After (by my standards) a rip-roaring start to the year getting through books – progress slightly stalled in March. I battled a reading slump and spent most of the month tackling one non-fiction book.
As with the weather, fortunately things picked up in April!
David Olusoga – Black and British (2016)
I’m a huge fan of Olusoga’s A House Through Time BBC show, and wanted to expand my knowledge of black history.
Olusoga expertly demonstrates how the stories of black people’s lives have persistently only been told through a white lens – making a more authentic history not just passively ‘forgotten’, but actively tarnished and erased.
I certainly learnt a lot – Olusoga’s work stretches over 500 pages and within them is an immense level of detail covering an enormous time period. While on the whole the threads between each chapter are clear, there are extended tangents which can make the overall narrative harder to follow.
I didn’t find it the easiest-going read, but well worth doing so and following up on points of curiosity – for me, the sections on Jonathan Strong, John Blanke, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin were particularly interesting.
Michael Palin – Great-Uncle Harry (2023)
This is a very endearing biography, memoir, and history – with Palin meticulously reconstructing the life of his great-uncle Harry.
From an initial inquisitive look at a family photograph, Palin’s interest piques and the end result is a book which guides the reader through diaries, letters, and family records to trace and portray an otherwise nearly forgotten soldier. Palin is very transparent about the gaps where he is forced to speculate, and openly acknowledges Harry’s privileges and flaws – but most importantly, the genuine connection he feels to Harry is clear on every page.
The reader knows Harry’s time, place, and cause of death from the opening – as you feel the pages of this book running out, there’s a growing sense of inevitability and resignation clear in the narrative. The experience of reading this book as a physical copy – and knowing what will come with each page turn – is sobering. Palin does well to integrate the wider story of the war, and the countless lives lost and ruined, in alongside Harry’s story.
I should add – there’s also helpful doses of humour and displays of love throughout. Would definitely recommend reading!
Margaret Atwood & Douglas Preston – Fourteen Days (2024)
A collaborative fiction novel, written with an impressive line-up of 36 authors – the idea is ambitious and I really wanted to love it.
The underlying premise is simple enough and serves as a vehicle to weave the short stories together in to one narrative – residents in a run-down New York apartment building gather together every evening at the start of the Covid lockdown to share stories from their lives, and frustrations at the pandemic.
However, the weaving feels clunky and repetitive – the characters only periodically and robotically interact with one another, meaning their voices and personalities barely develop.
As a result, the main draw to the novel – the short stories of each character – fail to come across as unique and authentic spoken word tales. While a minority of the stories did keep me engaged – largely they felt drawn out and lacking in any purpose for developing the character or the underlying plot.
The twist at the very end (which I won’t spoil here) did tie up some unanswered questions dropped throughout the plot, but didn’t redeem the novel.
The concept, great. The execution, less so. Too many cooks? Possibly.
Honourable mentions
Paul Johnson’s 2023 work Follow the Money gives an expert, if not radical, account of the challenges the UK economy faces. Considering the complexity of explaining macroeconomics, it’s a fairly accessible read.
Veteran biographer of Larry the Cat’s servants, Anthony Seldon, takes us inside and rips apart the most ridiculous 49 days in British politics in Truss at 10. An easy read that exposes the absurd decision-making.
Top stock image credit: Pixabay
