Lost in The Wilderness

I was happy to be lost in The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey for a few days; I took my time there, exploring, even if it was confusing to be lost at times.

I loved this book. I found it subtly heartbreaking. I adored the writing; Samantha Harvey has a wonderful way with words and I lost myself in her beautiful sentences on memory and its loss. The novel is poignant and tragic and incredibly moving. The writing elevates the understated subject matter. Jake, the narrator, is an older man whose mind is rapidly deteriorating from Alzheimer's Disease. Jake barely recognises people; he continually forgets things; he doesn't understand why his childhood friend, "poor Eleanor", is caring for him and why they are sleeping together; he cannot remember why his son, Henry, is in prison; he doesn't know what happened to his daughter, Alice...

The Wilderness does not feature high drama or even have a discernible plot, but it examines Jake's disease through his mind and evokes his confusion, his powerlessness, his helplessness. I think I have already used the word "subtle" but it is true: The Wilderness is on the surface very simple but is such an intelligent novel.

Whilst savouring the language and the meditation upon memory, I was reminded of a few other novels, all of which I have enjoyed in different ways. One of my favourites, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer echoed in The Wilderness, perhaps due to the Eastern-European past of Sara, Jake's mother; I was later reminded of We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and its similarly unreliable narrator and what is being intentionally -in Jake's case unintentionally due to his unreliable memory- revealed and concealed to the reader; lastly I remembered my devastation after reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and the fates of its characters ... although The Wilderness is by no means as shocking and shattering, it does leave you with an overwhelming feeling of sadness.

That sums it up, really: The Wilderness is a exceptionally sad novel; not unbearably sad but definitely depressing in the bleakness of the disease and its unrelenting brutality.

The chapters alternate between Jake in the present, ill, and in the Sixties, newly married and a father who has moved from London to his childhood Moors, and focuses on particular memories and formative events in his past. The flashbacks are not linear, can even be confusing for the reader too, as Jake tries to make a timeline and remembers, re-remembers, confuses, forgets, and even reinvents his memories. The events in the present play out almost like a detective novel in the way that Harvey cleverly provides tid-bits of information, and clues, to the way things actually played out; for me, it was an interesting and effective method of writing, albeit difficult to convey in a review.

I found this an exceptional debut novel and a worthy shortlisted contender for the Orange Prize and -all prevailing- a worthy nominee for this year's Booker. It is one of the best novels I have personally read this year and one that will resonate, I am sure, beyond it. I need to extend my thanks to Jackie at FarmlaneBooks for her review; although I was drawn to reading this title, her review convinced me to read it sooner rather than later.

I took note of this passage to share:

There is such pressure to remain true to the facts, and it seems so important somehow, so vital to preserve events and people as they really were. But he knows how memory can make a shattered dream come true. Sometimes he loses the strength and vigilance to stand up to its forces, and thinks he would do just as well to let it transform the past as it wishes.

Burnt Shadows

This is the novel I wanted to win the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction; if this is less deserving and overshadowed by Marilynne Robinson's Home then my imagination cannot extend to how good that novel must be.

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie is profound yet understated. It is poetic in parts and philisophical in others. It is impressive in scope - from Guantanamo Bay back to Nagasaki on the afternoon of the A-bomb, to Delhi pre Indian independence, to Pakistan post-independence, to New York and Afghanistan post 9/11 - but with concentrated attention to detail.

As mentioned in a previous post, one of the most striking parts of the novel is an editorial choice: the flashing white light when Fat Man fell on the afternoon of August 9th, 1945, is represented upon the page and is extremely effective. On each page of the book too -and on the front cover- are the three black cranes that are a central motif of the novel. Hiroko, the main protagonist, is wearing her dead mother's kimono with a pattern of cranes embroidered on its back when the Atomic bomb falls and this design is burned onto her back. Shamsie revealed in interview that she was inspired by this line from John Hersey's book Hiroshima: "On some undressed bodies the burns had made patterns - of undershirt straps and suspenders and, on the skin of some women (since white repelled the heat from the bomb and dark clothes absorbed it and conducted it to the skin) the shape of flowers they had had on their kimonos" and the character of Hiroko was born. I have read that book (it is immensely evocative, as is Masuji Ibuse's Black Rain) and was struck by that line, that image that is burned upon the world's consciousness post-Atomic bomb. Photographs of survivors with these burns inspired Hersey, who in turn inspired Shamsie, and these photographs -along with other infamous and iconic ones of running victims and of the now named A-dome and Peace Memorial, the only building left standing- document one of the cataclysmic events of the Twentieth Century. The image of the three black cranes -and the scars upon Hiroko's back- are central to the novel and haunt her, subsequent events, and the reader. Although the Hiroshima section of Burnt Shadows is the shortest it is also the most effective; Hiroko is branded literally and figuratively, her resentment of being hibakusha ("explosion-affected people") and this is a resounding undercurrent throughout the novel.

I have enjoyed reading a number of novels set in pre and post Independence India, in Afghanistan, and in post 9/11 New York as well as Japanese literature and to blend all of these settings together so seamlessly and epically is astounding. Perhaps the sheer magnitude of its scope is unrealistic but, in my opinion, Burnt Shadows never seemed to grasp but always flowed from one historic event to the next.

This novel left an impact, a shadow, an imprint.

Even More Library Loot

This morning my beloved book bag (left) and myself wandered to the library and picked up even more books! This has to stop. I returned five that I have read and still have four out (currently reading two of these) and collected eight so I have maxed my allowance of twelve; two outstanding requests won't be ready for some time as I am about fourth in the queue so at least I can concentrate upon the ones I currently have. All twelve of them.

Some of the ones I now have I have mentioned in previous posts; I requested some of the Orange Prize shortlisted novels a few weeks ago as well as a couple of other recommendations. Lady Chatterley's Lover is this month's book group choice; I've been wanting to read The Post-Birthday World and The Group recently; Fahrenheit 541 has been on my wishlist for as long as I can remember.

This afternoon I am going to try to finish one of the library books I am currently reading as well as hopefully some progress with another, whilst eating strawberries and cherries; I love summer.

The Orange Prize for Fiction 2009

Apropos to the title and the accompanying photograph, I would like to point out how much I love Penguin books, whether they be orange & cream, mint green, silver, or the new white & grey, I enjoy collecting them. I also covet this book and also this one as the history, design, and marketing of Penguin interests me greatly.

However, I have gone off at a tangent. The Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 has been awarded tonight to Marilynne Robinson for her novel Home. Already the announcement has been described as "the surprise was that there was no surprise" (Guardian). It came as a surprise to me; I wanted Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows to win (I hope to review that tomorrow) or suspected -from what I have read- that The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey to win (I'm collecting that from the library tomorrow so it will be an Orange-centric day). Having only read Burnt Shadows from the six prize short-listed novels and Toni Morrison's A Mercy from the long-list, I am hardly qualified to judge who should have won but I am disappointed; neither Home nor Robinson's 2006 longlisted Gilead appeal to me. Am I wrong to be unattracted towards them? have you read either and enjoyed them? I feel uninspired.

As it's Orange Prize night and I've been meaning to do this anyway, I am using this post this to also track how many of the previously nominated Orange Prize contenders I have read (don't you just love lists? even if they do take up numerous blog inches). Courtesy of Kimbofo via dovegreyreader this is the list in full from its inception in 1996. Scored through are the titles that I have read and in Orange are the few I own but have not read. Are there any you would recommend or wouldn't? For the most part I have enjoyed those I have read; there are some great books, some masterpeices, and many fabulous female writers on this list.

A L Kennedy Everything You Need
A L Kennedy So I am Glad
Ajay Close Official and Doubtful
Ali Smith Hotel World - shortlist
Ali Smith The Accidental - shortlist
Alice Greenaway White Ghost Girls
Alice McDermott Charming Billy
Alice Sebold The Lovely Bones
Allegra Goodman Intuition
Amy Tan The Bonesetter's Daughter
Amy Tan The Hundred Secret Senses - shortlist
Andrea Barrett The Voyage of the Narwhal
Andrea Levy Never Far from Nowhere
Andrea Levy Small Island - winner
Anita Desai Fasting, Feasting
Anita Desai The Zigzag Way
Anita Amirrezvani The Blood of Flowers
Anita Rau Badami The Hero's Walk
Anita Nair Mistress
Anita Shreve The Weight of Water - shortlist
Ann Patchett Bel Canto - winner
Ann Patchett The Magician's Assistant - shortlist
Ann Weisgarber's The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
Ann-Marie MacDonald Fall on your Knees
Anna Burns No Bones - shortlist
Anna Quindlen Black and Blue
Anne Donovan Buddha Da - shortlist
Anne Enright The Gathering
Anne Michaels Fugitive Pieces - winner
Anne Tyler Digging to America
Anne Tyler Ladder of Years - shortlist
Anne Tyler The Amateur Marriage
Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveler's Wife
Barbara Ewing A Dangerous Vine
Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible - shortlist
Barbara Neil A History of Silence
Bella Bathurst Special
Bernadine Evaristo Blonde Roots
Beryl Bainbridge Every Man for Himself
Beryl Bainbridge Master Georgie
Carol Shields Larry's Party - winner
Carol Shields Unless - shortlist
Carol Topolski Monster Love
Carrie Tiffany Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living - shortlist
Catherine Chidgey In a Fishbone Church
Catherine O’Flynn What Was Lost
Célestine Hitiura Vaite Frangipani
Charlotte Mendelson When We Were Bad
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun - winner
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Purple Hibiscus - shortlist
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni The Mistress of Spices
Chloe Hooper A Child's Book of True Crime - shortlist
Christina Koning Undiscovered Country
Christine Dwyer Hickey Tatty
Christine Pountney Last Chance Texaco
Clare Allan Poppy Shakespeare
Clare Clark The Great Stink
Cristina Garcia The Aguero Sisters
Crystal Wilkinson Water Street
Curtis Sittenfeld American Wife
Curtis Sittenfeld Prep
Dalia Sofer The Septembers of Shiraz
Danzy Senna From Caucasia, with Love
Deborah Robertson Careless
Debra Adelaide The Household Guide to Dying
Deborah Moggach In The Dark
Deirdre Madden One by One in the Darkness - shortlist
Deirdre Madden Molly Fox's Birthday - shortlist
Deirdre Purcell Love Like Hate Adore - shortlist
Dinah Lee Küng A Visit from Voltaire
Donna Tartt The Little Friend - shortlist
Drusilla Modjeska The Orchard
E Annie Proulx Accordion Crimes - shortlist
Edna O’Brien In the Forest
Eilis Ni Dhuibhne The Dancers Dancing - shortlist
Elif Shafak The Bastard of Istanbul
Elizabeth Knox The Vintner's Luck
Elizabeth McCracken Niagara Falls All Over Again
Elizabeth Strout Amy and Isabelle – shortlist
Ellen Feldman Scottsboro
Elspeth Sandys River Lines
Emma Richler Sister Crazy
Esther Freud Gaglow
Esther Freud The Wild
Gail Jones Dreams of Speaking
Gail Jones Sorry
Gaynor Arnold Girl in a Blue Dress
Gillian Slovo Ice Road - shortlist
Gina B Nahai Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith
Gina Ochsner The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight
Haven Kimmel The Solace of Leaving Early
Heather O’Neill Lullabies for Little Criminals
Helen DeWitt The Last Samurai
Helen Dunmore A Spell of Winter - winner
Helen Dunmore House of Orphans
Helen Dunmore The Siege - shortlist
Hilary Mantel Beyond Black - shortlist
Hilary Mantel The Giant O'Brien
Ingrid Hill Ursula, Under
Isla Dewar Keeping Up with Magda
Jackie Kay Trumpet
Jacquelyn Mitchard The Most Wanted
Jamaica Kincaid The Autobiography of My Mother
Jane Gardam Old Filth - shortlist
Jane Hamilton The Short History of a Prince - shortlist
Jane Harris The Observations - shortlist
Jane Mendelsohn I Was Amelia Earhart - shortlist
Jane Rogers Island
Jane Rogers Promised Lands
Jane Smiley Horse Heaven - shortlist
Jane Smiley Ten Days in the Hills
Jane Urquhart The Underpainter
Janet Davey English Correspondence
Jayne Ann Phillips Motherkind
Jeanette Winterson Gut Symmetries
Jeanette Winterson The PowerBook
Jennifer Clement A True Story Based on Lies
Jennifer Egan The Keep
Jhumpa Lahiri The Namesake
Jill Dawson Fred & Edie - shortlist
Jill Dawson Watch Me Disappear
Jo-Ann Goodwin Danny Boy
Joan Brady Death Comes for Peter Pan
Joan Didion The Last Thing He Wanted
Joan London Gilgamesh
Joanne Harris Five Quarters of the Orange
Joolz Denby Billie Morgan - shortlist
Josephine Humphreys Nowhere Else on Earth
Joyce Carol Oates Middle Age
Joyce Carol Oates Rape A Love Story
Joyce Carol Oates The Falls
Judy Budnitz If I Told You Once - shortlist
Julia Blackburn The Book of Colour - shortlist
Julia Blackburn The Leper's Companions - shortlist
Julia Darling Crocodile Soup
Julia Leigh The Hunter
Julie Otsuka When the Emperor was Divine
Kamila Shamsie Burnt Shadows - shortlist
Karla Kuban Marchlands
Kate Atkinson Case Histories
Kate Grenville The Idea of Perfection - winner
Kathryn Heyman The Breaking
Kathy Page The Story of My Face
Kira Cochrane Escape Routes for Beginners
Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss - shortlist
Kirsten Bakis Lives of the Monster Dogs - shortlist
Kitty Aldridge Pop
Laura Fish Strange Music
Laura Hird Born Free
Lauren Liebenberg The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam
Laurie Graham Dog Days, Glenn Miller Nights
Laurie R King With Child
Leila Aboulela Minaret
Leila Aboulela The Translator
Leone Ross All the Blood is Red
Lesley Glaister Now You See Me
Lesley Glaister The Private Parts of Women
Leslie Forbes Fish, Blood & Bone
Lily Prior La Cucina
Linda Grant The Cast Iron Shore
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs
Linda Grant When I Lived in Modern Times - winner
Lindsey Collen The Rape of Sita
Lionel Shriver We Need to Talk About Kevin - winner
Lisa Moore Alligator
Lissa Evans Their Finest Hour and a Half
Liz Jensen Ark Baby
Liz Jensen Egg Dancing
Liz Jensen War Crimes for the Home
Lori Lansens The Girls
Lorraine Adams Harbor
Louise Welsh The Cutting Room
Louise Young Baby Love
Lucy Ellmann Dot in the Universe
Lucy Ellmann Man or Mango?
M J Hyland Carry Me Down
Maggie Gee The Flood
Maggie Gee The White Family - shortlist
Maile Meloy Liars & Saints - shortlist
Manda Scott Hen's Teeth - shortlist
Margaret Atwood Alias Grace - shortlist
Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake - shortlist
Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin - shortlist
Margaret Forster Over
Marianne Wiggins Eveless Eden – shortlist
Marilyn Bowering Visible Worlds - shortlist
Marilynne Robinson Gilead
Marilynne Robinson Home - shortlist
Marina Lewycka A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - shortlist
Marly Swick Evening News
Mary Kay Zuravleff The Frequency of Souls
Mary Morrissy Mother of Pearl
Maureen Duffy Restitution
Meaghan Delahunt In the Blue House
Meera Syal Anita and Me
Meg Wolitzer The Position
Melanie Finn Away From You
Melanie Wallace The Housekeeper
Michele Roberts Impossible Saints
Michelle de Kretser The Lost Dog
Michelle Huneven Round Rock
Michelle Lovric The Remedy
Miranda Hearn Nelson’s Daughter
Miriam Toews The Flying Troutmans
Monica Ali Brick Lane
Nadine Gordimer The House Gun
Nancy Huston Fault Lines
Nani Power Crawling at Night
Naomi Alderman Disobedience
Nell Freudenberger The Dissident
Nell Leyshon Black Dirt
Nicole Krauss The History of Love - shortlist
Nora Okja Keller Comfort Woman
Nora Okja Keller Fox Girl
Oonya Kempadoo Buxton Spice
Pagan Kennedy Spinsters - shortlist
Pat Barker The Ghost Road
Patricia Ferguson It So Happens
Patricia Ferguson Peripheral Vision
Patricia Wood Lottery
Paulina Simons Red Leaves
Pauline Melville The Ventriloquist's Tale - shortlist
Penelope Fitzgerald The Blue Flower
Philippa Gregory The Constant Princess
Preeta Samarasan Evening is the Whole Day
Rachel Cusk Arlington Park - shortlist
Rachel Seiffert Afterwards
Rachel Seiffert The Dark Room
Rebecca Gowers When to Walk
Rose Tremain The Colour - shortlist
Rose Tremain The Road Home
Rosina Lippi Homestead - shortlist
Rupa Bajwa The Sari Shop
Sadie Jones The Outcast
Samantha Harvey The Wilderness
Samantha Hunt The Invention of Everything Else
Sandra Benitez Bitter Grounds
Sandra Cisneros Caramelo
Sarah Hall The Electric Michelangelo
Sarah May The Internationals
Sarah Waters Fingersmith – shortlist
Sarah Waters The Night Watch - shortlist
Scarlett Thomas The End of Mr. Y
Sena Jeter Naslund Ahab's Wife
Shauna Singh Baldwin What the Body Remembers
Shena Mackay Heligoland - shortlist
Sheri Holman The Mammoth Cheese - shortlist
Shirley Hazzard The Great Fire - shortlist
Siri Hustvedt The Enchantment of Lily Dahl
Siri Hustvedt What I Loved
Sonya Hartnett What the Birds See
Stef Penney The Tenderness of Wolves
Stella Duffy State of Happiness
Stella Duffy The Room of Lost Things
Stephanie Grant The Passion of Alice
Stevie Davies Kith & Kin
Stevie Davies The Element of Water
Sue Gee The Mysteries of Glass
Sue Miller Lost in the Forest
Sue Monk Kidd The Secret Life of Bees
Sunetra Gupta A Sin of Colour
Suzanne Berne A Crime in the Neighbourhood - winner
Tessa Hadley The Master Bedroom
Toni Morrison A Mercy
Toni Morrison Love
Toni Morrison Paradise - shortlist
Tracy Chevalier Girl with a Pearl Earring
Trezza Azzopardi The Hiding Place
Tricia Wastvedt The River
Valerie Martin Property - winner
VV Ganeshananthan Love Marriage
Xiaolu Guo A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers - shortlist
Zadie Smith On Beauty - winner
Zadie Smith The Autograph Man - shortlist
Zadie Smith White Teeth - shortlist
Zoë Heller Notes on a Scandal

Library Loot

Today I decided to combine my favourite activity (reading and all things book-related) with my least favourite (exercise) by walking to my local library. Now, I'm not usually a library goer as I much prefer owning books and having lovely new copies in my hands but economy as it is and my own personal circumstances I'm all for supporting the community (and small booksellers). I only joined last week, in the hope of borrowing this month's book group book, but my hopes were dashed. However, I decided to waste not want not (besides it makes a lovely walk) and as it was I picked up a few books I've been wanting to read, pictured above (very beige, aren't they?!)

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett: this one has been on my wish-list for some time. I can't wait to read about the Queen's discovery of the mobile library!

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill: I've heard much about this and fancy reading something Gothic and suspenseful before getting my impatient mitts on Sarah Water's The Little Stranger later this month.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice: seemingly very popular across the blogosphere this book was first brought to my attention by Danielle at A Work in Progress. The beauty of digital word of mouth is that this is a book I would probably have otherwise overlooked in a bookstore as I would be put off by the chick-lit like cover! I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Miss Chopsticks by Xinran: I was researching some potential Eastern literature reads last night and this one caught my eye (as it has in the past); the premise interests me and the library happened to have it on the shelf. I also happen to have another Xinran book, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices, unread on the shelf.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery: apparently another popular book amongst bloggers (I've seen it reviewed a few times) this was brought to my attention by Fleur Fisher; the title intrigued me and her review prompted me to add it to the wish-list.


I have also began to make good use of the inter-library loan service by requesting a few other titles that were on my wish-list, that I hope will arrive soon.

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb: I have heard so many good things about this title. A group of friends in the States all received it for Christmas and were reading it at once and commenting on it.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa: mention of this has frequently been popping up online and the pretty cover definitely caught my attention.

Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman: one of the six shortlisted titles for the Orange Prize for Fiction this year (of which I have so far read 1/6) the synopsis below definitely peaked my interest, especially as it's a true story:

Alabama, 1931. A posse stops a freight train and arrests nine black youths. Their crime: fighting with white boys. Then two white girls emerge from another freight car, and fast as anyone can say Jim Crow, the cry of rape goes up. One of the girls sticks to her story. The other changes her tune, time and time again. A young journalist, whose only connection to the incident is her overheated social conscience, fights to save the nine youths from the electric chair, redeem the girl who repents her lie, and make amends for her own past.

The Wilderness by Samantha Harris: another Orange contender and also appealing.

It’s Jake’s birthday. He is sitting in a small plane, being flown over the landscape that has been the backdrop to his life – his childhood, his marriage, his work, his passions. Now in his early sixties, he isn’t quite the man he used to be. He has lost his wife, his son is in prison and he is about to lose his past. Jake has Alzheimer’s.

As the disease takes hold, Jake struggles to hold on to his personal story, to his memories and identity, but they become increasingly elusive and unreliable. What happened to his daughter? Is she alive or long dead? And why exactly is his son in prison? What went so wrong in his life? There was a cherry tree once and a yellow dress, but what exactly do they mean? As Jake, assisted by ‘poor Eleanor’, a childhood friend with whom, for some unfathomable reason, he seems to be sleeping, fights the inevitable dying of the light, the key events of his life keep changing as he tried to grasp them, and what until recently seemed solid fact is melting into surreal dreams or nightmarish imaginings. Is there anything he’ll be able to salvage from the wreckage? Beauty, perhaps, the memory of love, or nothing at all?

Some Prefer Nettles by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki: of all the Eastern titles I looked at last night, this is the one that was immediately added to be wish-list and is at the top of my to read list when it arrives.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson: taking pride of place as number one of the 50 Books You Must Read But May Not Have Heard About (not in order and ongoing), Simon at Stuck in a Book's review of this book made me anxious to read it this summer.

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: the book I most want to buy but am awaiting the day I have money to do so and the book I am too impatient to wait to read until then. Enough said.

Even though I have a huge pile of books awaiting me (and all of the ones on the shelf), I'm off to read my copy of Marie Claire before I make dinner! I also woefully behind reviewing but please check in over the next few days when I hope to add a few.

Thankful for mercies

I am glad to see Toni Morrison's A Mercy on The Orange Prize for Fiction's longlist; although there are an abundance of female American authors on the list this year I am thankful that more readers will be introduced to Toni Morrison. I could be wrong but I think that unless you have come across Morrison through academia or because you have a penchant for reading Oprah-endorsed bookclub reads then you do not necessarily come across her work unless by chance and the Orange shortlist offers this chance . Certain book groups, most likely library ones will attempt to read all of the longlist; libraries will invest in more copies of the books and display them well, as will bookshops; retailers -especially online- will offer bargain deals (hopefully a good one for A Mercy as it isn't published in paperback until June, after the prize is awarded.)

I was lucky enough to attend a reading and interview with Toni Morrison at the Southbank Centre in London on October 28th of last year, two days before the novel was published in the UK; I picked up a signed copy of the book (which I promptly devoured the day after) and heard the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning writer give a reading and an interview. I consider myself privileged to have experienced this; I missed her speak at Glasgow University in '99 and regretted it. It was the night following the day I moved flats in London for the second time in a month (the first time when I moved to the city), not by choice, and was the end to a rather stressful and exhausting week; it was also the first snowfall of Winter and a bitterly cold evening but my boyfriend and I put our big people's hats on and braved the inclemental weather. We weren't disappointed; what my boyfriend lacked in understanding of the reading (she read the prologue, which comes across as quite erudite when listening), he made up for in enjoyment of what she had to say, increasingly so when she turned to her excitement -and trepidation- about the Presidential Elections the following week.

The book itself is short, lyrical, tragic, epic, haunting, memorable, a prelude to the themes of Beloved and is undoubtedly feminist... the narrative and structure are beautiful, covering the viewpoints and stories of five women who are interconnected and who have all been touched and wounded by slavery, in their own ways. Set in the late seventeeth century, the novel explores the origins of slavery; its scope is epic but its shortness in length disallows strong character development, which is a regretful flaw as the women make interesting, intense and memorable characters. The language, its poetic quality, and the biblical themes are all powerful and I am thankful for small mercies when it comes to being introduced to Toni Morrison not merely by chance.