Tag: Reviews

Review : Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

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Mansfield Park

Plot synopsis from Goodreads :

Adopted into the household of her uncle – by – marriage , Sir Thomas Bertram , Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park . Soon after Sir Thomas absents himself on estate business in Antigua (the family’s investment in slavery and sugar is considered in the Introduction in a new , post-colonial light ) , Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive at Mansfield , bringing with them London glamour, and the seductive taste for flirtation and theatre that precipitates a crisis .

My thoughts on the book :

While several reviewers have too often moaned about Fanny Price ‘ s  ‘ inferiority ‘  to the other Austen heroines , I think that they simply do not consider the fact that Fanny ‘ s social standing is very different from the rest . The chief complaint which everybody seems to have is this Fanny is too timid . Do these readers who complain that Fanny is  ‘ a creepmouse ‘ expect her to have Elizabeth Bennet’s vivacity or Emma Woodhouse’s self assuredness while she is residing under her uncle ‘ s roof because her parents cannot afford to raise her ? A poor relation is only above the servants of the great house and has nothing to give herself airs about if you need some enlightening about how the society operated in Jane Austen ‘ s time . Sometimes , it is also upto  the readers to get the expectations right . . .

But these not – so – favorable  reviews actually helped me to get started with the book without much expections about the heroine and helped me to finish it without much regret . This should be the prime takeaway from this review – Have no great expectations and you will get through the book comfortably . Otherwise , you are definitely going to be disappointed . . .

One scathing observation  from a critic quoted by Claire Tomalin in her Austen biography  ( review here ) says that he found Fanny repellent : cold , self – righteous , rigid with prejudice , ‘ the most terrible incarnation we have of a the female prig – pharisee ‘ .

For me , while Fanny is rightly characterized as the creepmouse who is only too happy to sit sit unobserved and  observe the drama around her , the fact that her internal monologues almost always run along  the lines of ‘ Is this right  ? Is this wrong ? ‘ seemed a little absurd and was really exasperating . Considering the characters of her companions at Mansfield Park ( with the exception of Edmund ) , it seems very odd that she should be obsessed with the rights & wrongs like this . I also felt that it was a bit uncharacteristic for Fanny to wax eloquent at times when time and again the reader is reminded  that her education was not on par with the daughters of the house . . . I was able to overlook  her out – of – character , almost – too – poetic raptures  but even I had enough of Fanny ‘ s constant moralizing or her judgemental opinions ( regarding Mary Crawford particularly )  that I fully agree with the critic on every point except for finding her repulsive .  Any reader would recognize the underlying jealousy ( which Fanny stubbornly refuses to acknowledge even to herself  ) in the case of Mary Crawford – Fanny tends to play  up even the slightest hint of a vice in Mary Crawford to Edmund particularly , while she comfortably remains mum on the subject of her cousins ‘ scandalous elopements . . .

Atleast for me , Fanny ‘ s inferiority is in the fact that she does not get or never got  or probably would not get much love from the readers like the other Jane Austen heroines . We are not able to root for her like we did for every other Austen heroine – in fact despite all of Mary Crawford ‘ s ‘ deviousness ‘ as Fanny & Edmund would say , I wanted her to get married to the man whom she loved . But coming to think of it now , it ‘ s a match made in heaven between the two cousins . . .

That ‘ s enough of a rant about Fanny Price I guess . Now , lets talk about her love story .

I am not the first ( or going to be the last  ) reader who has this complaint – Fanny ‘ s love for Edmund is always hinted but the same Edmund who exclaimed ‘ My only sister ‘ on seeing Fanny  ( shortly after Mariah ‘ s elopement ) should fall in love with her some three or so chapters later is very much unlike Jane Austen who gave us Pride & Prejudice , Persuasion , Sense & Sensibility . If Austen had hinted at a budding romance halfway through the novel , I could have easily made peace with this romantic pair . The only problem with this lead pair is that nowhere in the book a keen reader would discern anything romantic in the interactions between the two until the big reveal . It seems that Jane Austen desperately wanted a happy ending for her book . With all other young people married or banished from Mansfield Park , she had no other people to pair up except for these two . .

Another sore point about Mansfield Park  was the writing . There were too many overly long sentences that wrapping my head around those was a trial . It was becoming quite tedious reading about Edmund and Fanny discussing the Crawfords & their merits / vices at length . . . Austen heroines who were more insightful than Fanny ( like Anne Elliot ) did not bore the readers with discussions about the characters of their neighbours . I enjoyed the chapters on Sotherton excursion , Fanny visiting her family and any other family drama very much after plodding through yet another discussion between Fanny & Edmund or even worse , Fanny ‘ s thoughts . .

