Review: Secrecy by Rupert Thomson

Rupert Thomson, the author of this most excellent novel Secrecy has passed completely under my radar. It's always exciting to find an author you like and Thomson's writing is sublime. His bibliography is wide; the author of nine novels. The fourth The Insult was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize, his sixth The Book of Revelation was made into a film and Death of a Murderer (2007) was shortlisted for Costa Novel of the Year. His foray into non-fiction with his memoir This Party's Got To Stop won him the Writer's Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year. So with all that going on how have I missed him!?

His most recent novel, Secrecy, was published in March.
 

Thomson studied Medieval History at Cambridge and he draws on his historical expertise in the telling of this story which is based on the life of the Sicilian wax artist, Gaetano Zumbo. Zumbo is famed for his plague pieces, wooden cabinets containing wax creations of the dead and dying which can still be seen in particular in the scientific museum La Specola in Florence.



Set in Florence, this novel is about Zummo's wax art works but it is primarily about his relationships- with his family, with his patron the Grand Duke, with a young boy who assists him and with his lover. In fact, although Zummo is a very solitary man when he works, his life touches many people and Thomson weaves this mysterious story with his rich and evocative prose. The descriptions are always enough to conjure an image, sometimes exquisite and sometimes painful, but never too much to take away from the tale he is telling, never too much to distract from the character we are following, Zummo, as he finds his place and works to establish relationships to hold him there, only to often have them questioned or pulled out from under his feet often due to his identity as a Sicilian in Florence.

The descriptions of the techniques used to create the wax artworks are fascinating in themselves. But it is the characters that hold the story together so well, maintaining the readers interest right to the close of the story, still uncertain of how it will end. A well written historical novel, alive with the sights and sounds of seventeenth century Italy and the rotten smell of corruption.

Published by Granta.www.grantabooks.com

(Those interested in the background to Thomson's writing of this novel may like to red this very interesting article on the subject http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/758a1fb6-807a-11e2-aed5-00144feabdc0.htmSiracusa#axzz2dqgC1CtA )

Warwick Prize for Writing 2013

Launched in 2008, the Warwick Prize for Writing is awarded every two years and covers all genres and forms. It is worth £25,000 to the winner which will be announced on 24th September.

The shortlist announced on Friday was:

  

 

Good luck to every author shortlisted for the announcement at the end of the month.

Review: The Wild Pupil by Kathy D'Arcy

Recently I had the pleasure of being asked to review a poetry collection for the excellent online literary magazine Burning Bush 2. The magazine publishes work by contemporary poets and authors and is edited by Alan Jude Moore, himself an author of three collections of poetry. The magazine can be read at http://burningbush2.com/ and the published review is below.

Review: The Wild Pupil  by Kathy D’Arcy (Bradshaw Books)

The Wild Pupil is the second collection of poetry by Kathy D’Arcy, a talented poet from Cork who originally trained as a doctor. She uses this background in her work, in both a technical and literary way. The title of the work is both enigmatic and Yeatsian alluding to the scholar, rebellion and youth. It is also the title of one of the poems in the collection, one that gets right to the centre of the living body “as your thorax springs open/ like an eye,/ your heart/ the wild pupil.”    

The collection of over fifty poems has several themes to it. The reader will come across the subjects of family, the sensual and the physical aspects of the body, ageing and death and also animals. Many touch on aspects of life that may make us feel uncomfortable in their bluntness and reference to the more unpleasant side of illness, or just the body in general, but they reinforce the power of the word. In fact, the sparseness of D’Arcy’s language, maybe a hangover from her technical training, adds to the edginess of the poetry.  

The opening poem ‘First Furniture’ talks of “the trail of hair I leave/ on every surface…” referring uncertainly to ageing or maybe the hair loss of cancer and is referred to again in ‘Christmas’.  Other poems reference an ageing mother, as a daughter attempts to clear away long-kept and forgotten childhood books or even the sharing out of crockery after a death in ‘Good China’.  

