Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

At last I got around to reading what many people say is their favourite and one of the greatest novels ever written. I hadn’t read any Tolstoy before and was surprised at how lucid and simple the language is, much like Churchill’s speeches, clear and without needless embellishment but with a fineness of meaning that often takes your breath away. I was prepared for the sad tale of Anna, but amazed at how realistic the collapse of her mental state seemed. I could really see the decline and fall of this woman. And I was delighted with Levin, who is a bit of a self portrait of Tolstoy’s, a man who struggles with his role as a landowner, with his faith and with the entire meaning of existence. I saw the film The Last Station recently and between that, and seeing the wonderful performance of Uncle Vanya that Sydney Theatre Company put on late last year, I really feel as if I am gaining some sort of handle on the Russian situation, then of course, not now.
So back to the book. Brilliant, a masterpiece, all the clichés. It took me a month to read it, dipping in and out, because it’s not a story you race through. I was glad to have the time and a peaceful environment in which to explore it and to think about the concepts and enjoy the language, and glad to be old enough to understand and have experienced the aspects of human nature that Tolstoy explores.
5 stars

Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander

One of the things Lander says that white people like is irony. And this book is all irony. It’s a fairly flippant piece that lists a hundred or so things that ‘white people like’ but by white people, he means middle class people and/or those striving to impress. The list makes you alternately cringe and laugh out loud: coffee, farmers’ markets, gifted children, Prius cars, renovations, NGOs, having gay/black/other ethnicity friends and so forth. There’s something there for all of us. But while Lander clearly wants to have a dig at political correctness and people trying hard to impress, this is a lightweight book cobbled together quickly from his widely read blog at the behest of a publisher in a big hurry, so you can expect no more than a columnist style wit and depth. Entertaining enough but not worth buying. 2 stars

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

I’m quite ambivalent about this book. It’s a murder mystery/detective thing that switches between the points of view of several characters and between two periods of time. I was confused about which detective was which from beginning right through to the end. And I also found the main characters fairly unsympathetic at the outset, not really establishing themselves as people I cared about until well into the second half of the book. Some of the characters were really quite irrelevant. So, while I wanted to find the answer to the mystery and finished the book for that reason, I really found it unnecessarily complicated and a bit of a chore. 2 stars

Quantico by Greg Beard

I read this thriller about biological warfare because the writer was someone PW Singer talked about in his book Wired for War. According to Singer books like this one are on reading list in military training programs, and the military sometimes approaches manufacturers and researchers with such sci fi concepts as appear in them requesting them to develop real life versions. So that was fascinating. The story itself is about a middle east conflict, American terrorists, whacko cults and all sorts of other stuff and is a page turner of sorts.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Wow, wow, wow. What a great book. I loved it, from the moment it began to the moment it ended. I struggled between wanting to gulp the story down in great big hunks and wanting to revel in this writer’s wonderful language. I loved the structure, as the story is told from several points of view, each of which overlaps a little with another and contributes to the wonderful depth of character that he creates. I loved the characters who weren’t goody goody people, who were often not particularly likeable but not awful, just real – and sometimes turned out to be better than you thought was going to be possible. I loved the way Franzen sticks it up political correctness and not-so-correctness, the behaviour of powerful people in the USA (and beyond probably), the mindlessness of the masses, the selfishness of people – all that. I loved The Corrections and I think this one is even better, or at least as good. 5 stars.

The Family Law by Benjamin Law

Benjamin Law is a witty young columnist. These stories are interconnected tales of his life and his whacky Chinese family as he grew up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. They are funny and warm stories, with some great character development. The standout character is his mother Jenny, a foul mouthed eccentric who embodies all those crazy immigrant mothers you read about from Portnoy right through. This is a terrific holiday read.

Inheritance by Nicholas Shakespeare

It’s unusual I think to have men writing these emotional journey books, but this one is quite good. It’s about a young rudderless bloke with limited prospects, who inherits a heap of money. The rest of the book is about how money doesn’t solve life’s problems and about his search for self etc etc. It’s not a bad holiday read. 3 stars.