SRA 2021
“…and the tree called me to keep going.” – Losing Eden
“It is difficult to believe that it was widely read, since the prose is in places impenetrable, his argument conveyed through the prism of classical psychoanalytical theory.” – How We Die Now
“Letter writing is the natural outlet of the ‘odds.’ The busybodies, the idle, the perverted, the cranks, the feel-it-my-duties.” – The Franchise Affair
“’Well, Mum, what’s it all about?’ The Station Master could not restrain his curiosity any longer.” –The Railway Children
“’What a number of books he has!’ said Miss Pole, looking round the room. ‘And how dusty they are!’ ‘I think it must be like one of the great Dr Johnson’s rooms,’ said Miss Matty. ‘What a superior man your cousin must be!’” – Cranford
“he spent more time consulting dictionaries than actually writing anything, but it kept him busy and he enjoyed it. It made him feel that he was part of the literary world.” – No More Meadows
Dearest Mother,
Thank you, again, for your efforts in curating the fifth annual Summer Reading Adventure. As is now expected, it was interesting and enjoyable, elevated by the highly surprising and unexpected selection this year.
1. Losing Eden
5/10
Fascinating topic and well-researched, let down by excessive personal anecdotes and an uninspired and banal conclusion.
It was really interesting to see some things articulated that I intrinsically knew – that increasing disconnection with nature means that each generation can name fewer plants and flowers than that which came before it or “referring to pigs as ‘pork’ or cows as ‘beef’ emphasizes our alienation and disconnection from the land and other living creatures”. There were some interesting facts and figures, e.g., that microbes outnumber human cells in the body by about three to one and the strong link between vitamin D and depression. Interestingly, Sheffield got several shout outs as “…one of Britain’s greenest cities”. Sadly, though, it is a place where green spaces are being destroyed and the protest activities of angry locals were detailed, up to and including 2018, against a “Sheffield tree massacre”. Contrastingly, the text also describes activity groups in Sheffield for young people with psychotic illnesses in the Peak District or well-being events in the moors. It’s just a shame the text contained excessive digressions about the author’s years as an alco, confessions that are far too personal for this sort of book (“I am hugely grateful to antidepressants. I’ve taken one sort or another for most of the last decade”) and terminates with a tired, trite, and predictable warning to readers as consumers in a manner that provides them with no meaningful guidance or direction.
2. The Way we Die Now
5/10
Insightful, illuminating, and sad.
I must confess that I found this one rather gloomy. Sections of the text that discussed death as a result of cancer, brought poor Anny and her untimely death to mind and there was a black cloud over me during these times. Learning that about half of deaths are in acute hospitals, many of these without dignity or appropriate care, was surprising and upsetting. Many of the books’ arguments, such as the notion of the need to de-medicalise death, were very interesting, particularly from a distinguished medical practitioner such as the author. Another related to the need for death on a societal level where it renews and refreshes. The example given was of Japan where “one in three men over the age of sixty-five is still in full-time employment… [while] one in three young adults is either unemployed or working part-time”. Humorously, you reminded me of the author’s enthusiastic funeral-going uncle for whom, “The death notices of the Cork Examiner constituted his only reading material. Had he survived into the age of the Internet, he would have been an avid user of the website RIP.ie.” I know that website is a favourite of yours!
3. The Franchise Affair
5/10
This harmless and good-humoured mystery runs out of stream towards its conclusion with a contrived, simplistic, and awkward ending.
Not a book that I would be likely to choose in isolation. For that reason, I recognise and appreciate this selection even more. I really enjoyed the understated comedic parts of this book and how the author finds humour in simple musings or interactions by or between moderately well-developed characters. “It was with a feeling of escape that Robert drove in to Larborough. He wondered if Mr Tilsit had always been away ‘ten days at a time’ from his home, or if he had got the travelling job as an alternative to flight or suicide.” What I initially thought was a stoopid name for a newspaper, Ack Emma, I later learned is an apparently well-known shorthand way of saying, a.m. I also thought it was incredibly interesting how Robert began to challenge all aspects of his routine and world view and grows as a person by breaking away from what was so familiar to him throughout the story. For example, at one point the text reads, “Robert was dimly aware that his own deep-seated respect for established authority was a handicap to him rather than an asset”. Asking these difficult questions of himself must have been exciting and challenging for Robert, though following Marion to the airport did not feel consistent with the logic of the character, though it made for a nice and funny ending. Though a little heavy-handed, I also appreciated how the text dealt with the distinctions between a verdict and justice. However, I found the book very one-sided and I never once questioned whether the Sharpes were guilty. The late appearance of Mr. Einar Lange from Denmark really challenges the reader’s suspension of disbelief and was a convenient plot device for a writer who is out of ideas for tying a story up in a clever way. I also predicted the conflagration of The Franchise paragraphs before it happened as this event was signalled too obviously for anybody who has experienced a plot in the past. Finally, Sheffield gets a mention. “Robert carried the tray with four flat bowls of soup, and Marion came after him with a large dish under a Sheffield plate cover, and that seemed to be all.”
4. The Railway Children
5/10
Wholesome, heart-warming, simple, charming, and full-to-the-brim with goodness.
