I should have done a bit more research before buying this book.
Britain definitely struggles with its imperial history. There's a good deal of whitewasI should have done a bit more research before buying this book.
Britain definitely struggles with its imperial history. There's a good deal of whitewashing (pun intended) or outright silence on the legacies of Empire. It's shocking in hindsight that I was in a school with kids from Indian and Pakistani families, for example, but only found out about the Partition by chance during a university module. Or that I have recent Irish ancestry but still, to do this day, don't really understand the particulars of the Irish Potato Famine.
So I buy books like this to try and make up for that. I want to understand the interwoven histories of my own background and the British citizens I live in this country alongside.
This book was that, to an extent. It's a good introduction to some of the events during the Empire's frequently bizarre and mostly dark history that we don't hear much about, but had profound impact on the UK and its colonies - like the Tibet invasion, for example.
But I didn't realise until opening it that it's a book written by a Times journalist. I was willing to give benefit of the doubt, but sadly there wasn't much escaping from that sort of institutionalised worldview. So we go from talking about the evils of Empire, to a very centre-right description of tackling the legacy of Empire as being inherently divisive - bracketing it in the same category as Brexit or trans rights (as if the two are in any way comparable?) - and that we should all just hear each other out. I absolutely rankle at the thought of asking a trans person to listen to why someone feels like they shouldn't have as many rights as them. And in the context of a book about violence by state forces, it felt particularly gross.
There's a few incidences like that. Another is an important chapter about the British Museum and it being a benefactor of looting and pillaging of cultures around the world - only to drag its heels on sending those valuable cultural objects back to the countries that created them, whilst keeping the vast majority of them in storage. It's an important and incredibly timely point. Sanghera describes activist Alice Proctor's tours and how she draws attention, for example, to Hoa Hakananai'a, a maoi statue from Easter Island and how the Rapa Nui people essentially see it as "stolen and as a living ancestor".
A heartbreaking suckerpunch of a point!
Which he then swiftly undermines by stating that actually Proctor misses the most important argument for her cause - that the looting of cultures "was condemned at the time". That some elements of the British state condemned pillaging - with clearly minimal impact if the statue is still there - is somehow more important than the fact the Rapa Nui people literally see that statue as a living person imprisoned in an uncaring museum thousands of miles from home? I think I get the point he's making - that it's not us applying modern morals to past situations, that those morals aren't necessarily as novel as we think they are if Victorians were sometimes saying similar things to us. But it's articulated in a way that muddies the emotional clarity and power of Proctor's point, and feels ham-fisted. When you're dealing with incredibly sensitive issues like this, they deserve to be treated carefully and with respect.
I could go on, but I'll stop. It's still an interesting book and it's great that it's opening conversations. It's also clearly a personal project, with Sanghera's own experience of growing up in a Sikh family interwoven through it - so I do feel bad being too harsh on it. But instead I'd recommend Reni Eddo-Lodge's absolute tour de force Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race. It's specifically about black experience and history in Britain, but it touches on related themes of Empire and the politics/power of writing history - and how that impacts people in the present day....more
"This is what death does to you, it takes and takes, so that all that is left of your memories is a faint tracing of spilled ash."
A fantastic book. On"This is what death does to you, it takes and takes, so that all that is left of your memories is a faint tracing of spilled ash."
A fantastic book. One of those especially rare combinations of page-turning drama (who doesn't love the machinations of court politics?), beautiful prose and genuinely profound characterisation....more
I'm a big Mitchell fan and have read most of his books. But this one really didn't do it for me, alas. The central band characters are pretty forgettaI'm a big Mitchell fan and have read most of his books. But this one really didn't do it for me, alas. The central band characters are pretty forgettable and blend into one when you get up close - which is especially odd as the book treats them like fascinating subjects.
Huge disclaimer, I don't know what 1960s London was like. But, for all its jarring celebrity cameos, references to mods/rockers etc, it didn't give me any sense of time or place at all. It felt like the book could quite easily have been reset in 2010s London without much fuss.
