The Last Sunrise - Robert Ryan

This isn't really the kind of book I usually read, but it came as a free gift to the book group I attend at Plaistow Library.

This is an above-average war story told from the perspective of a member of the Flying Tigers - American Volunteers at the start of World War II flying against the Japanese in Thailand, Burma and China.

It is the tale of Lee Crane and jumps around from the start of the War to post war Singapore. Lee has become a bit of a ducker and diver, but has been affected by three women in her life - Kitten, an Anglo Indian Planter's wife, Elsa (another American chancer) and Laura, who is involved in the murky world of espionage.

Robert Ryan describes the technical stuff about planes and flying in a way that a layman can understand. There is suspense, and the story really grips, but the characters are not developed enough. A nice easy read though. So I give it a rating of 7/10.

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

I've joined a group from my branch of the University of the Third Age who intend to work their way through all the works of Charles Dickens. The first book was 'Pickwick Papers' and now we've got stuck into Great Expectations. Now I've had an edition on my shelves for close on five decades, and I discovered that it was slightly abridged. I knew the work from various film adaptations (the most famous being the David Lean version - starring John Mills, Bernard Miles and Michael Redgrave). The written is much more gripping - especially the opening scene in the churchyard as Pip encounters Magwitch. I'm very glad I've finally got around to reading this - even if slightly shortened. I've now bought a cheap edition - but complete this time.
Rating: 8/10

These Foolish Things - Deborah Moggach

This is a simple tale of rootless old people cut off from their families who for a variety of reasons turn up in a residential hotel in India in place of the far worse substitute of Old People's Homes

in the UK.

India gradually works its' magic and each of them discover some truths about their lives, their families, relationships and the world.

I enjoyed this book, it might not be great literature but in a light-hearted and humerous way some simple insights upon modern life and society are revealed. Maybe it suggests that none of us are written off, and can more of our lives than just 'making do'. It is never too late to make good friends and form relationships - sometimes of the unlikeliest kind.

My rating? 8/10

84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff

Now I read this book very regularly. Every time I read it I get something different out of it. I think it depends on my mood.

I'm not sure why I love it. Maybe it is because it is written as an exchange of letters - and letter writing is something I still do on a regular basis - one friend of mine gets a letter a week - if not more regularly. It is also about books, and the love of books, reading them again ana again, the feel of books, the look of books, the discovery of books. It is about one book leading you easily to another, and getting an education through books. It is also about relationships - because although the two main characters never meet they develop a friendship that is beyond the mere commercial exchange which is the origin of this long distance correspondence - Helen in New York, and Frank in London.

And yet it is also tragic, because they never meet, never see each other, and how far do they really know each other beyond their shared love of old and well worn volumes. But maybe this is love of a different if not better kind - a melding of minds, and intellects. Maybe as pretentious as these thoughts are I love this book - it is short, and I have been known to read it in one day - I've just read 56 pages in one sitting!

My rating? 10/10

Death at La Fenice - Donna Leon

Donna Leon has written a whole series of detective murder mysteries based in Italy and featuring a police detective called Brunetti. This particular book is centred on the death of a conductor at the Venice Opera House. I was attracted to the book because of the setting, although I do have to say that I was totally confused by a map of the city which didn't really help me to get my bearings at all - the main places featured were not well marked, and as I've never been to Italy, let alone Venice I had no idea about the City being described. Donna is a good writer, although she doesn't follow a tradtionaldetective story format - she's certainly no Agatha Christie, and neither is it really a police procedure novel. She's clearly interested in exposing the innate corruption of Italian society (well it is corrupt if it's anything like how she describes) and she'd certainly researched the world of opera very well. The characters came to life but I was disatisfied by the solution - an anticlimax and too trite by far. I suspect I will read though - eventually.

My rating? 6/10

So He Takes the Dog - Jonathan Buckley

This is an easy read, but very difficult to categorise. Although it has a crime at its' centre and the narrator is a police officer, this is not really a mystery or detective story. Virtually nothing is resolved at the end.
It is well written, some excellent descriptions, none of the characters are wooden or one-dimensional. It starts with a body on the beach in the West Country. Much of the book is devoted to discovering who this well know local character - a tramp - truly was. As the book evolves he becomes less significant, while the lives of the others become changed and affected by the results of his murder.
Although this is a competent novel, I never really felt connected to the main character, and as the truth of the murder victim's early life is revealed it is neither shocking nor engaging.
Worth reading - but only if you haven't got lots more books to read of a much more compelling urgency! Rating: A solid 7/10

In Search of Leonard Woolf

I went to a talk given by Woolf's biographer, Victoria Glendinning as part of Jewish Book week. I'd seen her talk about Leonard before at the Southwold literary festival last November, but this was very different, as was being given to a Jewish audience. There were readings from Leonard's writing demonstrating how much his Jewishness impinged on his thinking. He was certainly not orthodox and non-practising, his wife Virginia was a gentile. He thought of himself as British, but came to realise that this was not how 'the establishment' viewed him. The greatest enigma to my mind was what exactly he saw in his wife. She was high-maintenance to say the least, she'd had several serious breakdowns and psycotic episodes, she was suicidal, her sister had off loaded her on Leonard to avoid having to look after her, she wasn't interested in sex (well certainly not with Leonard) and wrote a diary full of very offensive anti-semitic comments. Leonard, on the other hand was overbrimming with love and desire, but remained faithful to his wife until she died, and he provoked adoration in so many women - one of whom at least declared she had fallen in love with him on first sight. A fascinating man who deserves greater attention.