Reviews by Richard (24)

Richard 2024-11-21 Four Seasons in Rome

I need to throw in another coin

Four Seasons in Rome

Very believable account of a naive young mid-western American abroad in Rome - a young American with the added problem of living there for a year with his wife and newly born twins without a word of Italian and very little money. As a writer though, he brilliantly encapsulates the craziness, dirt, history, art and beauty of the Eternal City, as well as the drama, fatigue and wonder of parenting twins for the first year of their lives. I simply loved this book and would take it with me when I go to Rome again, as I surely will, having tossed a coin in the Trevi Fountain many years ago.

Richard 2024-01-08 Haven

Slow but gripping

Haven

Set in seventh-century Ireland a manic priest and scholar has a vision that he is to establish a monastery away from the sinful world. Taking two other monks, a young novice an grizzled veteran this is the story of their endeavour. Sometimes the novel reads like a d.i.y. handbook for Robinson Crusoe and most times travels at the speed of grass growing. Nevertheless the plot gradually tightens to an unexpected ending. If the book did nothing else, it re-enforced my belief in the cruelty and hypocrisy of some relegions.

Richard 2023-11-01 Hinterland

When will we ever learn

Hinterland

https://www.new-books-in-german.com/recommendations/beneath-drachenwand-mountain/ “When will we ever learn?” It is a story set towards the end of the Second World War as the situation for Germany and its allies is rapidly getting worse. The central character, Veit, a soldier since the beginning of the war is wounded in Russia, and returns to his native Austria to recover. There he realises that the idealism he grew up with has started to fracture and in some cases has become more extreme. The book weaves the personal narrative of Veit around letters to and from other characters, the effect of this is to give a sometimes terrifying picture of how people try to make “normal” lives in the abnormal conditions of deprivation, bombing, death and persecution. It is a work of fiction but it is cleverly written and the reader gets the impression that the author is quoting from real letters from real people. Despite the hope for a post war generated by Veit’s love affair with his married neighbour I found this a very depressing book in the context of the situations in the world today. We are of a generation whose own relatives have witnessed the horrors and effects of the last World War at first hand. Now it seems that their memories are echoed by the events of today. When will we ever learn.

Richard 2023-10-11 Instructions for a Heat Wave

Gripping

Instructions for a Heat Wave

I really enjoyed this book from the author of Hamnet, amongst others. The novel is set in the heatwave of 1976 which I endured in London. Hosepipe bans, a minister for Droughts, washing up water directed via a Heath Robinson contraption fabricated from odd bits of guttering, drainpipes, plumbing parts - all held together with string and wire - onto a patch of bare earth which used to masquerade as a lawn, and temperatures regularly hitting the thirties. This is the story of an Irish family not only struggling with the enervating heat but also the fact that their elderly father has popped out for a newspaper and not returned. Two estranged sisters and their brother return to the family home to help their mother find him. The narrative bounces between the mother and children as they work their way though their own problems of infidelity and insecurity whilst searching for their missing father. Always beautifully written, sometimes funny and sometimes sad, this a great book.

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