Book review: The Godfather by Mario Puzo

The Godfather book coverBack in early 2019 I received a smart hardback copy of The Godfather by Mario Puzo in the post. I hadn’t bought it. Penguin Classics was issuing a new edition for the book’s 50th anniversary and had sent me (along with many other book bloggers, I’m sure) a free review copy. I put it on my shelf of unsolicited review copies figuring that in one of my periodic clearouts I’d probably get rid of it. But it stayed there, an intriguing option for the right occasion.

Three and a half years later, I have COVID and am isolating from Tim (which sucks) and the rest of the world (less bothered). The one positive is that by not spending my evenings with anyone else, I am flying through books. After finishing the two books I had already started, I asked Tim to select some books for me from my TBR shelves. He left me a stack of three very different books: If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha, A Map of Tulsa by Benjamin Lytal and The Godfather by Mario Puso. Well, if there was ever a time to read a 600-page saga…

I’ve seen the films (albeit a very long time ago) and had heard many times that they’re far superior to the source material. Even Francis Ford Coppola, in his introduction to this edition, calls it a “potboiler”, albeit one with Shakespearean-level plotting. And I am averse to the romanticisation of violence, murder and the other terrible behaviours in this story. But I figured I’d give it a go and if it was awful then I would finally add it to the charity pile.

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K-drama review: Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

I’ve been trying to complete my Netflix watchlist so that we can cancel it (at least for a few months), but they keep on releasing new seasons of shows I like or brand new series from around the world that draw me in. I am always a sucker for a shiny new K-drama. That said, when Extraordinary Attorney Woo (ENA/Netflix 2022) was advertised at me (because the algorithms know) I initially dismissed it based on the poster and the description.

This is the story of an autistic attorney, Woo Young-woo, in her first job after law school, in a country where there is still less support for and understanding of autism than here in the UK. That itself is of interest to me. But this is not one of those grittier, lower budget K-dramas, it has all the sheen of a typical big-budget production and that worried me – would it have any nuance? Or would it treat its lead character with the cliché-ridden and infantilising approach to the autistic brother in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay?

I recently attended a course on neurodiversity in the workplace, and the trainer (who herself is autistic) recommended this show, saying that it is sometimes clichéd but not inaccurate. I think that was the best way possible for my fears to be allayed.

I mean, it’s still high-budget K-drama – it’s glossy, cheesy, repetitive, often silly and sometimes surreal. But it never makes autism the joke. And it feels like it exists in a more “real” world than most K-dramas – albeit still a shiny version of reality where things always turn out for the best and most people wear designer clothes.

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Book review: Segu by Maryse Condé

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Segu by Maryse CondeI started this book in August for Women in Translation Month, but it turns out that historical epics take a while to read and even longer to process. Segu by Maryse Condé (translated by Barbara Bray) follows one family in the city state of Segu, in what is now Mali. Though they don’t all stay there, allowing the family saga to become epic in what it encompasses.

The story begins in 1797. Dousika Traore, trusted adviser to the king, has four sons by his various wives and concubines. (I have already forgotten whether he also has daughters, which I think speaks to how generally the women in this book are barely mentioned, though a few do get a bigger role.) They are wealthy, with a large home and money to pay the fetish priests to ensure the continuation of their good fortune.

The first dent in that fortune is the oldest son Tiekoro, who is intrigued by the newly arrived religion Islam – and in particular the access to knowledge that is provided by learning to read and write, a necessity in Islam that is forbidden for the rest of the Bambara (who make up the majority of Segu’s population). Most Bambara – including the king and his other advisers – are deeply suspicious of Islam and look down on Dousika when his son’s secret is revealed, but Dousika sees an opportunity to make strategic alliances through his son. The decision will reverberate through generations and Condé makes no clear statement as to whether Dousika’s choice was right, wrong or inevitable and therefore no choice at all.

The other major force of change is European colonialism. In 1797 the Atlantic slave trade is at its peak but soon Europeans will abandon it one by one and turn to other means of stripping resources from West Africa. Condé depicts the ways in which slavery was part of daily life for many West Africans, and how that is different from the industrial-scale torture introduced by the white men. She doesn’t depict the “local” slavery as good or acceptable, simply shows that it was a part of life at the time.

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September 2022 reading round-up

September was a good month. We saw friends, went on long walks and bike rides, then went on holiday where we did more long walks and bike rides!

We also watched a lot of films, old and new. I would recommend Prey, Midsommar, I Care A Lot, Smokey and the Bandit. I’m also halfway through another K-drama, which I will probably review soon despite all these read books piling up un-reviewed.

Book-wise, I started the month with literary titles that I enjoyed but found slowgoing, then moved on to science fiction that I tore through, before ending the month with a book that arguably combined the two: a sci-fi novella that was philosophical and ponderous, and largely set in a single room. The Vonnegut and McAuley were definitely my favourite reads this month, in quite different ways.

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Taking a break from it all

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Hugil-Fell-family-photo-by-Tim

Toward the end of last year I was drawing up my 2022 work schedule and I made sure to give myself a two-week break in September so that Tim and I could go on a nice holiday to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We spent the next 8 months dithering over where to go, and eventually settled on the Lake District as it ticks all the boxes: accessible by train (in less than five hours, our estimate at the dog’s maximum patience); dog-friendly accommodation; mountains; bike hire; at least one pub, shop and cafe within a mile. We didn’t think these were grand demands but they narrowed the search a lot.

We were very happy with where we ended up – a holiday cottage in Staveley, a village halfway between Kendal and Windermere. We rented bikes for a week, giving us car-free means of getting about and Beckett vastly increased her time spent in the doggy backpack. But she also got a lot of walking (and running alongside our bikes on the two days we were cycling in suitable off-road places) and was very tired every day so we think she appreciated being carried sometimes!