It'd be a passable, enjoyable novel if it wasn't 600 pages long - and if my expectations weren't so high considering this was authored by the man who wrote (chef's kiss) Cloud Atlas....more
"She wished only that she might be that remote from the Earth and the humans who lived upon it. To glide above, to go where she wished without fear be"She wished only that she might be that remote from the Earth and the humans who lived upon it. To glide above, to go where she wished without fear because she was too high up. To reduce humans again to the size she preferred: distant ghosts trudging and winking out to reappear again, looped and unimportant."
The Strange Bird escapes from the lab she was made in and follows the call of her mysterious inward compass over a desert and into a ruined city.
Her tale overlaps with the storyline in Borne, the first book of the series - but lends a new perspective to the story. The world VanderMeer has created is brutal, hallucinogenic and captivating. But it's not shallow spectacle. The Strange Bird in particular, especially the ending, really tugs at the heartstrings....more
“It was clear now: nobody would get to be made brand new.�
TW: Addiction, alcoholism
A hard, but very much worthwhile, read. Shuggie Bain follows the ep“It was clear now: nobody would get to be made brand new.�
TW: Addiction, alcoholism
A hard, but very much worthwhile, read. Shuggie Bain follows the eponymous Shuggie, a queer kid growing up in poverty in Glasgow, and his family - primarily his mother, Agnes, who suffers from alcoholism.
The characters, and the rain-drenched 80s (I think?) Glasgow they reside in, are painted so vividly. It's not a fun or a happy read, but the way the author has crafted a world full of real-seeming people was compelling and kept drawing me in.
It depicts Agnes's alcoholism with up-front, almost brutal honesty - the cyclical nature of being on/off drink, how it chips away at a person. And how a person's loved ones try to deal with it - how it can become horrifyingly mundane, just another part of the furniture to organise one's life around....more
Probably a 3.5, but I rounded up to 4 as a I have a soft spot for this series. Not my favourite alas - the characters, world or alien lore didn't feelProbably a 3.5, but I rounded up to 4 as a I have a soft spot for this series. Not my favourite alas - the characters, world or alien lore didn't feel as well-developed as the others, and it was a little too sickly sweet in parts. ...more
I had really high expectations for this. The fundamental message - while not necessarily sparking, in 2021, the lightbulb "a-ha!" moment it might haveI had really high expectations for this. The fundamental message - while not necessarily sparking, in 2021, the lightbulb "a-ha!" moment it might have done in 1959 - is that people with lower IQs and/or learning difficulties deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. It's a powerful message and I'm sure this book helped further the conversation around how society treats those with learning difficulties like Charlie, the protagonist.
But, increasingly, I found myself enjoying this book less and less. It had some rather gaping plot holes, but most jarring was the book's misogyny - it was definitely written in 1959. All the female characters are stereotypes, with no inner lives of their own. They're all here, from the shrew, to the 'woman of loose morals', to the manic pixie dream girl, to the angel/redeemer (who exists purely for the salvation of the man). For a book that's still lauded to this day, it made for difficult reading....more
“I had become, that was certain, but without an object, without a real passion, without a determined ambition. I had wanted to become something � here“I had become, that was certain, but without an object, without a real passion, without a determined ambition. I had wanted to become something � here was the point � only because I was afraid that Lila would become someone and I would stay behind. My becoming was a becoming in her wake. I had to start again to become, but for myself, as an adult, outside of her.�
I find these books especially hard to review, everything ends up sounding glib. Elena and Lila are some of the most fully-realised, deeply complex characters I've read and this book was fantastic. It's intense, emotionally charged, touching, frustrating. Ferrante is such a great writer!...more
"You are a person. But like a person, you can be a weapon, too.�
Borne is the name Rachel the Scavenger gives to a strange blob she finds on the fur of"You are a person. But like a person, you can be a weapon, too.�
Borne is the name Rachel the Scavenger gives to a strange blob she finds on the fur of a giant, murderous bear (who happens to be sleeping at the time). The city she scrapes a living in is a ruin, decimated by toxins and weird creatures pumped out by the Company. She soon discovers that weird blob is more than it first appears to be...
