claire_fuller_writer's reviews
1030 reviews

Beside the Sea by Véronique Olmi

3.0

I liked this enough, and it was interesting to be inside the mother's head; to understand her thought processes and so understand the mental problems she was having, and how she saw the world. But I didn't really enjoy the stream of consciousness style of writing.

The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst

4.0

Goodness, this didn't read like a debut. So damn accomplished. So rude. (I don't mind rude at all, just a warning to those who might.) Will was a character I loved to hate, sleeping around, but upset when his partners (who he claims to be in love with) do the same. I kept hoping he would get his comeupppance, and he almost does, but not quite.

It's set in 1983, just before AIDS really took hold - what a different world London must have been just a year or so later. Aside from the extravagant amount of sex, it's not an extraordinary story, there's lots of sitting around in flats and going down the 'Corry' for a swim and a shower, but somehow (by the skill of Hollinghurst) I was hooked. It was the first book of his I've read, and I'll certainly be reading more.

No Voice from the Hall: Early Memories of a Country House Snooper by John Harris

4.0

Such a wonderful book. A memoir of snooping around English country houses before most of them were tragically demolished. Such a terrible architectural waste. Sometimes Harris is a bit too flowery for my taste, but the stories he had to tell (the desiccated Alsatian in a bath, the 'Museum' full of stuffed animal heads, the wallpaper with all the peacock's eyes cut out) made me forgive Harris his purple prose.

The Past by Tessa Hadley

5.0

I was lucky enough to hear Tessa Hadley speak about this book and her writing in general before I read it, but I don't think that influenced what I thought about it. It's quite a simple story about some siblings and their children coming together in an old family house to decide whether they are going to keep it or not. Another house features too - an old cottage in the countryside. Everything - the house, the countryside, the characters are described perfectly, beautifully. Relationships move, blend and shift during the story, people bumping up against others, nothing terribly shocking, but the book is all the better for that. We get inside nearly all the characters heads - shifting paragraph by paragraph which works surprisingly and exceptionally well. And at the end some things are suggested that help with a resolution, but they aren't laboured.
It's the kind of book I wish I could have written. I don't understand why it hasn't won any prizes.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

5.0

A friend lent me this after we had a chat about 84, Charing Cross Road, which I love. I didn't even know that this equally short and lovely sequel even existed. Hanff has such a open and honest tone of voice, and it was wonderful to see London in 1971 from an American's point of view - especially one who loved it.

A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr

5.0

This was a re-read for me. I was asked by a book blogger to provide a list of my favourite novellas and this was on the list, although I hadn't read it for many years. I remember loving it, and telling lots of people to read it. Re-reading it my feelings were exactly the same. It is a perfect little book: kind of sad, kind of warm.

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

3.0

An enjoyable book, with plenty of characters to root for, but I felt the writing style was patchy. Some passages were lovely - clear and sharp. In other sections it made me wince a little at the cliches - drinks were 'nursed', the town was 'abuzz', and girls looked 'resplendent'.

Comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer, Paul Sayer

4.0

Probably 3.5 stars. Very quick, very short - a novella really. I liked how it was often unclear what was happening to Peter, the narrator. Peter is in a catatonic state after a childhood trauma and while he is aware of everything going on around him is either unable or chooses not to enter back into the world. Peter has to piece together where he is being taken, what plans people have for him and we have to do the same. And generally it is all bad, although Peter seems removed from all his pain and suffering - unsurprisingly. But that distance, also distanced me, aside from the very end when he gets his first proper visitor.

Weathering by Lucy Wood

4.0

Beautiful, quiet book about the relationship between three generations of women living (or having lived) in a remote cottage. Wonderful language about the river and the weather. Not a strong narrative, but that didn't matter (too much).

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

4.0

Lovely pared back prose, but also slightly odd omniscient narration. Only odd because it isn't done so much now, and it took a while to get used to being so removed from the characters. I liked how some of them only touched on each other's lives obliquely, and the descriptions of the people's work, the landscape and the animals, and I liked the structure of the novel - short chapters about one or two characters. This is the second Haruf novel I've read in a short time, and although I thought it was beautiful I'm not certain I'll search out a third - something about not enough happening, although I don't need a lot to happen in a novel.