However, throughout the collection, it is the keen paring back of language to the bare requirements to put across the message, even to the extent that many carry a mysterious uncertainty of meaning, is the feeling that is left with the reader after exploring this collection. This feeling of uncertainty means that poems can be revisited over again to reveal maybe more or maybe to stay hidden, just holding back enough on their meaning to have something deliciously ‘not-quite-there’ that draws you back to see if there is any reveal since the last visit. This is the real appeal of D’Arcy’s poetry.

The Wild Pupil by Kathy D’Arcy is published by Bradshaw Books.

Published at  http://burningbush2.com/reviews-essays/louise-ward-5/

Exodus by Lars Iyer / The Hive by Gill Hornby

Two books published earlier this year that I have only just got round to reviewing; Exodus by Lars Iyer and The Hive by Gill Hornby.

 
What to make of the two shambling philosophers we come across in Lars Iyer's latest book Exodus. It is published by Melville House who are New York based but have recently opened an office in London. Exodus is the third book in Iyer's trilogy; it follows Spurious (2011) and Dogma (2012). Lars, our narrator and his fellow academic W, are off on a lecture tour to investigate the destruction of philosophy (and their jobs) in the universities of Great Britain. As Lars records W's ramblings, much is made of Lars half-Danish descent and much reference is made to philosophical scorn about the world at large. The extent of this large reference condemns the book to a niche readership. Now, not all books are for all readers, but this book has a very specific appeal and it ain't gonna be to everyone's taste! I found myself equally veering between smug giggles at intelligent insights and exasperated sighs at the indulgent wanderings of the text.

There is no doubt that Iyer has his fans will revel in the continuation of themes present through the now three novels but for readers new to the philosophy bro's it is sometimes an uphill struggle to decide whether it really is worth the effort of continuing. You'll have to try him yourself to see which camp you fall into.  

 
Gill Hornby is a writer and journalist and The Hive is her first novel. No stranger to the publishing world, Hornby is married to the author Robert Harris and sister to Nick Hornby. Released to great excitement, it had been subject to a seven-way bidding war and the rights to the film were sold before it was published. Straight into the top ten bestselling books list it is one of those books that for a certain reader will hit a spot where they are saying, "oh yes, I know someone just like that!"

'The Hive' of the title is the collective of women amassed at the school gates who make up the committees and organise the bake-sales. The mover and shaker of this little political circle is Bea (the Queen 'Bea') and all her worker bees flutter around her being allocated tasks. But this book is not all 'yummy mummy'. We have Georgie, a very appealing character, whose house is an absolute tip but is at heart an earth mother and has a romping relationship with her farmer husband Martin. Rachel is/was Bea's best friend, a children's illustrator recently separated from her husband who is quickly realising her status with Bea is changing. Heather is desparate to be 'part of the gang' and then there is Deborah or Bubba who is on a career break and doesn't quite get the politics of the school gate yet.

The characters are very well drawn and will and have already entertained many. In fact as you read it, once you come to know that it is to be made into a film, you can absolutely see how each of the mum's (and some dad's too) will be portrayed (Georgie is Felicity from The Good Life!) It is much more than chick lit but at the same time it will be hugely appealing to women (and men?) of a certain age, that is those with children in primary school who recognise and identify with the characters.

The Hive is published by Little, Brown.

CWA Daggers 2013 - Shortlists Announced

Great excitement in the world of crime novelists and crime genre fans today as the CWA (Crime Writers Association) announce the shortlists for three awards celebrating the best in contemporary crime writing. The winners will be announced on the 24th October. While you wait with baited breath for that reveal, here are the shortlists.

Goldsboro Gold Dagger - Best Crime Novel  
   


Ian Fleming Steel Dagger - Thriller
  


John Creasey New Blood Dagger - Best Debut
   


A really great set of shortlists and plenty of time before the winners are announced to read the ones that you like the sound of.