Mslexia

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Books

This Winter we recommend…

Ruby's Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni
(Chatto & Windus, £12.99)

In Ruby’s Spoon we are introduced to the world of 14-year-old Ruby who lives in Cradle Cross. Here, vividly described, Ruby’s story is told against a backdrop of factory furnaces, stinking canal water and the town’s button factory, where carcasses are rendered down and turned into buttons. Into this grim setting enters mysterious and enchanting Isa Fly, who is from the coast, a cleaner world apart. When Isa reveals she is looking for a missing person, Ruby is eager to help, convinced she will be repaid with an adventure at sea. But some of the townsfolk are suspicious of Isa and they don’t take too kindly to her ability to leave their Ruby spellbound. A third colourful and formidable character, Truda Blick, forms an alliance with Ruby and Isa. Truda has just inherited the button factory and it is on the brink of collapse.

It is the friendship between these three women – one witch, one mermaid, and Ruby caught up in between – which will eventually see the town brought to the brink of riot. Pietroni shows real maturity in her writing, skilfully keeping the pages moving. I found particular delight in her prose which is delicate and wonderfully original – ‘These last days he had lost the light behind his pallor and grown sallow. Loose, light jowls; startled fish eyes bulging, blank and liquid.’ Ultimately, though, it’s her contrasting and vividly-drawn characters that will keep you spellbound right to the very last page.

reviewed by ANNA RALPH

This is a selected highlight from the current issue of Mslexia. To read the book reviews in full subscribe now. Other titles also featured include: Consolation by Anna Gavalda, Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom, The Queen Must Die by K A S Quinn, The Other Half Lives by Sophie Hannah, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

Mslexia Book Club: the verdict

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
(Sphere, £16.99)

Kostova’s second novel is big both in pages and in scope. Contemporary characters become entangled in the story of two 19th Century French artists, and Kostova has chosen a suitably old-fashioned format and tone. The author’s voice gives way to several narrators. The chief narrator is Marlow, a psychiatrist who is caring for Robert Oliver, an artist who attempted to slash a painting in the National Gallery in Washington and now refuses to speak. Just before retreating into silence, his patient gives Marlow permission to ‘talk to anyone’ about his life. This gives Marlow the ability to dig into the mystery of why a successful artist has become obsessed with another artist, and how that obsession nearly destroys his life.

Thieves has a lot of major themes: the nature of love and memory; the legacy of the past and its relationship to the future; the way patterns repeat themselves through generations; the creative life and how it does or does not match with the domestic. We all admired the book’s ambition, and everyone felt caught up in the story. When we began to talk it over though, some dissatisfaction emerged.
Alison had read Kostova’s first book, The Historian, and felt that the earlier book ‘flowed more.’

Paula thought that the issue might be that a lot of the book comes from Marlow’s perspective. We learn many details about his life, but, she felt, ‘he is the least interesting character.’ Marlow’s a psychiatrist, but it was annoying that we learn so little about the nature of the mental illness affecting Robert. Was that deliberate? we wondered. Kostova uses his breakdown as a narrative device to lead us into the mystery of the characters from the past. Once the mystery is solved, his illness is miraculously cured.

For Sara, the women characters were more interesting. She liked Kostova’s description of the way Robert’s wife felt as a mother of small children: ‘She was always covered in someone else’s body fluids.’ The women were portrayed realistically and compellingly, and Sara was very caught up by the letters which Kostova uses to tell the story of the lost artist. And Amanda admired the writer’s talent: ‘I like the way she uses imagery and metaphor and there’s a real originality and authority in the way she writes.’

Robert’s inability to communicate his inner world to those around him eventually destroys two relationships. But how are we meant to feel about Robert? ‘Too many details about painting,’ said Catherine ‘not enough about character.’ This was a rare occasion when we did agree: there were many wonderful things about this book, but somehow it fell just short of it’s potential.

reviewed by THE BRACKENBURY BANANAMAMAS

'The Brackenbury Bananamamas' have been reading together for eight years, and are mostly working mothers: several writers, two doctors, three businesswomen, a translator, a lawyer, and a filmmaker.

This article is taken from the current issue of Mslexia. If you'd be interested in your reading group test-driving a book for the Mslexia Book Group feature please Contact Us.

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Maria Hoey has published poetry with Ireland’s foremost poetry publication, Poetry Ireland. Her poems and short stories have also appeared in U Magazine and Woman’s Way. She has subscribed to a number of Women’s Magazines and won first prize in the Swords Festival Short Story Competition in 1995. She is currently working on her first novel, Finding Brother Boniface.