the characters, particularly the two sisters who were at one time estranged, but now come together to face a common enemy in Valentina.

The novel is a treatment of family interaction and especially how the desires or actions of one family member influence the others. The two sisters, and indeed the reader, are able to see at once that Valentina is little more than a gold digger, after any money she believes Nikolai has, as well as a UK passport and has no genuine feelings for him. Nadezhda routinely faces a conflict of emotions between happiness for her father who is besotted, and distrust of this women who is 10 years younger than she is even, and clearly taking her father for a ride.

At once it is easy to see why this novel has been a commercial success. Lewycka’s writing style is eminently readable, with short paragraphs that always feel they are the end of a passage before another one breaks, drawing the reader in.

The characterisations are strong, but stereotypical. Are all Eastern Europeans short tempered and irrational? In this book they are! But that is part of the charm and is certainly the driving force behind the comedy which is well thought out, if almost slapstick in exaggeration at times, yet very enjoyable. The non-Ukrainian characters such as Nadeshda’s husband Mike, or Nikolai’s grandchildren really take a back seat role, they are almost faceless in comparison to the overtly outrageous Ukrainians.

For the most part the book is a dark comedy. It is the comedy of a family bickering, which is something all readers can relate to, but there is love in the family too and these counteracting forces make the family real. The descriptions of Valentina are deliberately outrageous, her ample bosom is mentioned on numerous occasions and the way in which she manipulates the various male citizens of Peterborough is farcical. Nikolai is a great comic character too, eccentric to the core in his home made nightshirt and ‘Toshiba’ micro-waved apples. Yet there is intelligence about both of them, Valentina’s is perhaps conniving and Nikolai’s is driven by engineering, but they are real.

There are some sombre moments too though; the book is tapped with emotion, particularly the Christmas day scene at the Indian restaurant which is complete with no heating, poorly cooked food, a leering waiter and leaves the reader feeling stark about this family’s chances of happiness.

Interspersed throughout the tale are extracts from the book Nikolai is writing ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’, which are less about actual tractors and more about history and sociology. These passages are used to add weight to the sub-plot between the two sisters as they reconcile with each other through Nadezhda learning more about her family history.

The Mayevskyj family history is very much intertwined with that of early twentieth century Ukraine. Lewycka wants the reader to learn more about her country of origin, complete with hardships from the past and the social-economic crisis that Ukraine is in currently. Britain is praised as a safe haven of multiculturalism and whilst the book probably steers away from our own insecurities with immigration, it is a subject that is touched upon and our society is viewed as mature and one of rational law.

The book is a triumph of believable characterisation and I thoroughly recommend it. Even if the ending is perhaps a little predictable, the comic nature of the tale left me smiling. It is not rolling in the aisles funny, but then I don’t think it set out to be.

The Swan Thieves – Elizabeth Kostova                                2/10

This is the story of a famous, yet troubled artist (Robert Oliver) who attacks a painting and the psychiatrist (Andrew Marlow) who attempts to understand why. In doing so, he delves further and further into Oliver’s life, by reaching out to the people who are important to him.

Oliver is the troubled genius who, having suffered some kind of breakdown that is not at first identifiable, manages to baffle even the accomplished psychiatrist Marlow, by remaining mute for large parts of their time together.

In order to unlock Oliver’s condition, Marlow embarks on various travels to meet the women that have played instrumental roles in the artist’s life. In doing so the reader experiences a variety of different perspectives as the narrative switches between the important characters in the tale. One chapter is given to Marlow for example, then the next two belong to Oliver’s ex-wife, then we go back in time to nineteenth century impressionist France and so on.

If the first 100 or so pages of this proved refreshing, then the next 500 pages prove to be mind-numbing. In what I suppose is an effort to create the impact of mental illness on relationships, the reader is subjected to an almost blow by blow account of the Oliver’s early relationship and then married life, then un-married life, the majority of which is really not necessary to the story.

The same can be said of Oliver’s mistress Mary and the lengthy passages that are attributed to her. As more and more of the novel is taken over by unimportant description, the pace of the tale starts to wane and eventually it becomes a chore. One scene stands out in my mind as the epitome of this pointlessness; Mary is describing a morning in her life some years earlier, down to the detail of how she folded her sweater and what she ate for breakfast. Not only is it unbelievable that someone would remember those inconsequential things, they are exactly that: inconsequential.