* Just an idea *

Another thing which struck me after reading about Lady Bertram & Mrs . Price is that Jane Austen prefers having only the silly or sometimes indifferent parent(s) or sometimes guardians ( like Lady Bertram as in Fanny ‘ s case ) around her heroine – If you think about Mrs . & Mr . Bennet , Sir Elliot , Mr . Woodhouse , Mrs . & Mr. Price , you might also begin to see the pattern . If Austen chooses to have both the parents instead of only one ( as in Persuasion & Emma ) , then it means that both have varying levels of idiocy or eccentricity . I wonder why Austen chose to characterize the heroine ‘ s parents as people who could use some of their offspring ‘ s intelligence . . .

Final thoughts

On the whole , Mansfield Park is not going to be one of my Austen favorites . I still  have Northanger Abbey and  Sense & Sensibility  to read and having seen much positive response to  S & S , only  Northanger Abbey will decide the final rankings for Austen novels . I am confident that  in my rankings , no other Austen novel is going to beat Persuasion for the top spot . . .

Rating : 2 . 75 / 5

If you have already read the book , let me know in the comments section about your thoughts on the book  . . . Until the next review then . . .

P . S : I think that the current situation is the best time to tackle some classics . I don ‘ t think I would have had enough patience with Mansfield Park if I had read it during ” old  normal times ” . Here are  my discussion posts on Wuthering Heights – Part-1 , Part-2 if you want to check it out . . .

 

 

Audiobook review : The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

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hardcastle

Author : Stuart Turton

Publication Date : 2018

Publisher(s) : Sourcebooks Landmark

Narrator : Jot Davies

Literary Awards :

Costa Book Award for First Novel (2018),

 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller and for Debut Author (2018),

Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Nominee for Longlist (2019)

 Books Are My Bag Readers’ Awards for Best Novel (2018)

Plot summary :

The house party is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy . As fireworks explode overhead , Evelyn Hardcastle , the young and beautiful daughter of the house , pulls the trigger of the pistol positioned at her stomach .  Aiden , one of the guests at Blackheath is tasked to find the murderer of Evelyn Hardcastle because somebody believes that there is more to the death of Evelyn Hardcastle than the suicide that the guests witnessed . . .

But Evelyn will not die just once . Until Aiden can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself , over and over again . Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot .

The only way to break this cycle is to identify the murderer . But , on cycling to the beginning of the day , Aiden wakes up in the body of one of the house guests – and every time it ‘ s a  different guest .

Aiden has a deadline , deadly enemies and too many dark secrets to uncover to unmask Evelyn ‘ s killer to escape Blackheath . . .

My thoughts on the book :

We have time and again seen our suspense fiction writers ( even  more often the debut authors ) experiment with the narrative  techniques – from the ( now done – to – death ) unreliable narrators to the reverse narrative and everything in between . . . In this scene , TSDOEH is still a bold attempt and Turton has pulled it off  marvellously . It is not far – fetched to compare the crime fiction author to a jigsaw puzzle designer who needs to cut every piece  to precision so that it fits with the next piece in sequence perfectly . While authors have sometimes had slip – ups with some of the frequently incorporated techniques only , to pull off a very convincing thriller with a previously unattempted time – loop element is nothing short of a feat . . .

The first thing that I loved about this book was that it has the power to keep the reader hooked . Let me explain –  I had always been a little wary of audiobooks . I am a multitasker and getting me to sit down with one task at a time is not that easy ( the exception being ONLY  books . . . ) . With the ” convenience ” of ” reading – on -the – move ” , I was not sure if I would be invested in the story as I would be in a physical book . I had tried it out earlier with some of P G Wodehouse ‘ s novels and it didn ‘ t work out . I am not sure if it was the story or the narration that lost my interest . . . I turned to Audible only under dire circumstances when  I ” had nothing to read ” in my shelves . . .  It might sound cliched but the story and the narration had me hooked right from the first chapter . .

A special mention should go to the narrator of the audiobook  Jot Davies . Without the glowing reviews of his performance , I doubt if people can be easily persuaded to pick up the book from the collection there . It lived up to all the expections set by these reviews .

While several authors fail to make every character memorable when there a bunch of them making their entrances and exits at different times ( or sometimes attach their profession like the doctor or the solicitor as a primary identifier with some by – the – template characteristics thrown in for some extra depth ) , Turton does not seem to have stumbled on this aspect which sometimes seems to have tripped up even the best of the crime fiction writers . . .  I guess this needs some elaboration :

The reader and Aiden is more or less on the same boat – Aiden wakes up every time in the body of a different guest and that ‘ s when the reader also gets a proper introduction to the character who would have been yet – another – guest ‘ s – name until now . A good two or three chapters is all the space that a character gets  ( with all the drama in the house too !! ) to make an impression on the reader .  Whether Aiden is slow to pick up any hints from his earlier avatars or not ,  an observant reader will surely able to connect the dots between the last loop and the current loop . But I should warn you not to underestimate Turton  –  that ‘ s as far as you can get . Just when you think you have an idea , Turton brings up HIS ideas and they would leave you dumb – founded . You would have never had the slightest inkling of the trajectory the plot would trace . . .

