claire_fuller_writer's reviews
1030 reviews

Sweetland by Michael Crummey

5.0

Oh, such a wonderful book. Great characters, prose, landscape descriptions, story. I love how it all the family relationships and the history unfolded so slowly. Sweetland, the man was so real to me, and the village, the sea (almost as a character to). It ended perfectly, it couldn't have ended any other way.

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf

3.0

The first Haruf novel I've read, and I really liked his style of writing, so I'll definitely be reading some more. It was the story that made me not love it - it just wasn't strong enough for a novel (or a novella as this probably is) - more of a short / long story sort of thing. An old man and an old woman come together to find comfort in each other's company. One of the things that didn't work for me was that nearly the whole town was outraged, their adult children were outraged. Really? Maybe I'm not familiar enough with small-town America. I can understand gossip, but outrage? I'm not sure.

The Bell by Iris Murdoch

3.0

Nope, this one didn't do it for me. It's not going to put me off Murdoch though - definitely going to try some others. Too much exposition, too much geography (I read another review which said 'just give us a map' and I have to agree) and rebarbative was used too many times. (Of course, that isn't reason I didn't get on with the book, but the word did keep sticking out like half a dozen sore thumbs.)

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

4.0

I hovered between three and four stars for most of this book. I think a lot of it could (should?) have been cut to make it stronger and tighter, but the last third really took off for me, after, you know, the unexpected thing happened, and that was when I really cared for Jude. And a week or so after finishing it, I'm still thinking about him. I am concerned though that all the good reviews and the five star rating are to do with the subject matter and not so much the writing.

Quarantine by Jim Crace

3.0

Not for me, despite loving Jim Crace's Harvest. I don't really know the story of Jesus's 40 days in the wilderness. Would I have liked this better if I did? I'm not sure. Beautiful, beautiful writing, but it - the story, the characters - just didn't engage me.

Rawblood by Catriona Ward

4.0

Very clever, cyclical story, full of wonderful language and descriptions of nature. I like how Ward makes her readers do some of the work - she doesn't tell us everything, who is who - she trusts that we can work it out for ourselves and that makes the moment when you go 'Ohhh, that's who that character is, and that's why she looks like that,' all the more wonderful.

Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín

4.0

It took me a while to get into the slow pace of this book, but about half-way through I started loving it, and the way Toibin writes - sometimes flicking over events, stopping at tiny details, never explaining things to us, especially exactly what is in Nora Webster's head. I loved to see the change in her from the beginning to the end.

Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald

3.0

I've heard so many great things about this book for so many years and finally picked up a copy. But just not for me. Too quirky; all the characters too unbelievably odd.

Hey Yeah Right Get A Life by Helen Simpson

4.0

Dorrie, Dorrie, Dorrie - oh how I empathise with this character. She appears in two stories in this short collection of nine, and if she had been in every one, I would would have given the book five stars. These two stories about her struggles with three young children were so wonderfully written, so true, so heartfelt, the first one made me cry, and then made me text my twenty-year-old son to tell him I loved him. Some of the other stories are great too, some, such as the first, Lentils and Lilies didn't work so well for me. And I suppose one criticism might be that in general these were all about white middle-class women in 'traditional' relationships - where is the diversity? Still, I highly recommend this especially for fathers, and mothers, oh, and everyone.

The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan

4.0

Lovely writing, odd story. Mostly good-odd, except the two big chunks of exposition / explanation. I don't understand Robert's story from when he was a child - how does that add to the novel? Is it supposed to explain what he does? I imagine so, but Robert's actions as an adult can't be explained by this story. And then Caroline's story of her and Robert's history - again that just didn't help me. I'd rather have been left with this creepy, beautifully sparse story with no explanation.

Also, the edition I have from the 1980s isn't available as a choice on Goodreads, quite sensibly so. I can't imagine how it was decided upon because the illustration on the cover shows quite clearly the ending of the book. Very odd thing to do.