Seating Arrangements

Author: Maggie Shipstead


Published: 1 July 2013


Publisher: HarperCollins - Blue Door


What They Say: Maggie Shipstead’s irresistible social satire, set on an exclusive New England island over a wedding weekend in June, provides a deliciously biting glimpse into the lives of the well-bred and ill-behaved.

Winn Van Meter is heading for his family’s retreat on the pristine New England island of Waskeke. Normally a haven of calm, for the next three days this sanctuary will be overrun by tipsy revelers as Winn prepares for the marriage of his daughter Daphne to the affable young scion Greyson Duff. Winn’s wife, Biddy, has planned the wedding with military precision, but arrangements are sideswept by a storm of salacious misbehavior and intractable lust: Daphne’s sister, Livia, who has recently had her heart broken by Teddy Fenn, the son of her father’s oldest rival, is an eager target for the seductive wiles of Greyson’s best man; Winn, instead of reveling in his patriarchal duties, is tormented by his long-standing crush on Daphne’s beguiling bridesmaid Agatha; and the bride and groom find themselves presiding over a spectacle of misplaced desire, marital infidelity, and monumental loss of faith in the rituals of American life.

Hilarious, keenly intelligent, and commandingly well written, Shipstead’s deceptively frothy first novel is a piercing rumination on desire, on love and its obligations, and on the dangers of leading an inauthentic life, heralding the debut of an exciting new literary voice.

What Sheli Says: This book centres around a WASPy family in New England as they have a family gathering for a wedding. The family turn out to be less than perfect and the inevitable family bickering starts and skeletons start falling out of the cupboard.

This story is well put together and a good debut, but not a lot happens. I have found this symptomatic of a few literary novels over the last two years or so, but it doesn't take away from the enjoyment. I wasn't sure if I would like this book at first, but enjoyed reading it although it won't make it's way onto my favourites list.

A little reminiscent of The Marriage Plot and made me picture a Stepford Wives-esque family. All in all, a good read and definitely recommended for a literary soap opera!

I received this book as an advance review copy from Lovereading in exchange for an honest review.

Sheli's Rating: 7/10

Frances and Bernard

Author: Carlene Bauer

Published: April 2013

What They Say: In the summer of 1957, Frances and Bernard meet at an artists’ colony. She finds him faintly ridiculous, but talented. He sees her as aloof, but intriguing. Afterward, he writes her a letter. Soon they are immersed in the kind of fast, deep friendship that can take over—and change the course of—our lives.

From points afar, they find their way to New York and, for a few whirling years, each other. The city is a wonderland for young people with dreams: cramped West Village kitchens, rowdy cocktail parties stocked with the sharp-witted and glamorous, taxis that can take you anywhere at all, long talks along the Hudson River as the lights of the Empire State Building blink on above.

Inspired by the lives of Flannery O’Connor and Robert Lowell, Frances and Bernard imagines, through new characters with charms entirely their own, what else might have happened. It explores the limits of faith, passion, sanity, what it means to be a true friend, and the nature of acceptable sacrifice. In the grandness of the fall, can we love another person so completely that we lose ourselves? How much should we give up for those we love? How do we honor the gifts our loved ones bring and still keep true to our dreams?

In witness to all the wonder of kindred spirits and bittersweet romance, Frances and Bernard is a tribute to the power of friendship and the people who help us discover who we are.


What Elaine Says: A novel, in letter form, that follows the life of two fictitious writers (inspired by the lives of Flannery O’Connor and Robert Lowell), their love affair with each other and with God. 

Having read Marilynne Robinson's spectacular epistolary novel, "Gilead" last year, I'm afraid I found the religious discussion in this a little flimsy. And while I'm aware that comparing a Pulitzer Prize winning author, Robinson, with a debut novelist, Bauer, is deeply unfair, I'm afraid it was there in my mind.  Moments of theology that could have led to an interesting discussion were touched upon but the novels length (and love story) prevented them from being examined fully.  

The main love story however was very engaging. Bernard, a poet and Frances an aspiring writer, meet at an artists colony.  Drawn to her talent Bernard begins a correspondence with Frances that will last through their lifetime. Through, faith and art they form a love that will either support them or break them.

Touching, and intriguing, I enjoyed the novel and would probably read more from Bauer.

Please note this was an advance review copy 

Elaine's Rating: 7/10

Quotes:

"I can say only this very artless, sweet-hearted thing, which is that you are velvet-skinned and freckled, and I will not be able to sleep tonight because of it."

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The Tin Horse: A Novel

Author: Janice Steinberg

Published: Jan 2013

What They Say: For fans of the beloved classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a sweeping, multi-generational story about twin sisters, one of whom disappears without a trace in 1939, set in the historically Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights, California, and modern-day Los Angeles.

After years of resistance to the idea, feisty octogenarian Elaine Greenstein finally decides to move from the home in which she raised her family to a retirement community. While she's packing her possessions, she finds a clue to the whereabouts of her twin sister, who disappeared from the little-known Jewish mecca of Boyle Heights on the eve of WWII when the girls were eighteen. Plunging back into memories of her childhood and the momentous historical facts that impacted her family, Elaine recalls her family's stories-those from the Old Country, and tales of immigration travails, and the heartache of being the "smart" one of the twins instead of the "popular" one.

In an utterly unforgettable, salty voice, Elaine revives the memories of growing up with her twin sister Barbara, her parents, her Zayde, her aunts and her younger sisters as the Greensteins bear the disappointments, heartbreaks, and fallout from the immigrant baggage that they have been unable to shed despite settling in southern California-the land of sunshine and opportunity, fig trees and equality.

