MR COLDRICK recommends… In the Library’s continuing series of book selections by members of staff, Mr Coldrick recommends some of the books that have influenced him over the years. All of Mr Coldrick’s recommendations are available in the Library, except Sinister Street by Compton McKenzie. He will gladly lend you his copy.
SINISTER STREET by Compton Mackenzie The English novelist Compton Mackenzie (1883-1971) wrote over 90 books and today is best known for TV and film adaptations of some of his work such as Monarch of the Glen and Whisky Galore. His novel Sinister Street published just before WW1 is a coming of age book exploring themes of friendship, identity and religious obsession. Although a long book at 800 plus pages it is very engaging and highly recommended to the older pupil.
TO SERVE THEM ALL MY DAYS by R F Delderfield This very moving novel is about a young man returning from WW1 to take up a teaching post in a small English boarding school. It is a touching and affectionate portrayal of life in an English public school between the two world wars and will appeal especially to anyone with experience of boarding school. Another novel by R F Delderfield also recommended is Horseman Riding By, a long and epic novel set in rural Devon and following the trials and tribulations of the Craddock family and their tenants over a 50 year period.
FINNEGAN’S WAKE by James Joyce In many people’s opinion Joyce’s last great work is simply unreadable. So why read it? Well don’t, at least not initially. This remarkable though highly obscure work is best treated like music and repeatedly listened to before turning to the printed page. Even then Finnegan’s Wake is more studied than read, with much use made of the many commentaries and critical analyses available (the library has an excellent and humorous guide by David Norris). The library also has a CD recording of selections from Finnegan’s Wake and I recommend you listen to this. The book comes alive when listened to and as the work is cyclic there is no need to start at the beginning. I advise starting with the last ‘Ricorso’ chapter. So what is Finnegan’s Wake about, this book of the night with its dream logic and multiple layers, its radical use of language, its extraordinary range of references and illusions, its humour and musicality, its wonderful affirmation of humanity? Well for over 60 years people have been arguing about its meaning and purpose so make up your own mind as you listen to it or read it.
POSSESSION By A S Byatt Possession is a wonderful novel by the English writer A S Byatt and won the 1990 Booker prize. It is a literary detective story with a romantic theme and deals with two modern academics who become romantically involved while researching the secret love affair between two Victorian poets. It is a well written and very enjoyable story and one of A S Byatt’s more accessible books. Her recent novel, The Childrens Book, was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker prize and while a long rambling work, is recommended especially to those with an interest in art.
BORDER CROSSING by Pat Barker While Pat Barker is best known for her trilogy of novels (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road) dealing with the survival and treatment of shellshocked soldiers from World War 1, she has written many other fine and hard hitting novels. I recommend Border Crossing, a novel from 2001, and while the work has a controversial theme (an elderly woman murdered by a 10 year old child), it’s portrayal of the relationship between the child as a young adult released from prison and the psychologist who treated him makes disturbing reading.
SUITE FRANCAISE by Irene Nemirovsky While this very moving and semiautobiographical novel was written during the Second World War it has only recently been published from the author’s notes which survived the war. Irene Nemirovsky was a successful French novelist from a Russian Jewish background who perished in Auschwitz concentration camp. The novel deals with a well-off Parisian Jewish family fleeing Paris during the German occupation and its accounts of French collaboration with the occupying forces caused some controversy. An attraction of this novel is the author’s skill in creating a wide range of very real and believable characters whether they are the fleeing Jewish family, the French authorities or the German soldiers. Nemirovsky’s many novels, published and widely read before WW2, are now once again readily available and her novella La Bal is recommended with its tale of the cruel trick played by a vengeful teenager on her parents.
THE WHITE HOTEL by D M Thomas I have always been surprised that the Cornish novelist and poet D M Thomas is not more widely read. He has produced a number of very imaginative novels and while a fine poet in his own right has also produced acclaimed translations and biographies of the Russian poets Pushkin and Akhmatova. His best known work, The White Hotel, is a tragic and haunting novel more suited to the older pupil and intertwines themes ranging from the Holocaust to Freud’s theories of the unconscious. This is a work that makes a profound impact and will stay in the mind of the reader for many years.
MORNINGS IN JENIN by Susan Abulhawa This harrowing and very sad novel covering four generations of a Palestinian family highlights the sufferings and injustices suffered by the Palestinian people over the past 60 years. The author Susan Abulhawa is very involved in promoting Palestinian rights and has founded the children’s charity Playgrounds for Palestine. She maintains a very informative online site called Morningsinjenin.com.
THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt This well-written murder mystery and psychological thriller about a group of classics students in a small American university was an unexpected bestseller in 1992 for novice author Donna Tartt. Apart from short stories she has written only one other novel, The Little Friend, published in 2002 but fans of her work eagerly await her next book which is rumoured to be due in the very near future.
A WHISPERED NAME by William Brodrick This is the third Father Anselm novel by the barrister and former monk William Brodrick. It deals with a mystery surrounding the court martial and execution of a young Irish soldier during WW1. It is harrowing in its descriptions of the horrors of war and of the trauma of all involved in the court martial and subsequent execution. The First World War has generated a vast literature and many pupils will be familiar with How Many Miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnston, with Regeneration by Pat Barker and with the poetry of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. Other recommended novels of this genre are Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, and A Long Long Way by the Irish writer Sebastian Barry.