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August 2022 reading round-up

Well, August was a bit full. I’ve done some long bike rides, hung out with friends, eaten good food. Plus Tim and I celebrated 20 years together. Twenty years!

August was Women in Translation Month and I read 3.5 books by women in translation. In fact, I’m currently halfway through three different books.

My top films this month were The French Dispatch (the latest Wes Andersen), and Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt) – a sweet Australian teen romance.

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Book review: Slash and Burn by Claudia Hernández

Slash and Burn book cover

August is Women in Translation Month (WITmonth) and so I picked a handful of books from my TBR that meet that description (as well as adding lots more to my to-buy list, thanks to all the great WITmonth reviews and conversations). I decided to start with a novel that I only own because I used to subscribe to the publisher – I cancelled the subscription after a string of their books had failed to move me, but this one almost persuaded me to sign back up (the size of my TBR alone deters me now).

Slash and Burn by El Salvadorian author Claudia Hernández (translated from Spanish by Julia Sanches) is a novel about a woman who fought in and survived the civil war; about the life she built after the war with four of her five daughters; about her efforts to find and reconnect with her lost daughter; about her coming to terms with the world she now lives in and her place within it.

It’s one of those stories that manages to be profound and universal by being specific. Though its main storyline covers only a couple of years it feels epic, taking in her memories of the war and its immediate aftermath but also the perspectives of many other people in her life – mostly women.

“Perhaps it was fate of rings to be lost just as they’d lost the lives they thought they’d have, leaving no memory of the promises they’d made each other. Maybe this was the meaning she’d been seeking for so long and striving not to see. She would have liked a different ending.”

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Book review: The Biscuit: the History of a Very British Indulgence by Lizzie Collingham

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The Biscuit book cover

I love a biscuit and I love well-written social history, so I was pretty keen to read The Biscuit: the History of a Very British Indulgence by Lizzie Collingham. It’s a fascinating book that had me frequently spouting interesting nuggets at anyone who happened to be around.

Collingham tracks the history of the biscuit from its Roman Empire beginnings as twice-baked bread, to being a culinary centrepiece for the super rich of the 17th century, to becoming a factory-made staple of every British household (and indeed much of the rest of the world). There are recipes dotted throughout, several of which I bookmarked.

The definition of biscuit is fairly wide here. In one chapter, Collingham explains how wafers and waffles can trace their origin to unleavened bread. In the first and second centuries CE, Jewish bakers began pouring unleavened batter into tongs to create thin wafers decorated with animals and flowers for Passover. Soon after, Christian bakers copied the idea but replaced the designs with their own religious imagery. As the practice spread of churches handing out wafers at Easter, over centuries they became a staple at bakeries, especially after sugar and spices spread to Europe and became part of the wafer recipes.

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July 2022 reading round-up

Summer reading spot

Well, July was a bit full. We went on holiday to South Wales with my whole family. We had a record-breaking heatwave that’s an ominous sign of things to come. Beckett nearly had to have surgery but then didn’t. I took myself on lots of solo bike rides for the fun of cycling.

I’ve been taking advantage of the (non-extreme) good weather by taking myself into the garden after work most days with a blanket, a book and the dog. Sometimes there is also wine.

Just over a week ago I went to theatre for the first time since 2019, to see Les Miserables with my Mum. I loved it, just as I did the first time I watched it on stage when I was 18. And Mum loved it just as much as when she last saw it at least a decade before that even. As I expected, it made me cry, but not just because it’s such a moving storyline with music and lyrics designed to give the tear ducts a workout. The first couple of big rousing numbers made me cry from the sheer weight of the experience of being in a theatre filled with a couple of thousand people listening to incredible singers. I suspect I’d have a similar reaction if I went to a gig right now.

Mum reminded me that after she first saw Les Mis, Dad bought her the book – in two volumes because it’s so long – and she ploughed her way through it increasingly slowly. I can’t say her lukewarm reaction to it is very enticing, but on the other hand she did stick with it, so maybe I should give it a go sometime?

What I did read this month was six novels, a couple of which were not what I expected. The Glass Hotel is by Emily St John Mandel, who previously wrote the excellent sci-fi Station Eleven. Even though I knew when I bought it that The Glass Hotel isn’t sci-fi, part of me kept expecting a sci-fi twist and I think that stopped me from appreciating it for what it was. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, on the other hand, I expected to be more biting on the matter of racism in small-town America. That was part of it, but it was much more about different approaches to motherhood, and how our circumstances are so much of who we are.

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K-drama review: It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

Poster of the four lead actors in It's Okay to Not Be Okay

Sometimes I need an engrossing, hyper-real, overwrought drama with plenty of romance and a little comedy, and only a K-drama will hit the spot. The previous few I watched hadn’t quite worked for me, but It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (tvN/Netflix, 2020) was just right. It’s far from a perfect show but it is very entertaining in its heightened mishmash of styles.

Our lead character is Moon Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun), who works as a caretaker in psychiatric wards/hospitals and lives with his brother Moon Sang-tae (Oh Jung-se, from When the Camellia Blooms) who has autism and works various low-paid jobs. They move homes and jobs frequently, which is related to Sang-tae having witnessed their mother’s murder when they were young.

Gang-tae is both sweet and very capable, but to cope with the difficulties of caring for his brother and their frequent moves, he can come across as cold and unemotional. This makes him an ideal sparring partner for Ko Moon-young (Seo Yea-ji), a popular children’s author who is brittle and quick to anger.

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