Kiss and tell

Testimony by Anita Shreve

Little, Brown 2008, 320 pages

Mike Bordwin is headmaster of Avery Academy, a private school in Vermont. When he is given a video tape showing four of his students engaged in explicit sexual acts, he is shocked and sickened. The participants are three young men aged between seventeen and nineteen and a girl who appears to be no more than fourteen years old. Mike decides the best course of action is to contain the affair but when the lid is inevitably blown off, the repercussions are far reaching and tragic.

This story is comprised of the testimonies of a number of individuals, some of whom are more directly involved than others; from these we assemble a picture of what has taken place. Unfortunately this device makes for a rather irritating reading experience – a bit like trying to sink your teeth into a chocolate eclair whilst simultaneously swatting away a fly. I am quite partial to the work of Anita Shreve and thought her last book, Body Surfing, was a return to the form of her earlier novels (my particular favourite being The Weight of Water). But here I was left feeling that in a story which purports to tell everything, something vital was missing.

Upstairs downstairs

The Servants by M M Smith

HarperCollins 2008, 240 pages

Eleven year old Mark has been brought to live in Brighton by his sick mother and her new husband. Left to his own devices, he spends long hours improving his skateboarding technique along the promenade with little success. So when the elderly inhabitant of the downstairs flat invites him in for tea and rock buns, he is more than happy to accept; from that point on things start to change.

As I started to read this book I was reminded of Tom’s Midnight Garden and later, of The Woman in Black. Like Tom Long, Mark has been displaced by circumstances beyond his control; he is angry, bored and lonely until he discovers a wonderful secret. This ghost/fantasy story is not as sinister or chilling as The Woman in Black, but it’s not an entirely comfortable read either. A surreal and beautifully packaged little tale.

Michael Marshall Smith is the writer of award winning fantasy stories and conspiracy thriller novels (under the name Michael Marshall). This is his first work written as M M Smith.

Out of his tree

The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan

Henry Holt & Company 2008, 224 pages

To escape a beating from his father, a small boy takes refuge in a tree. There he finds solace and shelter, and as he carves his initials into the trunk he thinks about his future and the life he is meant to have: how he will have a family of his own to cherish and one day people will know his name.

Towards the end of the 19th century, a now grown-up William Heath settles in Canada with his wife and daughters, becoming a respected member of the community. But when he is accused of embezzlement, he commits a crime that ensures his name will indeed not be forgotten.

This story is told from the perspective of several characters: William’s wife, his daughters and (after the crime) members of the town who are haunted by his actions. What really makes this novel are the small details – the significance of inanimate objects: a locket, a button, a knife, a gun. If you’ve got to have a “whole” story that covers all the bases, then this book may not work for you. But to quote Hilary Mantel (whose endorsement it carries) “stories are never whole.” This is a beautifully written book; it worked for me and I loved it.

Winner of the 2001 O. Henry Award for short fiction, Mary Swan is the author of the collection The Deep and Other Stories. The Boys in the Trees has been long-listed for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize for fiction. You can find out more at: http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca

A family affair

The Right Side of the Dyke by Margaret Smith and Rita Sellars

Flamborough Oral History Project 2008, 368 pages

I promised the authors of this book that I would give it a mention on my blog and as one of them happens to be my mother-in-law and I am rather fond of her fruit cake, I thought I’d better do it. If anything was ever a labour of love then this book is it: transcribed from original taped conversations with residents of Flamborough, it was fifteen years in the making. I first went to Flamborough in 1976 and have been a regular visitor ever since, but this book shows a different Flamborough from the one I see today: a close and thriving fishing community where life was hard but folks still knew how to have fun.

For those of you who don’t know, Flamborough is situated on the East coast of Yorkshire, and is best known for its headland which extends into the North Sea; for my American reader(s), John Paul Jones lost his ship (the Bonhomme Richard) within sight of Flamborough head.

If you would like more information about the book you can find it here: http://www.flamborough.org.uk