COLD COMFORT FARM

STELLA GIBBONS

Five stars!

I loved this novel! Witty and engaging from the opening paragraph, Gibbons provides a parody which pushes beyond irony to all out sarcasm, and yet is never cynical. Whilst each character on the farm is certainly a fictional 'type', the overall tone of the novel remains non judgmental since the peculiarities of the London sophisticates are flawlessly balances by the idiosyncrasies of their rural counterparts. The result is hilarious and, just like the setting of the novel, completely timeless. A wonderful (if not hugely under values) novel, which is well worth a read.

PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER

PATRICK SUSKIND

Three Stars


After reading the final page and closing the book I found the chorus of OMC's 'How Bizarre' ringing in my head.

This is undoubtedly the strangest book I have ever read. It is neither historical fiction, fantasy, nor a horror story- and yet it almost fits under each of those umbrellas. Classification aside, It's a story about the dangers of hubris and obsession, and an account of the terrible possibilities of social displacement.

A hypnotic tale that somehow makes laborious details engrossing.

THE LIFE OF PI

YANN MARTEL

2 Stars

Upon eventually reaching land after his ordeal at sea Pi asserts that he 'barely had the strength to be happy'- a statement which pretty much sums up how I felt when I finally finished the novel. It was an ordeal to get through. For me, the short 'Part Three' of the novel was the highlight of the book. In those short final chapters the novels themes are condensed and the reader is ultimately left to assess the nature of truth, the power of stories, and the possibilities of faith. Pity that the journey to get there was in turn overly and, staggeringly, under descriptive.