The English Department, St Columba’s College, Dublin 16, Ireland
Reading Recommendations for Parents, Summer 2017 In 2010 I started an annual (sometimes biennial) list of suggested reading for the summer (mostly of recently-published paperbacks). These were originally directed at parents of our pupils, but are of course I hope of interest to lots of other people. Now here’s the 2017 version, with 26 options for your summer hammock. If you’re interested in some more recommendations, I have a fortnightly newsletter during term-time at http://eepurl.com/bYq-Br. Or scan this: Happy reading. Julian Girdham, Head of English Department (Dates are usually for paperback publication in Ireland/UK. *in earlier lists signifies a longer review on www.sccenglish.ie).
2017 FICTION All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan (Black Swan, 2017) This year we have studied Donal Ryan's novel The Spinning Heart with Leaving Certificate candidates as one of our three comparative texts. An achievement with real bravura. 21 different narrators in post-Celtic Tiger rural Ireland, but it's not just an exercise: it's also funny and moving. In Ryan's latest novel, All We Shall Know, again he is brilliant at getting voices just right: in this case largely one rather than the multiplicity of the previous book. The book is moving, particularly in the relationship between the central character, whose life spins out of control, and her tenderly-loving elderly father. Is there anyone else writing now who gets the variety of Hiberno-English so well in fiction? Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee (Arrow, 2016). Nothing is going to match To Kill a Mockingbird, but Harper Lee’s controversially ‘rediscovered’ first version of the classic still has lots of pleasures, and is well worth reading. Perhaps piqued by it not being Mockingbird, commentators were sniffy about it on its publication a year before Lee’s death, but its evocation of the American South in the 1950s is certainly worth visiting.
Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither by Sara Baume (Windmill, 2015). This story of a lonely man in his 50s who adopts a mutilated dog is a pleasure to read, with much lovely writing. Joseph O’Connor wrote in a review in the Irish Times, "The action begins in coastal East Co Cork, perhaps near the oil refinery at Whitegate, before narrator and dog are forced by local misunderstanding or mishap to take to the road as fugitives. Ray includes his phone number in the novel, but I was afraid to ring it. Baume writes him so persuasively that I felt he would answer." Summer Before the Dark by Volker Weidermann (Pushkin Press, 2017). Wiedermann’s novel is a re-imagining of sea-side Ostend in Belgium in 1936, where artists and intellectuals gather before ‘the dark’ descends. Central is the Austrian novelist and short-story writer Stefan Zweig, and his relationship with his friend the writer Joseph Roth. The Financial Times review had it right: “elegiac atmosphere, extreme personalities, tense political backdrop and tragic central relationships”. Earthly Remains by Donna Leon (Heinemann, 2017). Another excellent outing from the reliable author of the Brunetti mysteries. Here, the main character is not so much Venice itself as the lagoon and its islands, vividly evoked once again. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Simon & Schuster, 2011). Set in Maine, this tells the story of a retired teacher and the people whose lives intersect with hers. A more precise description would be: it is a series of interconnected short stories, most of which feature the eponymous teacher, but its form is baggy, wandering, often surprising, always interesting. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (Penguin, 2017). Strout’s more recent short novel centres on the relationship between the main character, who finds herself in hospital and separated from her husband and children, and her mother, who had seemed estranged but who now returns to keep Lucy company. What follows is a powerful exploration of their relationship, and of Lucy’s childhood. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Fleet, 2017). This is already a big success, winning the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and will become even more so now that Barry Jenkins, director of the Oscar-winning Moonlight, is producing a television version for Amazon. It is an alternative history of the American South, and imagines the famous ‘railroad’ for escaping slaves as an actual rather than metaphorical one. Thrilling and moving in equal turns, this is a new and powerful vision of the African-American experience.
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Conclave by Robert Harris (Arrow, 2017). Another winner from Harris. This is part-fascinating insight into the election of a Pope, partnonsense (especially the ending). Perfect for the beach.
Short Fiction A short section on short novels or novellas. You get the idea. Reunion by Fred Uhlman (Vintage Classics, 1997). This evocative short novel tells the story of the friendship between Hans (Jewish) and Konradin (aristocratic), starting in the early 1930s, a relationship which of course becomes shaped by the massive turmoil of history. It is extraordinary how much power Uhlman packs into 80 pages. The Visitor by Maeve Brennan (New Island, 2006). This is Brennan’s 'rediscovered' 1940s novella The Visitor. It is perfectly made, quite depressing, claustrophobic and evocative. Joyce in Dubliners is an echo, and the Henry James of Washington Square (Clare Boylan in her introduction references The Turn of the Screw). Nights at the Alexandra by William Trevor (Penguin, 2015) In our Arts Week in March we held an event to mark the passing of this most distinguished Old Columban writer. The novelist Joseph O’Connor spoke about Trevor’s work and read (beautifully) his story ‘Another Christmas’. I spoke about Trevor’s connection with SCC (you can read this talk here). If you want a way into Trevor’s fiction, this perfect book is a great start. A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler (Picador, 2015) A very short novel which takes on, as it says on the lid of the tin, an entire life. Set in the Austrian Alps, Seethaler evokes the life of Andreas Egger in a remote mountain village, which in the course of that life he rarely leaves. The author’s view is steady and unsentimental. Read it in one unbroken afternoon or evening to appreciate its skilful arc.
