A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

Pages: 511 Original date of publication: 1935 My copy: 2008 (NYRB Classics) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Joseph Fox Books, January 2012 Patrick Hamilton covers very similar themes in his books. His plots are comprised of characters from the lowest strata of London society: drunks, prostitutes, etc. Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is set in and around a central London pub called The Midnight Bell. Bob is a waiter who falls in love with a young prostitute named Jenny and loses all his money in the process; Ella is a barmaid in love with Bob who nonetheless begins a relationship with an older man. The story consists of three novellas, each of which takes you on a tour of the characters’ stories, offering, as it does so, alternate looks at the same situation within the same time frame. The shape shifting is what makes the plot of the book interesting, and each of these characters is unique in their own right. Hamilton is skilled at depicting th...

Pages: Original date of publication: 1929 My copy: 2000 Why I decided to read: Re-read How I acquired my copy: Borders, 2000. A Farewell to Arms has been called one of the best books to come out of WWI. In it, Hemingway loosely fictionalizes his experience working as an ambulance driver on the Italian front, as well as his relationship with Agnes von Kurowsky, a Red Cross nurse he met while recuperating from shrapnel wounds. In A Farewell to Arms , Lieutenant (Tenente) Frederick Henry is a driver in the Italian ambulance corps who develops a relationship with a Scottish VAD nurse, Catherine Barkley. Hemingway’s themes deal with death, women, war and love, all of which of course are present here. There’s a kind of detached unemotionalism about A Farewell to Arms ; even death doesn’t see to faze Henry. Yes, it’s brutal, but the tone of the book reflects the overall themes that play out here. Hemingway’s style is sparse, laconic; he doesn’t use flowery language to de...

Pages: 329 Original date of publication: 1972 My edition: 2010 (St. Martin’s Press) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Barnes and Noble, April 2012 After running out of fresh Mary Stewart novels to read, I turned back to Victoria Holt to try and fill the gap. On the Night of the Seventh Moon is romantic suspense with a bit of a fantasy twist. Set in the middle of the 19th century and spanning the course of about two decades, this novel is set in the Black Forest. The Night of the Seventh Moon is the evening on which Loke, the god of mischief, comes out to play; on one such of these nights, Helena Trant becomes lost and meets a dark handsome stranger in the forest… The concept is a little bit cheesy, the outcome is predictable, and there were a number of coincidences that were a little bit too much for me. But I loved this novel. The setting is magical, literally, and the book moves at a rapid pace. Holt keeps her reader perpetually guessing at the moti...

Pages: 690 Original date of publication: 2000 My edition: 2000 (Random House) (later published as I Am the Chosen King) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Amazon UK, November 2009 I’ve had Harold the King on the TBR pile for a long, long time and had nearly forgotten about it, but when I went on a trip, this seemed as though it would be perfect reading for the plane ride. The novel tells the story of the Norman Conquest from the point of view of Harold, the last truly English king. The novel is a sequel of sorts to The Hollow Crown . It opens in 1044 with the crowing of Edward, but follow Harold’s story over the next 20 years. It covers his relationship with Edyth Swan-neck; conflict with William; and eventual crowning. Because the novel is from Harold’s perspective, it portrays him in a bit of a rosy light; its William that gets short-changed. But I thought that Hollick’s treatment of both characters seemed very realistic, given that the events of thi...

Pages: 430 Original date of publication: 1982 My edition: 2010 Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: September 2011, Persephone shop I’ve been putting off and putting off writing a review of An Interrupted Life , mostly because I wanted everything to sink in and also because I really didn’t know what to say about this wonderful, albeit heartbreaking book. There I go again, using clichés to describe this book, but I loved it from start to finish. Etty Hillesum was born in January 1914 in Holland and lived in Amsterdam working as a translator of Russian and Russian teacher. Even still she aspired to be a writer, and kept a journal to that effect during WWII. As a Jew, Etty’s life became increasingly circumscribed by the restrictions placed upon her; she was later given a job as a typist in the Jewish Council, an organization that sought to mediate between the Nazis and Dutch Jews. Etty later volunteered to help accompany Jews to Westerbork, a detention camp ...

