Review: "Like ice in the sunshine" - "An Ice-Cream War", William Boyd et al.
Been reading... stuff.
"An Ice-Cream War" - William Boyd
Rating: **** of *****
Ever since reading "Restless" I regard William Boyd as a genius. So I was compelled to buy "Ice-cream War" when I found it by accident in a bookstore at home.
Content is as follows: Europe wasn't the only battlefield of WWI and here Boyd tried his hand at Africa. The book follows the lives of people as different as a farmer from America, his German neighbors, British soldiers... into a tangle of war and love. It's a forgotten war and yet it's as gritty and bloody as the trench warfare in Europe.
The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about "An Ice-cream War" was that it reminded me awfully much of Hemingway's "A Farewell To Arms" and that's a good thing. Boyd is as good as Hemingway in depicting the horroras and the insanity of war, in his own style and with his own devices. Like in "Restless" the book starts off rather leisurely but steadily picks up pace until it reaches its shocking climax. There are a few "Rocks fall, everyone dies." moments and they are placed very well to illustrate Boyd's point. I wish I could write about war as Boyd does :S
"The Other Side Of Paradise" - Margaret Mayhew
Rating: **** of *****
Took me a while to find a Mayhew-book where I had the feeling I would like it as much as "Bluebirds" but what gripped me about "The Other Side Of Paradise" was that it took place in the British Pacific, something I have rarely - or, well, not at all - encountered before.
Anyway, content: Singapore in WWII, before the Japanese attack the Peninsula, is a flourishing haven for the British upper- and middle-class pretending there isn't a war on. And so Susan Roper is seriously put off when Australian Army doctor Ray warns her that things will change very soon. However, she still takes up driving ambulances, although simply to pass time rather than helping the war effort. But when the shit hits the fan... Susan suddenly finds herself in a Japanese POW camp, with two children in her care.
It was really... intense, even though the tone was rather understated and descriptive, not quite as in "Bluebirds". And maybe it was this which made the horrors of the POW camps even worse so Mayhew did a real good job with that. However, I had a hard time getting to like Susan but Mayhew managed to make her grow from a careless upper-class girl to a hardened woman and for that I give her great credit. However... I would have loved to see more of Ray since... oh well, he's just my kind of boy in a book ;)
"Ein Mann wie Mr Darcy" - Alexandra Potter
Rating: *** and a half of *****
One of the books koboldmaki sent me a while back, with a note saying something like "This one is so silly, even almost a good thing." And because she knows what she's talking about, I took it up and read it ;)
On to the content: Emmily, a New Yorker in her late twenties whose religion is Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", decides to spend her Christmas vacations in good old England, following the tracks of Jane Austen and - more importantly - Mr Darcy in the rather illustrous company of a bunch of jolly old English ladies... and a rather obnoxious journalist, trying to find out what it is about Mr Darcy that every woman swoons if someone so much as drops that name.
It was... diverting. Not a spectacular and enlightening piece of great literature but diverting. And I do have the feeling this was actually the purpose of this book so Potter did a good job. Also, Spike was definitely the kind of book guy I like and I liked it how Potter managed to entwine her plot with the plot of "Pride and Prejudice" (my favorite Austen book, by the way... yes, I'm mainstream like that, so sue me). I did have a lot of fun reading it (and the translation was better than I anticipated I have to say) and that does count for something ;)
"An Ice-Cream War" - William Boyd
Rating: **** of *****
Ever since reading "Restless" I regard William Boyd as a genius. So I was compelled to buy "Ice-cream War" when I found it by accident in a bookstore at home.
Content is as follows: Europe wasn't the only battlefield of WWI and here Boyd tried his hand at Africa. The book follows the lives of people as different as a farmer from America, his German neighbors, British soldiers... into a tangle of war and love. It's a forgotten war and yet it's as gritty and bloody as the trench warfare in Europe.
The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about "An Ice-cream War" was that it reminded me awfully much of Hemingway's "A Farewell To Arms" and that's a good thing. Boyd is as good as Hemingway in depicting the horroras and the insanity of war, in his own style and with his own devices. Like in "Restless" the book starts off rather leisurely but steadily picks up pace until it reaches its shocking climax. There are a few "Rocks fall, everyone dies." moments and they are placed very well to illustrate Boyd's point. I wish I could write about war as Boyd does :S
"The Other Side Of Paradise" - Margaret Mayhew
Rating: **** of *****
Took me a while to find a Mayhew-book where I had the feeling I would like it as much as "Bluebirds" but what gripped me about "The Other Side Of Paradise" was that it took place in the British Pacific, something I have rarely - or, well, not at all - encountered before.
Anyway, content: Singapore in WWII, before the Japanese attack the Peninsula, is a flourishing haven for the British upper- and middle-class pretending there isn't a war on. And so Susan Roper is seriously put off when Australian Army doctor Ray warns her that things will change very soon. However, she still takes up driving ambulances, although simply to pass time rather than helping the war effort. But when the shit hits the fan... Susan suddenly finds herself in a Japanese POW camp, with two children in her care.
It was really... intense, even though the tone was rather understated and descriptive, not quite as in "Bluebirds". And maybe it was this which made the horrors of the POW camps even worse so Mayhew did a real good job with that. However, I had a hard time getting to like Susan but Mayhew managed to make her grow from a careless upper-class girl to a hardened woman and for that I give her great credit. However... I would have loved to see more of Ray since... oh well, he's just my kind of boy in a book ;)
"Ein Mann wie Mr Darcy" - Alexandra Potter
Rating: *** and a half of *****
One of the books koboldmaki sent me a while back, with a note saying something like "This one is so silly, even almost a good thing." And because she knows what she's talking about, I took it up and read it ;)
On to the content: Emmily, a New Yorker in her late twenties whose religion is Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", decides to spend her Christmas vacations in good old England, following the tracks of Jane Austen and - more importantly - Mr Darcy in the rather illustrous company of a bunch of jolly old English ladies... and a rather obnoxious journalist, trying to find out what it is about Mr Darcy that every woman swoons if someone so much as drops that name.
It was... diverting. Not a spectacular and enlightening piece of great literature but diverting. And I do have the feeling this was actually the purpose of this book so Potter did a good job. Also, Spike was definitely the kind of book guy I like and I liked it how Potter managed to entwine her plot with the plot of "Pride and Prejudice" (my favorite Austen book, by the way... yes, I'm mainstream like that, so sue me). I did have a lot of fun reading it (and the translation was better than I anticipated I have to say) and that does count for something ;)