There are also a couple of chapters given to a trip Marlow takes to visit his father. I suppose if I thought hard enough about it I could attribute this part of the book to some sort of journey into his own past, to look for answers and advice from his father as a mentor, the whole section being a search for reassurance and parental instruction perhaps. I don’t want to think that hard about it though because it’s not worth it.

I think some of my disappointment might have stemmed from the realisation that this book is far less of a thriller than it tries to be (and is billed as) and actually is far more of a love story. Not a good love story at that either. Kostova tries to make the love stories of the present mirror the love story of the 1870s, but rather than being clever, it is just boring.

Added to this is the rather disappointing realisation that every character is the same, bar Oliver who sadly, doesn’t feature nearly enough. When he does feature it is mostly through the eyes of the people who surround him, and they all perceive him in exactly the same way, which rather defeats the point of having all these different perspectives. Or maybe that is the point, in which case it has been handled badly.

I suppose it is fair enough to assume that people who like similar interests will become friends, lovers and even patients of certain psychiatrists (Oliver is handed over to Marlow because he is a known art lover) but Kostova really doesn’t try very hard to distinguish between the individuals in her tale. They all spend every minute of their spare time painting, they all have paint under their nails that they cannot scrub off and all they ever seem to eat is soup.

One delightful customer review I read online had this to say about the characters, which I think sums up my thoughts rather well: “Every single character was an annoying, pompous, jackass and I hope they all die horribly.”

I liked the idea of this book, but I was really disappointed with the execution. It’s certainly not one I would recommend and in the past I would have stopped reading before the end, but only carried on so I could finish this review. Apparently her first book, The Historian, is much better.

Company of Liars – Karen Maitland

Company of Liars – Karen Maitland                       6/10

With the on-set of the Black Death creeping up from the South Coast, a group of misfit travellers try to out run it by heading North, whilst they each try to hide a secret from the others in this historical thriller set in 1348.

This is Maitland’s second novel, although there was a 12 year publishing gap between this and her first The White Room. I think it’s fair to say that the success of Company of Liars however, is what has propelled her into the public eye and it’s fairly easy to see why this has been successful.

By no means is it groundbreaking however. I doubt you will read this book and say you have found your new favourite author. That aside, I found it pretty enjoyable. The first half is interesting enough to capture your attention, but I think it really starts to come to life after half way through as the momentum of the plot gathers pace.

At first it is difficult to figure out how exactly it works as a thriller, but as the novel progresses Maitland gets better at increasing suspense and drama through big plot devices. The story also begins to get gorier as it goes on, which comes as something of a shock at first, particularly with the mauling of one of the characters.

Our narrator is a Camelot, a seller of relics and is your typical everyman character – likeable, fair, intelligent and worldly. The rest of the characters each have well-defined personalities that stick with them throughout the tale: Rodrigo the honest and passionate musician, Zopheil the cantankerous and bullying entertainer or Adela, the naïve yet gentle mother to be etc. Episodes are described in depth over a chapter or so and then days or sometimes weeks can go by before the tale is picked up again.

To this end it makes some of the characters appear unbelievable. Rodrigo and Osmond are portrayed as honest and tolerant, but I lost count of the times when one of them held the other back from hitting Zopheil, almost alternately, until the reader is left wondering why exactly all these characters are sticking together. This kind of repetition starts to stagnate the story. Added to this, the book is certainly too long. I think Maitland could have halved the first half; there are a number of fairly pointless episodes that don’t add to the plot – the marriage of the cripples for example.

By far the biggest flaw though sadly, is the predictability. Maitland offers far too many clues to the reader as to what the characters’ secrets are. Adela and Osmond’s is obvious almost instantly, as is Joffre’s and even Camelot’s is not hard to guess in the end.

It’s a bit of a shame, because there are some great descriptive passages. As I said earlier, Maitland builds the tension well toward the end of the novel and I also think she does a decent job of re-creating the squalor of daily life in medieval England. She doesn’t gloss over some of the things that authors usually don’t bother with; the struggle to find food from day to day is a recurrent theme for example.