Janice Steinberg's novel is not only about the stories that make up our family histories, but also about those we tell ourselves in order to believe in who we've made ourselves out to be.

What Elaine Says: This book got off to a very good start with me.  The very first chapter is titled 'Elaine'.  This made me happy.  Thankfully, the fact that the leading character is called Elaine is not the only reason to like this novel.

An interesting 'multi generational' piece, The Tin House follows Elaine as she thinks back over her life and in particular the mysterious dissappearance of the her twin sister.  It's nicely written and Steinberg provides us with an interesting insight into life in America as a Jew after the war.

One thing let this book down for me however.  Steinberg spends a lot of time explaing certain aspects of Jewish culture or defining Jewish words.  This is fine but, at the beginning especially, it interupped the narrative flow and distracted from the story telling.  I felt that Steinberg underestimated her own writing ability and her reader by doing this.  It's a minor quibble but one worth mentioning.

All in all an interesting novel which also offers a fresh insight into life in Los Angeles past.

Elaine's Rating: 6/10

Quotes:

"As it turned out, Mama's skill, the one that paved her way to America, lay in neither needlework nor theatre.  Instead, it was the art she had first exercised in her cradle, when Meyr adored her, and it flowered in her family's cafe.  It was her ability to charm older men.  This gift, like her infant winsomeness, she possessed in all innocence."

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The Yips: A Novel

Author: Nicola Barker

Published: July 2012

What They Say:

The Man Booker Prize–nominated novel by one of the most original authors of our time

Storm clouds are gathering above the bar of the less-than-exclusive Thistle Hotel. Stuart Ransom, a jet-setting, supermodel-chasing pro golfer with an extravagant ego and a career nearing the end of a spectacular decline, is drinking his way through the night. Desperate for attention, he strikes up free-flowing conversations with anyone who will listen. But as he banters with Jen, the impish barmaid with a talent for telling tall tales rivaled only by Stuart’s own, the night takes an extraordinary turn. Among those caught up in the unfolding drama are a tattooist with a mad mother and a love of anything from the 1940s; a free-thinking Muslim sex therapist and his considerably more conservative wife; the mysterious Vicki, the sister of Stuart’s defiant yet curiously devoted manager; and a misguided female vicar of the Church of England and her husband, Gene, the Thistle’s hapless bartender. They are a highly entertaining and eccentric bunch, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. “There enter in questions of what it is to be consumed by love or lust, by shame, by the longing to be someone else or nobody” (The Guardian), and The Yips unites them in an absorbing, exhilarating tour de force.

What Sheli Says: I requested this book from NetGalley as it had been on my wishlist since it was longlisted for the Man Booker this year. I was pretty excited when it was approved and couldn't wait to get started!

The book itself is written in an interesting style and we get an insight into a number of very different characters lives and they all become entangled in a huge spiders web with each other. I really liked the style of the book and it felt a little bit like being a nosy neighbour and seeing a little bit of each of their worlds. I really liked that my initial opinions of the characters changed throughout the book.

I really loved the first 60% of the book and flew through it. My favourite character was Valentine. I loved her quirky ways and her spiralling back story including her agoraphobia. My least favourite was Ransom, obviously written as an unlikeable character, but by the second half of the book I just didn't care about him.

I felt that for me I would have preferred the book being a bit shorter and found that the end was a bit of an anti-climax. Overall, I enjoyed it, but probably won't rush out to read any more by the author.


Sheli's Rating: 6/10


Quotes:

“The trigger has been squeezed, the deathly mechanism has been enabled, the fatal course of a bullet has been set. No amount of bleating or praying or wailing of cajoling can halt it or stall it or call it back.”

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Sweet Tooth

Author: Ian McEwan

Published: 2012

What They Say: Serena Frome, the beautiful daughter of an Anglican bishop, has a brief affair with an older man during her final year at Cambridge, and finds herself being groomed for the intelligence service. The year is 1972. Britain, confronting economic disaster, is being torn apart by industrial unrest and terrorism and faces its fifth state of emergency. The Cold War has entered a moribund phase, but the fight goes on, especially in the cultural sphere. Serena, a compulsive reader of novels, is sent on a secret mission codenamed Sweet Tooth, which brings her into the literary world of Tom Healey, a promising young writer. First she loves his stories, then she begins to love the man. Can she maintain the fiction of her undercover life? And who is inventing whom? To answer these questions, Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage - trust no one.

What Sheli Says: I was desperate to read this book when it was published earlier this year and when I finally got my hands on a copy I was not disappointed.

It is the story of a young girl recruited to the British Security Services and gets sent on a mission, Sweet Tooth. However, although I really enjoyed the secret agent aspects of this book, I think Serena’s relationships with others are captured beautifully and are really the triumph of the book.

I was a little worried that as this was a book told from a girls point of view, but is written by a man. I really think that McEwan did an amazing job of this though as I did not feel that it felt masculine in any way. Serena was a really likeable character, and I felt something of an affinity with her and her reclusive, bookish ways.

This book is a love story, a thriller and a brilliant book about books. It really captures Serena’s loves in a sensitive, but realistic way, has some great detail about her time in Mi5 and also had some great literary references that laid out the map of her life. There are also a number of stories within this story, each more weird and wonderful than the last.

I absolutely loved this book and found it difficult to put down. I will definitely be seeking out more of McEwan’s work.

Sheli's Rating: 10/10

Quotes:

 “There was, in my view, an unwritten contract with the reader that the writer must honour. No single element of an imagined world or any of its characters should be allowed to dissolve on an authorial whim. The invented had to be as solid and as self-consistent as the actual. This was a contract founded on mutual trust.”



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