Apple Tree Yard, The Rosie Project and The Go-Between



I read this book on the strength of Louise Doughty's excellent "Whatever You Love". However it fell too much into the thriller category for me to appreciate what at times was good writing. So it is hard for me to be objective. I have to say that I have never read a book where I wanted so desperately to skip to the last page. The tension builds all the way through to what was a bit of a let down at the end, given the expectations of the first sentence of the prologue. But I tend to find that with thrillers. I always seem to find too many plot holes and actions that are quite unbelievable. But if you are prepared to go with the flow, this will be an enjoyable read.

This is such a fun book. It's not a literary masterpiece but for a few days it had me totally hooked. Any book that can make me laugh out loud has my vote. And there are moments when the author does come out with some devastating comments on the human condition. The narrator, handsome Professor Don Tillman, an expert in genetics, has never had a proper girlfriend due to his brain being differently wired to other people. But along comes Rosie, and his life is turned upside down. I would normally avoid anything like a romantic comedy in fiction, but this is way different. All because of the weird and wonderful man that is Don Tillman. The nearest I can think of as a movie is "(500) Days of Summer" and Graeme Simsion's book will obviously make a great screenplay. There were times I just had to put it down in fear of finishing it too quickly. It was that good.

Why did I pick this book? There is a Q&A session at the end of Steff Penney's "The Invisible Ones" where she picked "The Go-Between" as a book she had wished she had written. Now a classic, and a made into a movie I cannot remember, it sounded a good choice. It is narrated by Leo Colston, a boy approaching his thirteenth birthday who is spending the summer holidays at Brandham Hall in Norfolk, the home of a school friend. The title says it all about what happens in this famous book. It starts with the equally famous line "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there". But I preferred the later "what does it matter to anyone what I was like, then or now? But every man is important to himself at one time or another". There are some nice passages. However, I found the book quite dated and old fashioned. The prose is variable, sometimes magical, occasionally tedious. The writing did not flow like some recent novels I have read. But the story is terrific and the feeling of it ending in tragedy pervades the book as much as the abnormal summer heat of 1900. But funnily enough, the conclusion is perhaps the best part of the novel. It was worth the wait.