A ruined city, a talking blob, a giant floating bear. This book is absolutely nuts. There's really no reason why all of that should work - but it does! It felt like a much darker Oryx & Crake with a good dash of its own originality too. I really enjoyed Annihilation so had high expectations for this, and it didn't disappoint....more
Hrm. This was expansive, interesting, and well-articulated - but not really what I thought it'd be.
Kershenbaum charts the many weird twists and turns Hrm. This was expansive, interesting, and well-articulated - but not really what I thought it'd be.
Kershenbaum charts the many weird twists and turns life on Earth has taken and uses it loosely to identify possible commonalities between Earth life and alien life. For instance, the fact that flight has evolved separately numerous times on Earth means we can say with a degree of certainty that flying alien animals should exist elsewhere in the Universe.
But I fell victim to my own assumptions/expectations. I was expecting it to be more along the lines of a scientifically-backed thought experiment by a zoologist who, using real-life examples from Earth, imagines what life might look like in Titan's icy oceans, or on a tidally-locked moon, or a planet with low gravity etc. So I ended up being a little disappointed - I want to read about giant, glowing, gliding aliens, is that too much to ask? ...more
"He was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity."
Th"He was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity."
This didn't do it for me, I'm afraid. I came in with high expectations - the book that corrupted Dorian Gray? It must be deeply dissident and debauched! Sadly, no. I think a lot must have been lost in translation, but it can read a bit like a taxonomy of random stuff the author is interested in, hung under the guise of the protagonist seeking the most refined of the refined as a means to seal himself off from the world. So we're treated to treatises on Latin works, choral traditions, jewels, perfumes, interior decoration etc. It just wasn't enjoyable to read....more
This... isn’t great. It feels like you’ve been trapped in the lift with the office gossip.
There’s moments of genuine insight re: some of the decisionThis... isn’t great. It feels like you’ve been trapped in the lift with the office gossip.
There’s moments of genuine insight re: some of the decisions/leadership (or lack thereof) around issues that plagued and divided the Party under Corbyn - namely antisemitism and Brexit.
But mostly, it’s what you’d expect from a Sunday Times political journalist. It’s super Westminister-focused and gives absolutely no insight as to what was happening around the country. It makes blanket Westminster-y statements like the expulsion of Blair’s spindoctor Alastair Campbell from the party infuriating “remainers� when in reality no-one outside of Westminster would care about him.
It also shows real bias - one moment that sticks out is a person quoted who basically says “Corbyn was nice to work for but was stressed by the pressures of the 2019 election� and then using it to insinuate Corbyn was suffering some kind of mental breakdown related to his age. I also don’t think any account of the Labour disaster in 2019 is complete without an examination of how a tiny set of billionaires own the U.K. press, and how viciously said media and the BBC attacked Corbyn while giving the Tories a free ride.
It’s final chapter about Keir Starmer really sticks in the throat too, just serving to underline how much Starmer has betrayed the values and principles he ran his leadership campaign on.
So, yeah. Genuinely depressing reading, and not just for reasons the authors might expect. Avoid....more
Somehow, in a process totally unknown to the scientists who look after them, a complex web of AIhas managed to image the happenings on alien worlds maSomehow, in a process totally unknown to the scientists who look after them, a complex web of AIhas managed to image the happenings on alien worlds many years ago. Two centres have sprung up to study these strange planets and the creatures who inhabit them, until one centre is placed under a sudden lockdown and it all starts to get a bit haywire.
It's a genuinely really cool concept for a book and I mostly enjoyed reading it. It tackles some complex questions about the limitations of our own ability to imagine forms of life alternative to our own. And I'm a sucker for any well-imagined alien. But the bits that let the book down for me were the kitchen-sink dramas which the cool alien/metaphysical bits were interlaced with. These characters were uniformly dull and pretty hard to relate to. I resented the time I had to spend with them and was desperate to get back to the alien planet bits - a situation I'm sure any researcher at Blind Lake could empathise with....more
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