The Golden Gremlin by Erin Robinson

There are two main themes running through this book.

The first is the theme of a police murder mystery. The newly promoted Sara Panotti is tasked with solving the murder of a local character, and is determined to do it quickly to gain merit with her colleagues. The second theme is of the existence of the creature community living alongside the human community and their integration within it.

There was no magical theme associated with the creature community; usually goblins and such are associated with children's fairy tales but here they seemed to be a normal and integrated part of society, there was no magical fairy tale here, and the subject was left open and unexplained. I was left wanting to know more about the creatures and their origins. What was the symbolism of the creatures; did they represent a minority group in the real world? There was a lot of imagery through colour, and description of emotion through eyes.

This book is quite short at 87 pages, and the text is spaced out. Because of this there is a precise and concentrated meaning in the text and every word is meaningful to the text. 

The Innocent by David Szalay

This book is about how the development of communism has affected the lives of ordinary Russian people and shaped the national psyche after the 1917 Revolution and before the break up of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991. It is also about episodes in the life of the protagonist.

The protagonist, an official in the MGB (forerunner of the KGB), in 1972 thinks back in 1972 over the past events in his life and types a testimonial of the things that have happened to him over the years later on after the Russian Revolution. There is strong use of symbolism, and criticism of the system by the use of little anecdotes that describe how things were then.

Throughout the novel, the distinct hallmarks of Szalay's writing can be recognised. Cynicism, blankness, bareness, and empty relationships are all there. Also Szalay's black sense of humour shines through. For example our protagonist is listening to the radio and the news reader comments on a visit of Kissinger to Moscow and reads

“...trade. In other words, the integration of the USSR into the international financial system, as a prelude to the re-introduction of free market principles to the soviet economy....”
Still very hungover, he does not feel strong enough to face this sort of thing and switches off the radio...

I laughed out loud when I read this.

There is some beautiful language written:

he lights the stove, the hissing blue teeth, sets the pan over it to make his tea

and

The rain falling steadily. Time was so extended, so open-ended

and

It simply lacked the sense of taking place in an isolated oxbow of time.
and some clouded

and

What they did together was still a secret from her family. She had instigated it, one afternoon when they were alone in the flat. Unlike him, she was not a virgin.

It took me two readings to really appreciate the book; on one level the critique of the Russian system, and on another the way Szalay just writes so cleverly and beautifully.
I enjoyed reading this book and I recommend it to you.

Three Rivers by David Blake

I don't normally read crime thrillers but I was attracted to “Three Rivers” as it was set in the Norfolk Broads where I once lived. I don't know why but I was expecting to read some sort of dark and mysterious tale shrouded in mist. But this novel was nothing like that, in fact I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it. The plot is quite straight forward and moves along at a cracking pace. The author makes it easy to understand and explains everything clearly as the book progresses and doesn't add too many characters all at once to make things complicated. It goes into depth about police procedure,office politics and character rivalry, and there is a little romance too. David Blake throws in red herrings but I won't spoil it for you! It is a light and uncomplicated read, perfect for summer holidays. Sometimes I just don't feel like reading heavy philosophical theories and just want a little fun; entertainment from books is important too, just as much as education and this book was merriment and easy pleasure. One point, this book is the fourth book in the series: it would be better if you read the other three in sequence first, but that is just a small thing, you could enjoy this book just as much if you read it first as I did. I would not not put this detective book in the “Nordic Noir” genre, but I think that David Blake might well start up a “Norfolk Noir” genre with this series.

Milkman by Anna Burns

This novel is about the informal sanctions used to control society and behaviour during the extremes of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. None of the characters have a name. They are described by the social roles that they play, for example, mother, eldest daughter and boyfriend. None of the places in the book have name; they are described by the role they play in that society, eg Ten Minute Square, and Red Light Street.
The highlight of the book for me was the way the plot was interwoven with the protagonist's comments on how the society was regulated. It was as if an automatic tennis ball server was randomly lobbing words to her at various angles at high speed, and she skilfully caught them all; assessing them, grouping them and placing them into different categories according to their meaning and then throwing them back in an ordered, fluent and meaningful way, according to the ideas she wanted to discuss. There was a lot of subtle sarcastic humour that commented on the narrowness and stupidity of the people and ideas she presents.

I did not find this book easy to read in one go. I took it in stages over many months; it warrants a lot of study. But I am glad I did as it has been very rewarding. Anna Burns is a very clever writer. She can control and manipulate her words with ease. She has my total respect. 

If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

This book is about life cycles, optimism, continuity and regeneration. The plot is divided into two parts.

The first part is the first person narration from the main protagonist and is written in single sentence hanging paragraphs.

The second division is narrated in the third-person from the omnipotent author and is about the inter-related short stories of the inhabitants of a street during one day. This second part is denoted by full paragraphs.

The two parts move around the central theme of the inhabitants and merge and flow around each other. The author uses his words as a camera, focusing and un-focusing into each individual story to give a related picture of life in the street as a whole.

The text goes into great detail of the every day routines of the inhabitants, their activities on the day in question, and their life histories. The language has a rhythm that has a poetic feel. The author breaks a lot of grammar and punctuation rules and this doesn't seem to matter. There are no quotation marks, speech runs into descriptive text, sentences end unfinished, and the meaning flows into the next sentence.

The overall impression I got was although the book was prose, it seemed like a long poem and sometimes the words became quite beautiful. At the end all the strands of the short stories threaded together and fitted together like a jig-saw puzzle. These strands at first seemed random, disparate and a little foggy; but at the end their importance and relevance became precise. The novel seemed to start out as unstructured and puzzling, but the meaning became much clearer at the end.

At the end I got a warm, optimistic and positive feeling. I had to sit back and take it all in and process it. I think that this is an impressive novel.