2015 books: 52-56

[the_siobhan]

    

Elvis Over England by Barry Hines I have no idea where this book came from, but given that it has Elvis in the title I do have a pretty solid theory. Eddie is the second teddy boy in his small working-class town in England. The first is his best friend Jet. Elvis is their favourite musician and like working-class boys everywhere they spend their free time drinking, fucking and fighting, not necessarily in that order. Thirty-five years later Jet is dead, Eddie is unemployed and miserable and decides on a whim to go on the road-trip he and his best friend once planned but never got around to taking.

Essentially this is a story about people who can't come to terms with the past. It flips back and forth between pathos and high comedy. Unfortunately Hines writes with a sledgehammer so while the story has a lot of potential his execution doesn't really pull it off.


    

Chatterton by Peter Ackroyd Another one I figure must be Axel's. First of all, I gotta say I loved this book. The plot is a really odd one - an unsuccessful poet stumbles across a painting that he believes to be proof that Thomas Chatterton - an 18th Century poet and forger - faked his own suicide. Hijinks ensue. The plot is a weird without being fantastical and the best part of the book is the characters. Almost every person is demented and hilarious. The dialogue is fast-paced and catty and absolutely wonderful. I would love to see this made into a movie.

    

The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan I think I got this one from Fiona. The story is about the relationship between the main character, Olivia and her half-sister Kwan. Kwan has "Yin eyes" which means she can see and converse with the dead. Kwan's relationship with the dead is a major part of her life, and through Kwan the dead influence Olivia's life as well. There are certain types of personalities that just exasperate me and make me want to slap people. (It's the main reason I can't watch Friends or Seinfeld when those shows were popular.) This book has a bunch of them, including the main character. Especially the main character. In spite of that it's a beautifully written book and I loved every page.

    

Who Has Seen The Wind by W O Mitchell This is a Canadian classic that normally gets taught in school, so I have no idea how I managed to avoid reading it before now. It's essentially about a boy growing up in a small town on the Saskatchewan prairie, his experiences with death and his questions about the meaning of life. I can see why it's such a popular book for English courses, School Boards love that kind of shit. Interspersed with the chapters about the boy are short vignettes about some of the other residents of the town. This does make it a little more interesting, becuase there isn't a lot that really happens. The writing still manages to be very dense and evocative. It's a nice piece of writing in spite of being a bit dated.

    

The Eye of the Heart: Short Stories from Latin America edited by Barbara Howes I have no idea where this book came from. It might have been a text book at some time, there are sentences underlined and notes scrawled in the margins. It's pretty much what it says on the tin. There is a huge variety in type of story, which is a plus. The most interesting thing for me is how unfamiliar the cadence is in most of them. They writers use a very different pattern of "plot beats" which can be a bit disorienting. I also wonder about the translations - the language comes across as very formal and I would be interested in knowing if that's also true in the original languages.