Surprisingly, this novel was quite funny, with the interactions and quarrels between the children providing the greatest source of amusement. I strongly suspected that the children were vegan on the basis of this event. “That was a wonderful breakfast. It is unusual to begin the day with cold apple pie, but the children all said they would rather have it than meat.” What I particularly enjoyed about the novel is that it presented, often complex emotions, in a manner that could be understood and appreciated by children. I’m thinking of, for example, when Bobbie intrudes on Mother when she is upset and quietly leaves without alerting her to her presence or when the children inadvertently offend Perks by giving him donated gifts for his birthday. The first of these incidents has the purpose of illustrating that Bobbie is the most emotionally intelligent of the children and the second provides a lesson on charity and pride, comprehensible to young people. When Mother was ill, I had an awful feeling she was not long for this world. Thankfully, I misjudged the novel’s willingness to kill her off. My major criticism of the novel is that it does not really have a coherent story. Essentially, it is a series of unrelated anecdotes that have very little meaningful impact on the main plot, Daddy is absent/in prison, and this makes the novel feel unfocused or rudderless at times. The storyline that involved the Russian writer, for instance, felt like a redundant digression and its inclusion raised many questions for me. If Daddy is accused of being a spy, why have unnecessary interactions and friendships with actors from outside the state? Why include this at all? I would wager Peter is glad that the novel is not set in 2021 as the cancel culture would be after him for the following faux pas. “Everyone thought Peter was carrying things a little too far when he blacked his face all over with coal-dust and struck a spidery attitude”. Finally, I thought that Perks was hysterical. In my head he was an older man in his 40s or 50s. I really had a hearty chuckle when he reveals about mid-way through the book that he is 32.
5. Cranford
6/10
A humorous collection of vignettes that, ultimately, take shape to illustrate the absurdity of class and snobbery and the benefits of acceptance and togetherness.
This book hit the ground running with an excellent and engaging introduction of “Captain and the Miss Browns”. However, rather than building on this momentum, it soon becomes, what appears to be, a series of seemingly unrelated vignettes that take too long to form a coherent narrative, in my view. Miss Matty and her relationships form the emotional core of the story, particularly that with her brother and Mr. Holbrook, the love that might have been. When she is re-reading and, where deemed necessary, destroying old letters, one cannot help empathising with her and respond to the “tears stealing down the well-worn furrows” on her cheeks. Further, her goodness and humanity, which is allowed to thrive following her sister’s death, adds additional heart to the story, such as when she pays the gentlemen in the shop for his now useless Town and County Bank note. Her brother Peter is a major source of comedy, but is totally off the rails. He pranks their father by dressing as a lady who is interested in the latter’s Napoleon Buonaparte sermons and later causes major offense with his fake baby mischief. I am sure that you have heard of the dramatic rule, Chekhov’s gun. It stipulates that irrelevant elements of a story should be removed for the purposes of keeping it streamlined. Consequently, when Peter is described as missing/dead, I was looking forward to meeting him later in the book. My personal view is that this is hack writing. In the same way that Gaskell brings back Margaret’s brother Frederick in North and South, she can’t resist the siren’s song of Peter’s ‘dramatic’ return. Essentially, any idiot could see a mile out that Aga Jenkyns would be Peter and that he would make an appearance. I understand that this was due to her own life circumstances, where her brother John went missing while in the merchant navy, but loyal readers of Gaskell must be sick of unsurprising missing brother plotlines. Probably the only surprising thing in the book was that Lady Glenmire agreed to marry Mr. Hoggins, though, on reflection, if you are reading a book underpinned by egalitarian views, these can be easily illustrated by this plot point and may have been more obvious to someone smarter than I. My main criticisms are that the narrator, Mary Smith, whose name is revealed very late into the text, isn’t really a character at all, raising questions about why she was necessary instead of using the third-person narrator approach; and that the ending was just a little too neat and tidy, to the point where it was overly satisfying in way that felt to me like the world of the story existed exclusively within the story and had no life of its own beyond it.
6. No More Meadows
7/10
Hysterical, incisive, and capable of satirising the most ordinary of scenarios.
I really enjoyed this very funny book. First, it ropes you in with its comedy and then begins to play with your emotions. Towards the beginning, I was interested in learning more about the mysterious Jerry, who turns out to be a bit of a disappointment. I will confess, I had a theory he was going to reappear later in the text which never happened. When dating Vinson, I enjoyed hearing about their adventures around London and I can’t believe the author killed off Aunt Josephine AND Tommie. It was jarring! The scenes that offered a glimpse inside Christine and Vin’s marriage felt real and it was engrossing to follow their highs and lows. “She was growing to believe that marriage went in cycles, with short seasons of coolness and warmth alternating rapidly, and that it would be as foolish to think that marriage could be all warmth as to think that the year could be all summer”. For instance, the passion that arose from jealousy and their bonding over their mutual annoyance and frustration of Vin’s mother felt believable. So, too, did the plotlines concerning the vacuum cleaner purchase and that about Christine hiding her mistake with immigration. From these, sweet and romantic moments arose. “He kissed her. He was sweet and tender and she felt very close to him. It was worth fainting in the Immigration Office to bring them together in one of these brief idylls when she felt that marriage to him was all she wanted in the world”. One part of the text reminded me of the differences in John and your approaches to dealing with Granny. “Matthew treated Mrs Gaegler less politely and was more successful with her. He treated her like an inconvenient child, and merely laughed at her when she was difficult. He did not look as if he took anything seriously.”
“‘Run your hand through and smell that,’ said senior horticultural therapist Jan Broady.” – Losing Eden
“A brilliant speaker and debater, he had the gift of the immediate and apposite retort… Although wildly inconsistent and self-contradictory, he never confessed to a moment’s doubt.” – How We Die Now
“‘Does one have to make anything of it? An obvious piece of sensationalism by an unbalanced adolescent?’” – The Franchise Affair
“’Oh, what’s the use of bothering Mother about every little thing?’ said Peter, ‘especially when she’s busy. Come on. Let’s go down to the village now and begin.’ – The Railway Children
“He evidently chose his books in accordance with his own tastes, not because such and such were classical or established favourites. ‘Ah!’ he said, ‘we farmers ought not to have much time for reading; yet somehow one can’t help it.’” – Cranford
“Some were reading. Others were slumped in attitudes of hopeless resignation.” – No More Meadows
