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dommiz Locked account

dommiz@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 1 year, 9 months ago

Part-time organic sheep farmer in Exmoor National Park, rest of the time an International development economist (SE Asia & UK). Sometimes reads books, not as often as I would like. Mastodon: @dommiz@climatejustice.social

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dommiz's books

Currently Reading

Lulu Allison: Salt Lick (2021, Unbound) 3 stars

Review of 'Salt Lick' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Interesting scenario, but not entirely convincing. Would the countryside really be abandoned after a pandemic in the way the book depicts? The recent experience of COVID suggests the opposite!
The writing is excellent, beautifully crafted in some places, and that makes it pleasurable to read. However, the plot is very thin and not well structured. This is a case of a good writer looking for a better story to tell, so one to watch.

reviewed The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall Trilogy (Volume 3))

Hilary Mantel: The Mirror & the Light (Hardcover, 2020, Henry Holt and Company) 5 stars

“If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?”

England, May …

Review of 'The Mirror & the Light' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

It is long, yet somehow one doesn't want it to end.

The quality of writing is extraordinary, and the way Mantel evokes an era none of us can know is so bold and brazen that the reader falls under her spell completely.

Very cleverly, she does not crave our sympathy for Cromwell in any of the three books; he is a bit of a thug and a man of his time. However, the reader is invited to respect him and to admire his transformation from humble beginnings in Putney to become one of the most consequential people of the 16th Century. At the end, Cromwell accepts his fate, and its inevitability. As inevitable - and unavoidable - as a kick to the head from his father Walter. For if Cromwell had tried to live his life in a way to avoid such a miserable ending, then he would have had …

David Mitchell: Ghostwritten (2001, Vintage) 4 stars

A gallery attendant at the Hermitage. A young jazz buff in Tokyo. A crooked British …

Review of 'Ghostwritten' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Another winner from Mitchell. I have read most of his other works, so came late to this debut. It has his trademark style of nested stories, which he later perfected in books such as Cloud Atlas. I did sense that this book started as a collection of short stories that he then strung together in a novel. He is so bursting with ideas perhaps this form suits him best. But perhaps I am just too thick to understand the connection that links all the stories together. Not that it matters, as the book is a great read, with some stories (such as the Mountain Tea Shack) that are evocative, moving and immersive. What more could one want from a novel?

The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is to distinguish it from Mitchell’s other great books. I therefore use separate calibrated scale for Mitchell. His 4 …

John Lanchester, John Lanchester: The Wall (Hardcover, 2019, W. W. Norton & Company) 4 stars

Review of 'The Wall' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Besides the good story, well told, this book is a masterclass in how to structure and pace a novel. The author clearly knows how to edit, as this is just the right length. So many books start well, but outstay their welcome. It is a cracking good read.

The story is familiar to anyone who enjoys dystopian speculative fiction (Atwood et al.). It echoes the recent BBC Radio 4 play 'Borderland' (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08dnhjx), with themes of migration and what happens when nationalism and nativism lead governments into unravelling the social contract. One of the points of the book is that if we allow our government to treat 'the Others' as undesirables without rights, then in so doing we enable a process whereby our own rights are discarded. The distinction between us (with comfort and prosperity) and the others (facing insecurity and death) becomes a bureaucratic distinction. Too easily, we …