The Beginning of Spring is as usual, a light and witty short novel from the amazing Penelope Fitzgerald. The writing is as intelligent and imaginative as ever: "He didn't oppose his will to the powerful slow-moving muddle around him. What he did not like, or could not change he guilelessly avoided. The current of history carried him gently with it".
Even for such a short book, the story fizzles out towards the end. I think the author was so fixated with the Russian setting of 1913 that she forgot to put in some plot. So although I didn't enjoy this as much as her other novels, it was still a joy and a cut way above most fiction.
On the back cover of The Loney it said "A masterful excursion into terror". I'm glad it wasn't. More like a psychological drama with a few thrills towards the end. I loved the narration although I'm not sure if we know his name. His surname is Smith, he is brother to the mute Hanny (Andrew, funny that's the author's name) and Father Bernard calls him Tonto.
This is a haunting tale that is both riveting and well written. Not the most ambitious prose, but immensely readable. The descriptions of the wild coastline are superb. Set somewhere in the north west where claustrophobic bay has dangerous tides that can leave you stranded on Coldbarrow, the island offshore where the two brothers find excitement and then danger.
The novel has themes of religion pitted against mysticism. The brothers, their family and friends under the guidance of Father Bernard are seeking a cure in this isolated place. But God is elusive when faced with the evil of Parkinson and Collier. A great first book that deservedly won the author the Costa first novel award.
This was my sixth Helen Dunmore novel and "Burning Bright" is one of her best. I had to keep reminding myself that this book was published twenty two years ago. Paul Parrett is a war baby (as I was) and is therefore in his late forties. He is single, a successful politician and a minister. But the story is not about him. It is about Nina who says she is nineteen but is actually three years younger.
She has left her family and moved in with her much, much older boyfriend not aware of what he does and what she is in for. This is very tasteful kind of grooming although I'm not sure if that word was in existence then. Fortunately this is not a grubby story. There are a couple of situations that don't quite add up given Nina's age, but overall this is a superbly told book full of incident and drama.
There is one possible untold relationship that suddenly dawned on me on page 168, but the author never ever gives a hint of what this might be. You just have to decide yourself.
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