Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick Suskind

ISBN: 0141041153

This is a fascinating novel that focuses on viewing the world through one's nose. Where novels usually focus on what things look like, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the protagonist, has an unusually sharp sense of smell, and so experiences the world in this way. Suskind brings to life 18th century Paris through how it smells. I found this totally absorbing as well as (sometimes gruesomely) entertaining.

It's a dark novel, to say the least, but the fleshiness of it is what gives it its spark. We get into the mind of a killer and we know what makes him tick. Somehow the murders don't seem as important, to us the readers, as this smell that is at the forefront of Grenouille's quest.

Suskind shows us how this world is to an outsider, and Grenouille is an outsider in every sense of the word. This is what makes him so good at what he does. How can a human with no smell fit in with humanity? How can one cling to one's humaneness with that sense ever pervading your nostrils?

This is also a novel about power, in its different forms, and how far we will go to get it.

Rating: 8/10

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

ISBN: 9781408810262

The only way to describe this book is delightful. Initially I was put off by the epistolary style of this novel, however it is easy to follow despite the many (charming) characters. I was captivated by the personality of Juliet Ashton straight away, through the witty way her letters are written, but mainly through what the other characters write about (and to) her.

Set just after the First World War, Shaffer and Barrows offer a lot of hope in this novel, and through the lives of everyday folk explore how Britain got on its feet again and how people cope with the emotional trauma of the war. However, this is never at the forefront of what is being said, and it doesn't feel like 'a book about the War'.

When it does talk about the War (directly or indirectly) it focuses on the home front, so to speak, the lives of those not fighting. It is mainly concerned with the occupation of Guernsey, which I found hugely interesting.

What makes this novel so great, though, is that we get to know the characters at exactly the right pace, and we learn to love them all. Shaffer and Barrows have a unique gift to make their readers feel that they are friends with their characters. I wanted this book to go on for much longer.

And yes, we do get to find out what potato peel pie is!

Rating: 9/10

The Accidental -- Ali Smith

ISBN: 9780141049748

Smith took the term 'free indirect discourse' and lit a firework under it so that it shoots its way through this novel. I found the pungency of these voices captivating and I found myself wondering what Astrid would think about things I come across. I even had a conversation with myself about why people don't keep maggots as pets. I'm sure this book is to blame for that.

A deliciously strange woman, Amber, invites herself into the life of an ordinary family whilst on holiday. Amber becomes exactly what each character needs, even if they don't see it themselves. It makes us wonder whether anything can be a coincidence and we look about us in a new way after having read this book. However, I found Astrid's and Magnus' stories far more engaging than their parents', I wonder if this is my age. Has anybody else found this to be the case?

Smith makes us think about the nature and power of language, how it affects us and changes us, and how we can affect and change it, in turn.

Rating: 8/10

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- Seth Grahame Smith

ISBN: 9781594743344

I was intrigued by this book and, I have to say, I quite liked the idea of Elizabeth Bennet fighting zombies. Let's face it, if she can slay Mr. Darcy with her sharp wit, what zombie stands a chance? I was expecting an intelligent adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that humorously showed the characters we love more vividly whilst under this kind of duress.

However, this was entirely not the case. I felt that Grahame-Smith held Austen in contempt while he was writing this. It is clear that he was simply trying to make the original text more exciting by including a gory fight with zombies whenever a few characters go anywhere. He has no regard for the manners and customs of Regency England, with huge anachronisms which, though I didn't expect this to be a realistic novel, don't make sense within the plot. Particularly when the Bennet girls casually go to Japan for martial arts training.

As for humour, the pictures in my head of the scenes I was imagining before having cracked the cover were far more entertaining than the actual book. And not even the first pun of 'balls' was funny, let alone one every three pages.

I thought the drawings throughout were quite skilful, though.

Rating: 2/10

The Edible Woman -- Margaret Atwood

ISBN: 9780860681298

Atwood's ability to embody her characters astounds me; in this novel we not only know what Clara, our narrator, is thinking and feeling, but what fabric feels like against her skin, what food tastes like against her tongue and, crucially, to her stomach. Atwood is a chameleon of a writer.

This novel sums up an era, I believe, for women everywhere, and perhaps is a precursor to Desperate Housewives. As always, I've found, with Atwood, it's the relationships which shine through the pages of this novel like a lighthouse to guide you through the uncertain waters of the plot.

She highlights the difference with perspicacity between male-female relationships and female-female relationships, portraying genuine friendship and solidarity between women even of the most unlikely pairings.

Rating: 8/10

The Princess Bride - William Goldman

ISBN: 9780747545187

Goldman intelligently entwines meta fiction into this seemingly traditional adventure story. The narrative hops from romance to danger to camaraderie to sword fights to explorations to palaces with no more difficulty or jarring than a dragonfly flitting in and out of a pond. Whilst juggling with this in one hand, Goldman balances a critique of the genre in the other.

However, I found the constant interruption of the author's voice irritating because of its frequency, and I felt that he was being disparaging to similar tales. Perhaps I was longing for a traditional adventure, but I felt that there was too much jumping up and down of the author so that the characters became just that--characters.

It was all too clear that this what was happening was only a story. Other instances where this is far more successful is the subtlety of Edgeworth's Belinda, and the jumping-in-with-both-feet approach of Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller. I suppose I wanted Goldman to either tone it down or crank it up.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the story and one cannot deny that it is well written, with originality of expression in a traditional genre that could easily become jaded. I would have been happier if the book had finished off without the additional 'Buttercup's Baby' section, which I felt dampened the rest.

Rating: 6/10

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

ISBN: 9780755322800

I think of this book as a grimy fairytale and the panorama of the story seems to be in sepia. This novel is about the "other London", a fantasy world of heroes and villains, in unusual and often grotesque packages. Brimming with small details that make you laugh out loud or cringe in disgust, Gaiman brings us the equivalent of 'those little extras' that make our journey through this novel so enchanting.

Richard Mayhew, our protagonist is so very authentic that we forget that this isn't something we encounter everyday. We do not so much suspend our disbelief as throw it out of the window and dance in its wake. It takes quite a writer to take a world lousy with rats and make it beautiful.

Despite their unusual shells, the characters display vividly human emotions so that we connect with them instantly and feel that we should be inviting them to tea with our favourite aunt. Door, especially, sparkles with vivacity in the way only Gaiman can achieve. However, I was a little disappointing with the ending, which I felt was an anticlimax.

Rating: 8/10