claire_fuller_writer's reviews
1030 reviews

Schroder by Amity Gaige

4.0

I loved this. Erik Schroder / Kennedy is so human, so fallible. He makes so many mistakes, the worst of which is absconding with his daughter, but I still cared so much for him; kept wanting until the very end for it to come right for him.

Amity Gaige's seeming to address the reader,(the novel is a letter from Schroder to his wife) works really well, and can be a difficult thing to carry off.

And I really liked the ending. He's writing the letter in prison to his ex-wife about their relationship and what happened during the road trip he took with his daughter, not just as an explanation but for see whether she will ask the courts to be lenient. But of course the letter is sent before they go to court...

And the scene of Schroder's final encounter with his father is particularly moving.

Will Collyer read it very well, but my criticism of the audio version is that the acknowledgements came too soon after the book ended, so I wasn't even sure it had ended!

The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake by Breece D'J Pancake

4.0

As I read this short book of very short stories my love for it crept up and up. It maybe started at 3 stars or even two. The language (or terminology really) was sometimes so specific that it was difficult to let the stories flow over me. I'm not sure if these were words from the time Pancake was writing, or North American, or even just specific to West Virginia, but at times they made the writing too dense.

But then I did start to get into the rhythm of it, and just fell in love with the penultimate story: In The Dry. As soon as I had finished that one I re-read it - so many layers and meanings that I only understood on the second read. Perhaps that would have been the same for the other stories, but I won't know (yet) because my husband has stolen it away from me to read for himself.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

5.0

I read this in two days at The End of Road Festival, when I probably should have been listening to the music, but I just couldn't put it down. I loved the nostalgic tone, and Tony, the central character was perfect. Not perfect in that I liked him, but in a man getting on a bit way, repetitive (loved how his daughter says to him when he tells her he's going away for a few days, 'yes, Dad you've told me that already), a rather dull man really, who often gets things wrong. The biggest of which is his own memory. He tells us about the letter he sent to Adrian and Veronica (his friend and ex-girlfriend)which, when he receives a copy back from Veronica it is nothing, just nothing, like he remembered.

The shock of the ending was amazing and my only grumble is that this revelation was given to Tony by someone who didn't know him, and in reality wouldn't or shouldn't give so much information away to a stranger.

The Sense of an Ending was a book I wanted to go back to beginning and read again immediately, and I would have if there hadn't been music to listen to and more books on my 'to be read' tower when I got home.

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

3.0

Hmm. And I don't normally hmm at Ian McEwan books, normally I love them. Clean, crisp writing; good stories. But The Children Act was just too dry, too many explanations of the law's processes, which felt like they were repeated. I just didn't engage with Fiona or the state of her marriage, or even the boy in hospital.

And one plot point that I have an issue with or don't understand, is why would Sherwood Runcie give Fiona the news (which I won't say here), just as she was about to go on and give her concert? I can only presume that he hates her, wants her to be distressed enough to make a fool of herself on stage, but unless I've missed something, I didn't get the impression that he hates her. But if he does, why does he?

Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

4.0

I read this thirty or so years ago when I was seventeen and it was only seven years since I had moved with my family from a rural Oxfordshire village to a nearby town. Without remembering what the book was about I remember loving it, and finding in so many familiar things about village life.

And having just re-read it, I still got that delicious feeling of a tight-knit community, English eccentrics and the countryside which was all mine to explore. Of course the reality probably wasn't so idyllic for me or for Laurie Lee, but that's fine.

The book is a prose-poem about a life that's gone, full of sweet nostalgia. I loved it this time around as much as the last.

Alys, Always by Harriet Lane

5.0

I read this in less than two days and had to hide it under the sofa when I was writing so that I didn't stop to read it.

Frances' character and her slightly skewed view of life crept up on me slowly. I love how her hyper self-awareness, what other characters might be thinking, and her control and manipulation of them and relationships becomes scary because it feels like it is only one step further on from how we all do it.

There were many echoes in Alys, Always from my life, but it wasn't just that I recognised myself in some of the situations (not that I'm like Frances!), but that it has some damn fine writing, and is a remarkable debut.

Oh What a Paradise It Seems by John Cheever

4.0

I wasn't sure if this novella was meant to be funny, but I certainly laughed out loud at many parts, especially the ribald sections - and there are many. It's an odd little book, nicely absurd (sometimes reminding me of a milder Brautigan), with lots of little vignettes in which the characters are only slightly linked by the environmental destruction of a local pond. It seemed much more dated than 1982 however - especially with its depiction of women.

Recommended to read in one single swallow.

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart

4.0

Like a piece of dark chocolate - intense, rich and satisfying, but you don't want too much. And this was just enough beautiful poetic prose.

How to be Both by Ali Smith

4.0

I loved this. I got George's story first, and what a great story is was - full of so many teenage things that I remembered from thirty years ago. Francesco's story took me longer to get into, and although I understand that mixing a bit of both stories is part of the point of this book, it was these sections that worked less well for me. The parts when Francesco was only talking about his history of painting and growing up really kept me fascinated. Very occasionally I felt that something was there simply to make sense for those people who would read Francesco first. But all that shouldn't put you off. Highly recommended.

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

4.0

I finished this ten days ago or so, and although I know I really enjoyed it, a lot of it hasn't stuck with me. It was beautifully written, very sad, sometimes funny and at times shocking, but I wish I hadn't known before I read it that much of it was based on Toews' life. I didn't understand how the part about the narrator's aunt also being ill added to the story. I suspected (although I might be wrong) that this happened in real life, and so it stayed in.