#3 - The Quickening Maze - Adam Foulds

This novel is about a group of characters centered around High Beach Private Asylum where Dr Matthew Allen and family lead their life around the insane. Two of the most prominent patients is poet John Clare and Septimus Tennyson, the poet Alfred Tennyson's brother. The novel opens with the Tennyson's coming to High Beach and Alfred deciding to stay in the area to be near his brother. In Jane Austin fashion, Hanna, Dr Allen's daughter, believes herself to be in love with Alfred Tennyson. It is only later that she falls out of love with him when she realizes there is really nothing between them. Then, Dr Allen starts a business scheme for a machine that will mass produce specialty ornamental carving. He sells the idea to the Tennyson family who invest a majority of their money in the scheme. Later, Allen loses all the money when the machine will not work.

I have not touched on my favorite parts of the novel which are the sections on both Mary and John Clare who are both patients. It was fascinating Foulds' idea about insanity and watching these characters unfold in their dementia. I think that the A story of the family and B story of the patients intersect well and I loved Foulds fast shifts of narrative. It is a great examination of people's personal deterioration and how deep the proverbial well is, financially and mentally. Of the three books I have read so far I like this the most. I can see how it didn't win the Booker though because it doesn't pack the punch of Wolf Hall. However, it is poetic, intense, and wonderfully creative. I would give this novel 4 out of 5 stars.

#2 Summertime - J.M. Coetzee

Quote from the inside cover
" A young English biographer is researching a book about the late South African writer John Coetzee, focusing on Coetzee in this thirties, at a time when he was living in a rundown cottage in the Cape Town suburbs with his widowed father - a time, the biographer is convinced, when Coetzee was finding himself as a writer. Never having met the man himself, the biographer interviews five people who knew Coetzee well, including a married woman with whom he had an affair, his cousin Margot and a Brazilian dancer whose daughter took English lessons with him. These accounts create an image of an awkward, reserved and bookish young man who finds it difficult to make a meaningful connections with the people around him."

Sadly, I think the front cover is a perfect description of exactly how the book ends up, with an inability to make a meaningful connection. I understand that Coetzee was trying to discuss the role of a writer in the public eye and, more interestingly in my opinion, the discussion of some white South Africans of Coetzee's generation feeling not at rest in their own country due to racial tensions. It was interesting how John is depicted as being disconnected from everything and everyone except his ideas. I also think it's interesting how Mr. Vincent (the researcher) interviews 5 people he's decided who are important to John, and yet from John's own diary he doesn't mention any of the people he interviews and mostly discusses his relationship with his father. I think there is an interesting discussion about how others perceive you and the inner reality of what shapes you.

I did like the book, the writing is fabulous, however due to the character's disconnect from John (the main character who only gets a voice at the very beginning and the end of the novel) I didn't become fully engrossed in the novel. I would definitely recommend this novel and would give it *** out of ***** stars.

For another guardian book review please see the following: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/06/jm-coetzee-summertime

#1 - The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

I'll post some more comprehensive critical reviews at the end, but bear with me as I give my own review. I will usually not go over too much plot in the novel, you can read other reviews or read the novel yourself since I prefer not to give any spoilers (p.s. most links to review probably contains spoilers, though for this novel that's not a big deal).

The term gorgeous came up in many of the reviews that I read about this book. While I can understand that being said about this book, the prose is well done in its simplicity and starkness very similar to the the plot devise of the glass room as modern art/architecture as the stage for the play. Actually, this work would probably make a fantastic play, hmm.. that being said it might just helped me to like the novel a little more. However, I think the difference when you read a play, or better yet see a play, you have the emotional interactions of the characters. Sometimes, I felt that was lacking in this novel. I know that many reviewers would disagree with me, but there was something just a touch cold about certain parts of the novel.

I enjoyed this novel and I think that most people would as well. My final rating is *** out of 5 stars (sorry I'm not very good with graphics but will try to get better through the year)

Here's a review from Ian Sansom at the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/24/simon-mawer-the-glass-room

Here is the Tugendhat House which is strikingly similar to the Landauer House: http://greatbuildings.com/buildings/Tugendhat_House.html"