Shortlisted for the Orange Prize
Shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award 2003

Shena Mackay from Edinburgh


"Ravishing prose ... if I read a better novel this year, I shall think myself lucky" (Sunday Telegraph)

Those kind of comments and awards make me nervous - so I'll read this with trepidation. I mean what if I'm not literary enough to 'get' this book, let alone like it.

#4 TBR challenge

TBR-vuoren louhintahaaste 1.12.07-30.4.08 - TBR mountain challenge

Starting reading this today 3.12.07 as the first book on this challenging journey :)

I loved the opening pages of this book - but then when I started to read I realised that this is a book you have to take slowly - savouring every minute. The language is rich - and poetic - and to be honest a little challenging even for me - I've taken time to look up a few words and to think why the author chose them. That's good to do (for a change) but for that reason I'd say this book (so far at least - I'm only on page 12!) isn't one for the train, plane etc.

Best quote so far
Familiar premises were boarded up or refurbished as inconvenience stores where to a succession of propriotors [he] was just another doddery old geezer with a string bag (p 12)

and an example of a challenging sentence

Increasingly, this survivor in a once polyglot shelltopia was aware of a creeping xenophobia that was turning him into a parochial old tortoise. (p11)

it's too early to say if I'll find the vocabulary pretentious or well done.

This is a fabulous book - with quite detailed description, lovely prose and challenging vocabulary.

This novel is quite short (200 pages) but still rather challenging. It's set in South London and there are also a lot of local slang words like geezer (meaning man)

My favourite quote is

Then she remembered how, on the day after she had moved in, Celeste took her into the library at the heart of the shell. Sunshine was filtering through the opaque glass dome on to circle after circle of bookshelves ...

"I suppose I should start at the top" Rowena said
"What, and read your way downwards?"
"I meant dusting them and cleaning the shelves."
"Why don't you just dust each one as you read it."Celeste suggested. "I'd much rather you enjoyed the library. It's been neglected too long."

Overawed by choice, Rowena hovered in front of rows of green and yellowed-white Penguins. What she really felt like doing was curling up in an enormous green egg with a good detective story. Celeste seemed engrossed in her tome, so that was what she did. It was the happiest afternoon she had spent since her aunt died. p38-39

Every BX-er's dream I think :)

I loved this book and am adding it to my PC for now though will lend it out if requested.



Interesting /challenging words included:

colophonp 11 - the type used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colophon_(publishing)
hormunculus p 22 unknowable prime actor/little man Angus ... is more than a manufactured homunculus of celluloid and velvet
skiamachicp 28 No idea whether this is a real word or indeed what it really means ... He watched from his window Celest setting out on some quest or deed of derring-do (?), some skiamachic errand, with her parrot-headed lance.


an example of beautiful description
swirl of iridescence p24

and a phrase I've never ever heard before "two of eels" which seems to mean they're like two peas in a pod,i.e. - identical

Another good quote:

She was onece told that she does not have a first class mind, but she is a grade A magpie, adept at snatching and secreting gaudy names and trinkets of ideas. Over the years she has amassed a cache of treasures, memorising poems with the thought that should she ever be placed in solitary confinement, she will not be quite alone. ... Frequently, when attempting an article full of references that are beyond her, she comes across a foreign word or phrase that is so beautiful and weighted with meaning that she feels she has absorbed the essense of the piece and need read no more. The name Celeste Zylberstein strikes chromatic notes of glockenspiel and zither from her nerves. p 29

Highly recommended!

reserved for winners bookbag stf #4

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I LOVED this book. Hope you enjoy it too. "I'm a winner" stf #4

I love reading where books end up -and what other readers thought of the book (good and bad!) - so do please take time to make a journal entry if you possibly can. Appreciate that!

Wow! This surely seems like a challenging, but also very interesting.

Thank you seethroughtfaith for sending this book.