My Review of 'State of Wonder'

As per the request, here is my longer review of this novel, which was my joint favourite with the winner.

It was fairly obvious that Patchett's tale of a trip undertaken into an inhospitable jungle in order to track down a maverick researcher had taken inspiration from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness; even the official synopsis directly evokes this reference. While I've never read the original novel, I have seen Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and so made the connection quite quickly. Of course, since Conrad's time the issues have changed and yet in other respects they are perennial. Marina's journey of self-discovery, triggered by its physical counterpart, is also one of those universal themes explored in fiction.

'State of Wonder' turned out to be one of those  books that I found engaging from its opening pages and could hardly put down.  At heart it was an adventure story and there was plenty of excitement as well as an examination of the ethics surrounding medical research and environmental issues. I loved the strength of the story-line, its characters and most of all the Amazon setting.

Part of this immediate sense of connection was linked to my work earlier in life with environmental charities where we were advocating the importance of the rainforest along with my continued commitment to the welfare of indigenous peoples, especially in this region. Patchett captures the heat, humidity and the insects of the tropics very effectively. It made me happy that I now live in a part of the world with less exotic flora and fauna.

Both this and The Song of Achilles were my favourites among the six short-listed titles for the 2012 Orange Prize. I did favour this one in the final vote due to the issues it explored. It has left me keen to read other novels by Patchett.

And the winner is...

Tonight we voted for our winning choice out of the six shortlisted.

Our favourite book and our reading group winner was Painter of Silence.

The vote was not unanimous, but the majority was clear.

But...

 ...we then voted for the book we think the Orange Judging Panel will choose... again, not unanimously but with a clear majority, we think the Orange Prize for fiction 2012 will go to Half Blood Blues.

Kate and Jan will be on the south bank in London tomorrow to hear the authors discuss their work and we will all know the final winner on Wednesday.

It will be interesting to see what the final choice will be and whether we should have had a little flutter on HBB!

The Forgotten Waltz

Although this novel certainly has received good reviews from critics and readers, it just didn't appeal to me. I found the rambling stream-of-consciousness narration annoying and even in the middle of the day found it was putting me to sleep. Yes, I could step back and see that it was well written; literary chic-lit but I just didn't feel any connection with Gina and her tangled love life. No idea what the title had to do with the content.

Foreign Bodies

I finished this yesterday. I certainly found it beautifully written and an engaging read though it wasn't quite the page turner that The Song of Achilles was. I only discovered after finishing and checking some reviews that Ozick had written it with Henry James' classic The Ambassadors in mind. I was not familiar with that novel but looking at its synopsis I could quickly see the link. I felt its wider social themes such as the American Dream,post-War anti-Semitism and post War recovery in Europe and the US as well as the stirrings of the Cold War were well realised without over-powering the family drama at the heart of the story. Given that Ozick was an adult during the 1950s it is perhaps not surprising that the sense of detail in the setting felt just perfect.

The Song of Achilles

I finally began my first book this afternoon, The Song of Achilles and found myself totally drawn into Miller's vision of Ancient Greece. A few hours later and I find Iam half-way through and enjoying it very much. I especially love the way in which she is tackling the presentation of gods and other mythical beings. There is no sense of her tryng to impose 21st Century sensibilities upon her setting: gods, goddesses and demi-gods just are. Expect to carry on and finish it tomorrow.

Song of Achilles: A Bit of Background

(yeah, you're paying attention now, aren't ya?)

Shmoop: The Iliad 

I finished 'Song of Achilles' today and was doing a little searching around for more about Achilles and Patroclus. Found this website written  by PhD students. It gives a bullet pointed summary of each of the 11 books of The Iliad and is very entertaining to read. Give it a look! 

London, 9.30am, 17 April 2012:The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, today announces the 2012 shortlist. Now in its seventeenth year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing throughout the world.

Esi Edugyan	Half Blood Blues	Serpent’s Tail	Canadian
Anne Enright	The Forgotten Walz	Jonathan Cape	Irish
Georgina Harding	Painter of Silence	Bloomsbury	British
Madeline Miller	The Song of Achilles	Bloomsbury	American
Cynthia Ozick	Foreign Bodies	Atlantic Books	American
Ann Patchett	State of Wonder	Bloomsbury	American

The judges for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction are:

• Joanna Trollope, (Chair), Writer
• Lisa Appignanesi, Writer, Novelist and Broadcaster
• Victoria Derbyshire, Journalist and Broadcaster
• Natalie Haynes, Writer and Broadcaster
• Natasha Kaplinsky, Broadcaster

Well, I must admit I haven't read any of them. Let's look at a synopsis of each: