2023 reads part 4
I accidentally put together a Women’s Fiction-themed reading moment; we love an unintentional theme. Plus, more bloody Rand al'Thor.
(This waffle is also available on my website if you ever have need to delve into the dusty archives.)
Maggie O'Farrell - Hamnet*
Published 2020
This winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for fiction is both an excellent read and a thanks, I hate it. Despite the title, the narrative centres on Agnes, playwright William Shakespeare’s wife. The first annoying thing is that Shakespeare is never directly named. He’s referred to variously as “the student”, “the son”, “the husband”, “the father”. You get the idea. Not naming him gives him the quality of being barely there (and he is barely there) but he’s also central to Agnes’ understanding of who she is, and since there is no secret as to his identity, it gives ol’ Willy Shakes more emphasis in the story than he actually deserves.
Unfortunately, it’s not simply historical fiction, it’s historical fantasy - a sprinkling of magic pixie dream wife where Agnes with her magical ‘intuition’ and capering about the forest all day changes the path of those who encounter her. I probably would have enjoyed this more if “the husband” wasn’t literally William Shakespeare. Magical Agnes could be anyone else in 17th century England living the same grief-filled life that didn’t turn out the way she imagined it would.
And now I’ve had my whinge, let me tell you I absolutely enjoyed this story. It is, as I said, the story of grief: grieving a life that didn’t turn out as you imagined, grieving an absent husband, grieving a child. Don’t let this entire spiel put you off reading it, if it’s on your radar.
3.5 stars, let’s not talk about the plague masks which shouldn’t have been there either.
Travis Baldree - Legends & Lattes*
Published 2022
Everyone is talking about this low-stakes cosy fantasy, and with good reason.
Viv is an adventurer who has decided to retire from fighting for a living and instead open a coffee shop, in a town that has never heard of coffee before. With a magical trinket to boost her luck, she gathers together a found family and introduces coffee and pastries to the masses.
The barrier to entry is really low, and I mean that in the best possible way. If you want a feel-good story in which not much bad and a whole lot of wholesome good happens, this is for you. It’s like the Taylor Jenkins Reid of Fantasy, by which I mean you’ll want to sit down and read it in record time, and afterwards you’ll barely think of it at all. In fact, the predominant feedback from the book club I read this along with was how it all made us want a cup of coffee, even the non-coffee drinkers.
3 stars, perfectly cromulent.
Robert Jordan - Lord of Chaos*
Published 1994
This is the 6th book in the Wheel of Time and the tale has definitely pivoted from young people leaving their backwater village and adventuring across the world into political intrigue and power play shenanigans. I really enjoyed this instalment the whole way through. It feels like all the characters who left Emond's Field have been set up in their positions of power and leadership to tackle the second half of this epic fantasy arc.
My main quibble (yes, I have to have one) is Rand’s romantic relationships. It’s revealed in the first book that Rand has three women on the go and it turns out they all have to be ok with this? And they are? This could be explained away by the fact that Rand is ta'veren, which means the Wheel (the history that rhymes, rather than repeats, in this universe) weaves itself around him and so normally impossible or unexplainable things just happen when he’s around. But it honestly feels like a bit of authorial wish fulfilment to have three ladies hopelessly attached to you, and there’s always one of these women with Rand at any one time, while the other two go off and have their own plotlines.
Thanks, I hate it.
4 stars, ignore all of that, I actually do like it.
Pip Williams - The Bookbinder of Jericho*
Published 2023
Twins Peggy and Maude work in the Bindery at Oxford University Press. Peggy always wanted to study at the University, but has long resigned herself to care for her intellectually disabled sister now their mother has passed away, and they plod along together.
But then it’s 1914 and war changes everything.
While Peggy learns to take what she wants, she also learns to let go of the weight of expectation from her mother, her sister, and mostly from herself, these themes summed up in this handy passage:
There was a difference between a book that was regularly opened and a book that was not. The smell, the resistance of the spine, the ease with which the pages turned. This book felt a little like ours, but I knew it would fall open on a different scene, and that the pages with creased corners or worn edges would not be the same pages Ma had read over and over. When we bound these books, I thought, they were identical. But I realised they couldn't stay that way.
As soon as someone cracks the spine, a book develops a character all its own. What impresses or concerns one reader is never the same as what impresses or concerns all others. So, each book, once read, will fall open at a different place. Each book, once read, I realised, will have told a slightly different story.
This is a stronger book than the companion The Dictionary of Lost Words*, but it stands alone from Dictionary - I loved both, but I loved this one more.
4 stars, I absolutely cried.
Jane Austen - Persuasion*
Published 1817
In which Anne Elliot is persuaded to go back on her promise to marry Frederick Wentworth, spends seven years regretting it, and then Wentworth comes back into her life.
Rather than the romance between Wentworth and Anne, it’s been fun on the past few reads to explore more deeply the other characters: this time I have especially enjoyed Admiral Croft and Captain Harville and their naval view of civilian life.
Obviously, a good novel will stand up to multiple readings and asking different questions of the text, and that’s something we inherently do with a re-read: every time we read a book again, we’re older, with new and different baggage, and we bring that understanding (and those new questions) to the text - this, to me, is what makes a capital-C Classic.
4.75 stars, a beloved comfort read.
And, here is the 2023 reads part 4 video:
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