Pages: 204 Original date of publication: 1959 My edition: 1987 (Virago) Why I decided to read: All Virago/All August How I acquired my copy: Philadelphia Book Trader, August 2010 Set in Sydney, Australia, in the late 1950s, Bobbin Up is actually a collection of vignettes about the young women who work in the Jumbuck spinning mills. They are, as the cliché goes, overworked and underpaid, and each “chapter” focuses on the story of a different girl, among them a pregnant teenager and a Communist idealist. The title’s double entendre is cunning—the bobbins of spinning, as well as the idealistic acting of “bobbing up” out of one’s own circumstances, to do something about an unfavorable situation (hence the title of the pamphlet that’s passed around at the mill). There is a kind of idealism to the tone of the book, as well as an interest in the “human condition.” The author wrote the preface for the Virago edition of the book, in which she is a little bit embarrassed by...

Pages: 224 Original date of publication: 1940s-1990s My edition: 2010 (NYRB Classics) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: The Strand, NYC, July 2011 The New York Stories is a collection of stories that Elizabeth Hardwick published between 1946 and 1993—years that spanned nearly her entire career as a writer. Hardwick grew up in Kentucky and lived for many years in New York City, working as an essayist for the New York Review of Books . She was married briefly to the poet Robert Lowell, who after their divorce married Caroline Blackwood , leading Hardwick to quip, “he never married a bad writer.” She was also friends for many years with the writer Mary McCarthy and lampooned her 1963 novel The Group . There is a theme to these stories; all of them deal to some extent with the idea of escape, whether a character escapes from New York back to her Kentucky childhood home or escapes a sour relationship. Although Hardwick claimed that she couldn’t write much ...

Pages: 532 Original date of publication: 2000 My edition: 2009 (Sphere) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Amazon UK, May 2010 #23: Covers 1874-1885. As the novel opens, Lady Venetia Fleetwood is engaged to be married; when she finds out that her future husband doesn’t support her ambitions to become a doctor, she breaks off the engagement. Her distant cousin George Morland and his social-climbing wife Alfreda had been invited to the wedding, but are bitterly disappointed when it is called off. In order to improve their social standing, George and Alfreda begin an ambitious project to “improve” and modernize Morland Place. Although I enjoy this series in general, it’s been a while since I read the previous book in the series , so I had to go back to my notes and review them before I began reading The Cause. Still, I thought that this book was more of a filler for the series—the connection between the two branches of the family is too great. Accordin...

Pages: 429 Original date of publication: 1944 My edition: 1988 (Virago Travellers) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Ebay, November 2011 Emily Hahn was an American who spent 9 years living in China as a journalist, starting in 1935. She lived first in Shanghai, where she had a common-law marriage with a native Chinese and owned a couple of gibbons. During WWII, she lived in Chungking, where she met her future husband Charles Boxer. I first ran into the prose of this author about a year ago when I read the Virago Book of Women Travellers , in which another essay of Hahn’s is excerpted. The first line of that essay goes: Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can’t claim that as the reason I went to China. The opium ambition dates back to that obscure period of childhood when I wanted to be a lot of other things, too—the greatest expert on ghosts, the world’s best ice skater, the champion lion tamer, you know the kind of thing. But by the time I went to China I ...

Pages: 382 Original date of publication: 1933 My edition: 1982 (Virago) Why I decided to read: I’m a huge Winifred Holtby aficionado How I acquired my copy: ebay, July 2011 When Maurice Durrant, the youngest member of Prince’s Tours, wins his seat, he sends his profligate brother Bill to Mandoa, a small African state, to attend the wedding of a princess. With him is his old friend Jean Stanbury, who has recently lost her newspaper job. The arrive to a Mandoa where the Lord High Chamberlain, Safi Talal, is a Westernophile who watches American films over and over; believes that the typewriter, rubber bath, and fountain pen are the hallmarks of civilized society; and uses phrases such as “OK, baby.” I’m usually a huge Winifred Holtby fan, but I really couldn’t get into this book as much as I thought I would. Holtby seemed as though she was out of her element with this book; it’s the only one not set in Yorkshire, and she wasn’t much of a humorist (as much as Evelyn Waugh, to whose book B...