And finally, Our Souls At Night by Kent Haruf (Picador, 2016) The 2016 SCC English book of the year: As Kent Haruf was dying he wrote this final short novel, a beautifully-created story of the surprising relationship between two older people, Addie Moore and Louis Waters. Within the relatively few pages Haruf packs the sense of the amplitude of entire lives. It is told in his characteristically understated manner, and its ending is sad, beautifully modulated and deeply moving. Highly recommended.
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2017 NON-FICTION Sapiens: a brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (Vintage, 2015). The great skilful sweep of this book’s stories of Homo Sapiens on our planet is a fine prompt to sit back and reflect in the summer holidays. It’s also quite an antidote to what seems like a constant wave of horror in the news. Any mere current event looks puny in the perspective of all of human history. Particularly important is Harari's emphasis on how the stories we tell ourselves shape our history (rather than, necessarily, actual events).
The Cyber Effect: a pioneering cyberpsychologist explains how human behaviour changes online by Mary Aiken (Spiegel and Grau, 2017). The influence of what Aiken called ‘the cyber effect’ is a cause for anxiety for many parents, and in this book she looks at it in informed and great detail. She admits that the 'cyber effect' on all of us, but particularly children, is still uncertain: there has not been enough time yet to gather data. There is plenty of food for thought here (the chapters cover topics such as 'cyberchondria', online dating, the Deep Web and pornography), but the most compelling parts are about children and teenagers: "We have a shallow end of the swimming pool for children. Where is the shallow end of the pool on the Internet?" And for all of us: "Once behavior mutates in cyberspace, where a significant number of people participate, it can double back around and become a norm in everyday life, something I call cybermigration. This means that the implications of the online experience and environment are ever evolving and profound, and impact us all—no matter where we live or spend time." Reading for Pleasure by Kenny Pieper (Independent Thinking Press, 2016) Although designed primarily for English teachers, there is plenty here of value for parents too. How do you encourage your children to read? More and more parents are asking for advice in the screenage. Kenny is a teacher in Scotland who writes with engagement and passion about this vital matter.
SPQR: a history of ancient Rome by Mary Beard (Liveright, 2017) Sometimes it is good just to be in the presence of a particular sensibility, and Mary Beard's seems just right just now: calm, sceptical, amused, balanced about history. There are lots of great stories, of course, but the main note is her relentless clarity about how true history can be when evidence is relatively scanty. A fine work of popular but deeplyinformed history.
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The Return: fathers, sons and the land in between by Hisham Matar (Penguin, 2016) This is a gripping, anguished, powerful story of Matar's attempts to find out what happened to his father, Jaballa, who disappeared during Gadaffi's long and terrible rule in Libya, a country which since the dictator's death has taken a still more terrible turn. Cleverlands by Lucy Crehan (Unbound, 2016) Subtitled “The secrets behind the success of the world's education superpowers”, this is an accessible perspective on the school systems of Finland, Japan, Singapore, Shanghai and Canada. Prompted by the disproportionately-influential PISA results, Crehan set off on this insightful and always interesting journey around these education systems. Lots to think about for parents and teachers.
Dadland: a journey into uncharted territory by Keggie Carew (Vintage, 2017) This won the 2016 Costa Book of the Year Award. As Keggie Carew’s father started to slide into dementia, she began to try to secure the details of his past, particularly his role as a special agent in Burma in the Second World War. The memoir moves between past and present, and will strike a chord in any ‘child’ whose parent has moved into their final years. The Hurley Maker’s Son by Patrick Deeley (Black Swan, 2017) Patrick Deeley’s lovely memoir is set in rural East Galway in his childhood, prompted by his father’s early death in an accident. This world has now largely gone, but Deeley (a poet and retired school principal) recreates it beautifully, especially the semi-wild area called the Callows where children ran free.
The Shepherd’s Life: a tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks (Penguin, 2016) This book tells the story both of Rebanks himself as he grows up in a shepherding home in the Lake District, and of the community. He writes that 'there is a poetic fantasy that shepherds, and farmers, live a kind of isolated existence alone with nature... At times this is physically true ... but the whole landscape is a complex web of relationships between farms, flocks and families.' It is a book about deep expertise, rootedness in a place, and a commitment to a way of life. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Text Publishing, 2015) An outstanding book, which takes the form of a letter from Coates to his teenage son, advising on what awaits him as a young black man in contemporary America. Naturally this involves the author’s analysis of his own earlier years. Essential reading for anyone wishing to think about one of America’s constants, and indeed for anyone interested in parents and children. 5
The House by the Lake: one house, five families and a hundred years of German history by Thomas Harding (Picador, 2017) This excellently tells a century of stories about Berlin, and Germany; this is history by a vertical drilling down through the events which happen to a single summer house near the German capital. The First World War, Weimar, the Third Reich, the DDR, reunification - all in such a short period. Harding's Hanns and Rudolf is also worth reading.
H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald (Vintage, 2015) McDonald’s Costa Prize-winning extraordinary story starts in grief (the death of her father) and moves on to her attempts to tame and train a goshawk. Beautifully written, this is an intense and unusual read.
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