The author ‘ s Goodreads bio states that ” Stuart is not to be trusted. In the nicest possible way ” . It would have been better if they put it out as the warning for the readers also . . .  Just when the reader thinks that the mystery of Evelyn ‘ s death has been solved and he / she can get back to the real world , Stuart decides to pull yet another rabbit from his hat .  The final reveal was simply brilliant . . .

I am looking  forward to getting my hands on his next release ( expected in October 2020 ) . . . Hopefully , we are back to our ” old normal ” by then . . .

Rating : 5 / 5

If you have already read the book , you can say in the comments section about your thoughts on the book  . . . Until the next review then . . .

P . S : Maybe , now I will finally pick up a classic from my shelf as I mentioned in my previous post . . .

 

Review : The Hunting Party

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Huntin'Party

Author : Lucy Foley

Publication Date : 2019

Publisher(s) : Harper Collins

Plot Summary :

A group of old friends have come together to celebrate the New Year of 2019 in a remote Scottish hunting lodge . There are Giles & Samira – the new parents , Nick & Bo , Julien & Miranda – the ” Golden ” couple , Mark & Emma and finally , Katie – the singleton in the group . Then one of them is found dead . It does not look like an accident . . .

My thoughts about the book :

The Hunting Party is described as ‘ Gripping ‘ by Sophie Hannah . It also has other one – adjective praises by authors like A J Finn and Laura Marshall . I picked up this book on seeing these praises and am resolved in future not to pick up any book based on any author ‘ s recommendations alone . . . The most questionable adjective that can be given to this book is from Laura Marshal – ” Eerie ” .

The narrative covers the period from Dec 30 2018 to Jan 2 2019 . The story has 4 first person narratives  from Miranda , Katie , Emma and Heather ( the Lodge manager ) and a third person narrative  for Doug (  the Lodge gamekeeper ) . There were a few aspects of the writing which did not sit well with me . . .

Too many dandelions :

I seemed to trip upon the dandelions – sometimes a lone one and sometimes in clusters almost in every single chapter . I was trying to make allowance for one or two popping up occasionally , but the more often you encounter them , the less patience you have left to deal with them . When I trip upon a dandelion , my brain goes – ” Here comes the next one . . . Doesn’t it sound . . . “  . I get interested in the choice of words put together for the newly – minted simile / metaphor and for the next 5 minutes this one is going to have my attention .

” And there is a red bloom around her head where it has struck the rocks – a starburst , a supernova of red . . . “

The problem with the current crop of suspense / detective fiction writers  is , they try to emulate the literary fiction in terms of  language & narrative  – with disastrous results . While experimenting with hyper-realistic narratives and flowery language , the current breed of crime fiction writers seem to forget that they are writing for the suspense genre where a good pace is the key to guarantee the reader a great reading experience [ ” the ending that leaves the reader breathless ” , ” the shocker that you can never see coming ” and other similar reactions . . . ]

Thankfully , the author stopped with the flowery language and did not go for the hyper – realistic narrative . Perhaps , none of the characters  are portrayed with a depth that would require a hyper – realistic approach or any innovative narrative technique to actually peel off the layers off the character the reveal the real person .

The usage of  ” millennial ” slang  in the narratives :

While the narrators are millennial , trying to capture that in the slang is not a good idea . I never realized millennial conversations ( with those filler words ) , when put on paper looks so bad . . . There is the liberal mindless usage of the f*** word , the afterthoughts without which some characters can’t seem to finish a sentence – all these were major put – offs . Here is one :

” ‘ But who wants Westminster – all those sweaty bodies pressed together – when you can have this ? ‘ Emma asks . ‘ This place ‘ , she spreads her arms wide , ‘ and best friends . ‘ She links her arm with mine , and smiles at me , a proper , warm smile . I want to hug her . Thank fuck for Emma . ” 

The thing which amused me highly is this one :

There is a chapter which is narrated by the character when she is drunk . ” Being in a temporary state in which one’s physical and mental faculties are impaired by an excess of alcoholic drink ;  intoxicated ” is the definition provided for the word drunk . And here , the narrator is perfectly aware of her surroundings .  Here is a second one from the same narrator  –

” It’s the way he says it : so quiet , under his breath , so that no one else can hear . I suddenly feel cold in a way that I don’t think has anything to do with the freezing air . I take a step back . . .” 

For someone who says ” I feel numb . I’d forgotten I had so much wine before the champagne . My thoughts are jumbled , my mind fuggy . . . “ , she sure has a heightened awareness of self and her surroundings to be able to pin down even the smallest reaction she had to somebody ‘ s words . . .

Frankly , I was so disappointed with this one – I was looking for a solid closed circle mystery  and the setting looked promising for a good mystery . Instead  the average writing and a not-very-convincing solution to the question ” Who is the killer ? ” only made me wish that I hadn’t bothered with this one . . .

Rating : 2 . 75  / 5

Is there something in the post you disagree with ? Feel free to write about it as well in the comments section . . .

Until the next review then . . .

A final note :

This might be the last post for this year – unless I get a short read I need to rave about . . . Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year in advance . . .