Pages: 177 Original date of publication: 1985 My edition: 1986 (Penguin) Why I decided to read: I enjoyed 84, Charing Cross Road How I acquired my copy: Amazon.com, December 2011 Q’s Legacy is Helene Hanff’s account of how she came to write 84, Charing Cross Road and its sequel, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (so I guess this book is a part of that series). She starts with the day at the Philadelphia Public Library when she discovered Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s On the Art of Writing , which led her to begin reading the books he mentioned. That led to Helene collecting those books, which led to her correspondence with Frank Doel at Marks and Co. in London… Helene talks about the books she read less than I would have expected her to, but what’s undeniable is that she definitely has her own distinctive narrative voice, seen in 84 and The Duchess , and continued in this book. She’s funny, smart, honest, and direct, all of the qualities that I love in her writing. Helene covers a larg...

Pages: 231 Original date of publication: 1947 My edition: 2003 (Persephone) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: the Persephone shop, September 2011 Lucia Holley is a middle-aged housewife, living somewhere in America during WWII. Her husband is away, and she is raising her two teenaged children on the homefront. After her daughter begins dating an unattractive, married man who then turns up dead, Lucia inadvertently becomes involved in the crime when she attempts to cover it up in order to protect the person she thinks killed the boyfriend. Holding wrote this novel at around the same time that Patricia Highsmith was writing T he Talented Mr. Ripl ey series; and while The Blank Wall isn’t quite as suspenseful as Highsmith’s books, it belongs to the same school of psychological suspense novels. The plot moves quickly, and Holding doesn’t waste her words in order to convey the tension of the plot. The reader really feels Lucia’s inner struggle as she tries to cover up the crime...

Pages: 137 Original date of publication: 1973 My edition: 1976 Why I decided to read: it seemed like the perfect thing to bring on the plane when I went on vacation to England How I acquired my copy: Amazon UK, January 2010 You decide to stop using the word “anachronism” when a seventeenth-century carriage drives through the gates of Buckingham Palace carrying twentieth-century Russian or African diplomats to be welcomed by a queen. “Anachronism” implies something long dead, and nothing is dead here. History, as they say, is alive and well and living in London (p. 82) In 84, Charing Cross Road , Helene Hanff collected the letters she and Frank Doel, a bookseller in London’s famous Charing Cross Road, exchanged for twenty years, from just after WWII up until his death. Helene Hanff had always wanted to travel to England, but until the summer of June 1971, after 84 Charing Cross Road had been published and she went on tour to publicize the book, she had never had the opportunity to do s...

Pages: 341 Original date of publication: 1944My edition: 2005 (Persephone) Why I decided to read: heard about this through Persephone’s catalogue How I acquired my copy: Persephone subscription, October 2010 “She was all alone now in the darkness, now that to please Mr Mills she had left her torch turned off. There were no windows. Everyone was shut in upon themselves.” (p. 245). There Were No Windows is the story of Claire Temple, an eighty-plus woman who has lost her memory. At one point in her life she was a well-known author with numerous love affairs; but now she lives alone, with only her servants to care for her. Set in London at the height of WWII, this novel chronicles the downfall of a woman who attempted, in her life, to be an individual, when the reader discovers that in the end, all of that doesn’t matter—because we all end up in some form or another like Claire (scary thought). It’s a brilliant book, albeit with a difficult subject. How does an author get into the mindse...

Pages: 500 Original date of publication: 1999 My edition: 2009 (Sphere) Why I decided to read: I’m reading through the Morland Dynasty series How I acquired my copy: Amazon UK, July 2010 #22: Covers 1870-1874 The Mirage continues the story of the Morland family, but it focuses on the next generation. Benedict Morland dies of a fever in Egypt, and his son, George, remains at Morland Place to carry on the family name. He marries Alfreda Turlingham, an older woman with skeletons in her closet and a profligate brother. George’s sister, Henrietta is rushed into a marriage with a much older man; and Charlotte’s daughter Venetia begins her quest to become a doctor, despite the fact that all of society is opposed to it. This is another very strong installment to the series, although the history of the era takes a backseat to what’s going on within the family circle. There’s the usual quota of shady characters in this book (what Morland Dynasty book would be complete w...

Pages: 310 Original date of publication: 1923 My edition: 1981 (Virago) Why I decided to read: Winifred Holtby is one of my favorite authors How I acquired my copy: Ebay, February 2011 Winifred Holtby quickly became one of my favorite authors when I read The Crowded Street early last year. Although Anderby Wold was Holbty’s first published novel, it ranks up there as one of my favorites. The novel is set in a familiar Holtby milieu—agricultural and rural Yorkshire. Mary Robson is a young housewife married to a man much older than she. Her marriage is pleasant, but lacking in passion. Although she has lived in Anderby all her life, she is somewhat of an outsider. Nonetheless, she’s a kind of social queen. One day, in the most dramatic fashion possible, she meets David Rossitur, a socialist writer who really shakes things up, so to speak, both in Anderby and with Mary herself. Anderby Wold suffers a little bit from first-time writer’s syndrome; Winifred Holtby uses...

Pages: 594 Original date of publication: 1998 My edition: 2007 (Sphere) Why I decided to read: I’m trying to read through the Morland Dynasty series How I acquired my copy: book Depository, April 2010 #21: 1857-1865; covers the American Civil W ar This installment of the Morland series takes the family from England to South Carolina—just as war is about to tear apart the United States. A foundling shows up at Benedict Morland’s door, and he takes the child to South Carolina, where his daughter Mary is a wife and mother on a large plantation. Back in England, Charlotte’s marriage to Oliver Fleetwood slowly crumbles over her friendship with a doctor, even as she becomes involved in the divorce reform bill. This book takes a break from England, and I thought it was a welcome change from the usual. As the books in this series usually are, the events described are well-researched and give the reader a glimpse into what life was like in the 1850s and ‘60s. Mary’s mar...

Pages: 590 Original date of publication: 1976 My edition: 2010 (Persephone) Why I decided to read: read this for Persephone Reading Weekend How I acquired my copy: Persephone mail-order, January 2011 Few Eggs and No Oranges is the diary that Vere Hodgson kept during the war years. The diary reprinted here covers the “official” start of the war on June 25, 1940, and takes us up through VE Day, May 1945. The subtitle is “A diary showing how unimportant people in London and Birmingham lived through the war years 1940-45, written in the Notting Hill area of London,” and that’s a pretty good summary of what this book is about. Vere Hodgson lets very little of her own personal feelings in (aside from her obvious hero-worship of Churchill), but she gives detailed updates about what’s going on politically. We get very little sense of the people she spends her days with, and very little about Vere’s personality, either. And yet, this book is a fascinating read, mostly because it...

Pages: 624 Original date of publication: 1997 My edition: 2007 (Sphere) Why I decided to read: I’m trying to read the whole Morland Dynasty series How I acquired my copy: Amazon.com, January 2010 #20: 1851-1855: Covers the Great Exhibition; Crimean War In The Winter Journey , the story of the Morland family shifts focus for a bit. A distant cousin arrives from South Carolina in time for the Great Exhibition. Charlotte, happily married to Oliver Fleetwood, uses her wealth and influence to help build a hospital, in London just as cholera strikes. Her brother, Cavendish, is a cavalry officer called to the Crimea; and Oliver, an intelligence officer, goes there too, along with Charlotte. The family takes a bit of a back seat to the historical events that are taking place. The Crimean War takes up a good chunk of the novel, especially the tragic Charge of the Light Brigade, which I’d obviously heard about but never really knew much of. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles gives he...

Pages: 584 Original date of publication: 1996 My edition: 2007 (Sphere) Why I decided to read: I’m working my way through the Morland Dynasty series How I acquired my copy: Amazon.com, December 2009 #19: Covers 1843-1848; early Victorian period Finally, with Nicholas Morland’s death in The Abyss , the series shifts focus from the Morland brothers to other members of the family; in this case, specifically, Charlotte, daughter of Rosalind and Marcus. She has spent the first 21 years of her life living on relative poverty; but at her father’s death discovers that she’s a wealthy heiress. She is vaulted into high society London, in the company of her cousin Fanny, who is already out but not married. Charlotte forms an attachment to Oliver Fleetwood (who has a “reputation”), but disappointment leads her to become involved in philanthropy and medicine. It’s a relief for the series to move away from the Morland brothers. In some of the previous books, there was a lot ...