The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Major fave. I adore Eustace Scrubb. Scrubbs > Pevensies, from now until the end of time!
Category: book reviews
What I’ve been reviewing – I Saw You First by Cindy Blake
I Saw You First by Cindy Blake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really love this book. The couple at the heart of it are truly adorable.
What I’ve been reviewing – Mirage by Andrea Newman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I liked this lots better than her more famous Bouquet of Barbed Wire. If you like a bleak glum disenchanted read – and I do – and view romantic love as overrated, one of the horrors this world inflicts upon us… this is the Andrea Newman for you.
What I’ve been reviewing – The Cage by Andrea Newman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Better by far than the overrated Bouquet of Barbed Wire. Miserable, fierce, a study in frustrated ambition and the missteps of youth, of a big personality cramped into a tiny little life, with all routes out being blocked from view. Definitely intense.
What I’ve been reviewing – The Self-Appointed Saint by Audrey Erskine Lindop
The Self Appointed Saint by Audrey Erskine Lindop
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Possibly the most bonkers, unstintingly nutbar, indisputably hatstand work of literature I’ve ever encountered. Good fun, though.
What I’ve been reviewing – The Realms of Gold by Margaret Drabble
The Realms of Gold by Margaret Drabble
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Mimsy Hampstead-liberal wandering aimless fluff. And I use the word ‘fluff’ advisedly, as one who has no idea of the Goodreads policy on effing and jeffing. Drabble actually goes in for some meta idiocy at points, admitting she’s making it up as she goes along, has changed her mind about some plot points and doesn’t know what she’s doing. Tip: DON’T DO THAT.
If you’re still going to read it, I have no idea what to say to you.
What I’ve been reviewing – The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble
The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was actually slightly engaged by this Drabble, which is still by no means a recommendation. The antiheroine is so aggressively depressed and protective of that immersed gloom and negativity that I felt rather like applauding her. It’s a stance you have to tough out and justify with chin thrust out, in a world trying to drag you into a perpetual love-in. That said, still not a great book and a limp rag of an ending.
image – https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixo7000/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
What I’ve been reviewin’ – You Bet Your Boots I Can by Jessie Horsforth
You Bet Your Boots I Can by Jessie Hosford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Long-time favourite.
image – Stephanie Vacher https://www.flickr.com/photos/trufflepig/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
What I’ve been reviewing – Danny the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl
Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a kid (the squirrels! the Oompa-Loompas!). But this is the Roald Dahl book that has stayed with me, and a lot of other people I’ve met along the way. Like any really outstanding kids’ book it has a lot to say to, and about, adults.
Danny has a warm and loving relationship with his Dad: it’s a touchstone that gives him a measure for sane and healthy adult behaviour. It enables him to see the reverse, too: when an adult is nothing but a tall child, using a position of power and control to get off on exerting that power. He sees clearly, cannot be gaslit: he has the insight to know there are not two standards of ethical behaviour between children and adults, or indeed between any two groups of people. If an adult lies to his face, then calls him a simply awful little liar, he is not confused and not convinced.
Projection, much? There’s a lot of it about, of course: the corrupt impugn the honesty of others, the self-important want to take others ‘down a peg or two’. It’s a misdirection that works with the sheep, the weak and the stupid, often enough. But you can’t piss on Danny’s shoes and tell him it’s raining: he knows what ethical behaviour in good faith looks like, and what it don’t, bud.
Love gives him wisdom, and strength: but of course even the kindest most loving adult is a well of secrets, and Danny finds out his Dad is a more complex character than he dreamed… Isn’t everyone? That’s part of growing up, too.
Absolutely darling illustrations in the old Puffin edition by Jill Bennet, rather less enchanted by Quentin Blake.
image – James Havard https://www.flickr.com/photos/64885769@N08/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
What I’ve been reviewin’ – Wilkins’ Tooth by Diana Wynne Jones
Wilkins’ Tooth by Diana Wynne Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A charmingly daft, deft, graceful early work. The workaround for swearing is hilarious! And beware, the Big Bad is actually quite scary. A darling of a read, and ought to be as celebrated as many of her other great works.
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