Still, I liked the book and would recommend it if you like thrillers or historical novels. It's also made me likely to read other books by Maitland.

Selling Hitler – Robert Harris

Selling Hitler – Robert Harris                 9/10

A non-fiction account of how a plucky con man (Konrad Kujau) and an inept journalist (Gerd Heidemann) managed to fool some of the biggest players in the world news market into thinking they had Hitler’s personal diaries for sale in 1983.

I’m a really big fan of Robert Harris. I might even go so far as to say that he is my favourite novelist. I find his fiction books consistently gripping and, after reading some encouraging reviews of this non-fiction book, I thought I’d give it a go to see if it was as enjoyable. I’m pleased to say that I was not disappointed.

Almost 30 years after the event it is difficult to imagine such an incredible error generating as much interest today, yet you can hardly credit it being allowed to occur then. Harris paints an intricate picture that covers several levels of ineptitude at the Stern office, the German publishers that ran the ‘scoop’. 

In fact, what Harris manages to do so well here is almost turn this into a novel. He intimates early on that his source is very close to the action, we never find out who it is, but I think a fair assumption is one of the major players in the tale. The levels of accuracy are perhaps not so important though, as the finished result is less serious historical document and more salacious gossip column and that’s what makes it so exciting to read.

Harris could well be accused of character deformation, especially of Gerd Heidemann who is portrayed as falling into a progressively deeper obsession with Nazism, whilst repeatedly making incompetent decisions. His continued belief that Martin Boorman is alive and somehow directing the events, is a great example of this. To cap it off, he is accused of some serious criminal activity.

Regardless of how true to the actual events the book is, what Harris has done is create a rollicking tale that is as both fascinating as it is absurd. His treatment of the British Nazi expert, Hugh Trevor-Roper is a great political indictment and all the episodes involving Rupert Murdoch particularly stand out. The way he crafts the characters involved into caricatures of their own personalities adds to the farce, and what the reader is left with is a mixture of amusement and astonishment.

I’d certainly recommend this book to anyone. I think Harris has done a great job of livening up the whole event in both an accessible, yet intelligent way.

Northern Lights – Phillip Pullman

Northern Lights – Phillip Pullman          5/10

The first of the wildly successful His Dark Materials trilogy, Northern Lights is the tale of Lyra Belacqua and her quest to rescue her friend Roger from the frozen North, as well as discover what has happened to her uncle.

I found this book enjoyable, but probably not enough to read the next two in the trilogy. I think my pre-conception of it being a ‘children’s book’ meant that I was probably more forgiving than I would have otherwise been. Yet, I still found a number of elements of the writing frustrating.

I don’t think Pullman deals with action description very well. Perhaps his aim is to paint a confusing picture, but at times I found it too confusing. I also think that whilst his descriptions of Oxford and London are quite vivid, when the characters travel to the North the picture falters. The first part of the book moves at a good pace, but this then suddenly accelerates towards the end. It may well be that this was Pullman’s intention, to convey (If you’ll forgive a pun) the snowballing effect of events. Or it may be that he planned it badly.

Some of the dialogue I found stunted, although possibly it is supposed to be accessible for children (I think children probably fair better if you don’t patronise them, J K Rowling realised that after her first two Harry Potter books). Whilst his characterisation is generally really strong, I found the character of Lyra to be the weakest and most conflicting.

That being said I do like the way he creates a parallel Earth that he doesn’t overload you with immediately. At first the differences seem subtle, but he gradually introduces more and more of his created universe to the reader as you go through the book and I found the results quite pleasing. I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of Science Fiction per se, but I won’t immediately dismiss the genre and I think learning about Pullman’s created world was one of the more enjoyable parts of the book.

As I mentioned earlier, I like the characters. I think the rag-tag band they collect to go North add a good range of flavour to the novel. Iorek Byrnison in particular brings a brooding, dark, heroic element to the book that really drives the narrative on in the second half. I also really like the idea of each human character having an individual dæmon. Reflecting human emotions through an external being is an interesting plot device, plus it immediately leaves the reader wondering what animal they would choose if they had a dæmon – an inventive way to capture attention.

I can understand why they’re popular books, and I can also understand why they’re not quite as popular as they should be. That aside I think I would have really enjoyed this as a 12 year old.

My dæmon would be a badger.