Five recent reads

I’m going to take a little break from blogging, as the next couple of weeks are quite hectic – but before I go, here are five books I’ve read recently (or, in one case, not that recently) to leave you with…

A Map of the Sky by Claire Wong
Claire and I are friends from church, so I was really excited when her first novel The Runaway was published. It took me a while to read her next, A Map of the Sky (2019) but I finally did back in February, and promptly forgot to write about it. But it’s really good! Kit is an 11-year-old boy who is taken with his family to a remote coastal village in the north of England. It’s not clear if it’s a holiday, a move, or a sort of exile – and why is his dad not with them?

Kit loves adventure stories, and decides to tackle the whole thing as an adventure. The other people living in the guesthouse offer clues, willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly – particularly Beth, who is confined to the guesthouse with a chronic illness that Kit doesn’t really understand. But he uses her memories of the area to try and put together a map, which might help unlock the secrets of the summer. I loved the portrait of Beth, sensitive and well-researched (and I know at least one mutual friend of ours helped ensure that there was realism, though Beth is a fictional character rather than a reflection of any one individual). And Kit is a compelling character – excited, unsure, hemmed in by adults making decisions and thinking children don’t need to be informed. It’s interesting that Claire Wong’s first two protagonists are children – I’d be interested to read her with an adult hero or heroine.

The Exquisite Halo by Josephine Tey
A novel Tey wrote under a pseudonym, and not a detective novel – it’s a curious sort of fable (‘a fable without a moral’ is the subtitle) filled with Wildean witticisms and, indeed, Wildean characters. I really enjoyed reading it, but it is featherweight and definitely a minor work. Curiously, the POD edition I read has some very curious and largely irrelevant images along the way. A horrible pie, a German kitchen, some mountains, a bus. It was fun waiting to see what anomaly would come along next.

A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood
I loved A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood, which I read towards the end of last year – and immediately went and bought another couple of Wood’s books. A Snowfall of Silver is actually a sequel to A Sky Painted Gold (2018), though it doesn’t really matter which you read first, as the focus is on a different sister. Louise (Lou) lives in the middle of nowhere in Cornwall in 1929, part of a large and artistic family, and is mourning the loss of her sister and best friend. Loss, that is, because Alice has just got married. Lou can’t see what Alice sees in her husband, who appears to be an ordinary, unexciting Cornishman.

She is much more interested in the Cardew House – a mansion on an island, to which she often swims, just to roam the rooms, steal the apples, and read the Agatha Christies. The family aren’t around, so nobody notices. Until… they are. Robert – the handsome, stern 20-something son of the house – discovers her mid-apple-steal. Soon Lou is caught up in a world of rich bohemian people, who are interested in her because she is different. Among them are Robert’s sister, Robert’s fiancée, and Robert’s fiancée’s handsome brother. (But if you think she won’t ultimately end up with Robert, then you’re new to books.)

I didn’t love it as much as A Snowfall of Silver, perhaps because the theatrical stuff in that one really appealed to me, but it was still a frothy delight from beginning to end. And gorgeous cover.

Sidesplitter by Phil Wang
Phil Wang is a comedian I know through his Taskmaster appearance (man, I love Taskmaster), and my friend Malie recommended I try his memoir. Well, he’s keen to say it’s not a memoir, while also acknowledging that it more or less is. Wang spent the first 16 years of his life in Malaysia and has lived since in the UK (where, to add to the tapestry, he was born). His dad is Malaysian; his mum is white British. And the book is about what it’s like to grow up with this mix of identities – never feeling, he says, quite at home in either country. He writes about race, food, romance, media etc etc. And it is also extremely funny, as well as making a lot of interesting and often moving points. I listened to him reading the audiobook, and he’s a hoot.

Iphigenia in Forest Hills by Janet Malcolm
What’s the opposite of a frothy delight? This! Malcolm is always searingly brilliant in anything she writes, and Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial (2011) is no different. I was a little stymied by not knowing who Iphigenia was or where Forest Hills are, but doubtless you’re better educated on these matters than I am. Essentially, Malcolm looks at all the ins and outs of a (real) murder trial, where a woman is charged with murdering her estranged husband. Along the way, it becomes much more complex – and a lot has to do with a biased judge in a previous court case about child custody, the fact that lawyers acting on behalf of the child don’t have to take the child’s wishes into account, and another judge who is very clearly dismissing evidence that is central to the case.

Malcolm’s interviews are always piercing, getting people to say far more than they might wish. She doesn’t claim to be writing objective non-fiction, and her voice is clear and present throughout – which is exactly how I like it. If you already love and admire Malcolm’s writing, this is another great example. If you want something kinder, less subjective, more reportage – maybe not for you. For me, she can do no wrong, but I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be interviewed by her.