To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface by Olivia Laing
Literature │ A River of GhostsTo the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface by Olivia Laing By Zehra Cranmer “I am haunted by water,” Laing proclaims. She doesn’t seem to be at ease unless she is near water; she has to be able to hear it at least. To the River is Laing’s journey along the river Ouse, a place that she has been drawn to as though it had been charged with a magnetic power, one which she finds unable to refuse. In Laing’s first book, the reader is taken through the history of this river which is famously
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Literature │ Life is a metaphor, but what does that mean?Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (published in “Avrupa”) We know that life is multilayered. When we believe we’ve just lifted a layer, dealt with it and understood it, we only expose the next. But what do we do with the next layer? Will that new tissue, new exposed specimen just be the beginning of many more to come after that? But most importantly, will everything make sense at the end of it all? Murakami’s fusion of magical realism and metaphysical questioning sends the reader falling from a dizzying
The Still Point by Amy Sackville
Literature │ The Perfect FitThe Still Point by Amy Sackville (published in Avrupa newspaper) The Still Point is Sackville’s debut novel after leaving her job working as an editor with an illustrated books publisher to pursue her love of literature and ended up doing an MA in creative writing at Goldsmiths. This is a story which stretches and rests over a chasm of time, a North Pole expedition led by Edward Mackley on one end and his great- great niece, Julia in Suffolk at the other. Julia is desperately trying to organise her family’s history into some form of cohesion
A Widows Story by Joyce Carol Oates
Literature │ “Your Life together was purely chance.” A Widow’s Story by Joyce Carol OatesBy Zehra Cranmer “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” These are the words of C.S.Lewis in A Greif Observed, published in 1961 under a pseudonym. Lewis wrote this after his wife died in order to make sense of his grief; of the thoughts that passed through his mind and the feelings that shocked him. Oates’s memoir is a portrait of a marriage and the portrayal of grief; essentially it is what she names her last chapter, “The Widow’s Handbook.” Joyce Carol
Freedom
Literature │ What’s in a name? Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (published in “Avrupa” newspaper) I don’t usually cave in to pressure when it comes to “must reads,” but it was impossible to turn anywhere without the title Freedom and Franzen being flashed. He was in every paper, every board and so forth, so I thought that I ought to find out what all the fuss was about, and I did. It’s not a small book, but I’ve read larger and greater ones. Freedom is essentially a story focused on the marriage of Walter and Patty Berglund; their responsibilities to one
The Birds & Other Stories BY DAPHNE DU MAURIER
Literature │Hold On Tight The Birds & Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier (Published in “Avrupa”) Hitchcock was Daphne du Maurier’s number one fan, he must have been seeing as he turned her short story “The Birds” and Rebecca into successful films, many of her other films have been adapted for the screen, including Don’t Look Now and Jamaica Inn. One has to ask, what is it about Daphne’s writing that makes directors yearn to take the story and bring it to life. It must be the way that she is capable of making one agitated in their own skin,
Did London kill Sheila Fell ?
One must embrace Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, sometimes it’s downright interestimg, sometimes….not so. But today, my ears perked up as soon as I heard the name Sheila Fell; a Cumberland artist who painted her home surroundings with a great passion. It was unfortunate, but it seems that when she eventually became known and moved to London, she missed her home. She turned to drink and died tragically. In the spirit of not being a fan of London at the moment I deduced that it was London that killed her! Well there, I’ve said it! Moving away from such dramatic
Are you sure you can carry those books back?
“Lets go to this Charity shop,” Mr Cranmer beckoned, “Very well, I replied,” and followed him in. “I found something,” I hold up my book. “It’s big,” he looks at my book, he’s holding a small Agatha Christie “Don’t worry, I’ll carry it,” I ignore the fact that we have to cycle back, he’s already going to have to carry my bag of rocks and pebbles that I had brought back from the seaside at Eastbourne along with 2 pairs of my shoes and two mobiles made out of rock and sea shells. 10 bookshops or so later…… I have
Writers’ Room
Writers’ Room: Zehra Mustafa (published in “Avrupa” newspaper) What does it mean to me a writer? To be the person who sits for many hours in a trusty chair, at an oak table pressed up against a wall or looking out on a busy street, or a canopy of trees, hoping that their blood, sweat and hours of solitude may be reduced to those pages that we so love to read. Interest has always been placed on the way in which an artist or writer lives, the Guardian back in 2007 did a long series on the Writers’ room which
A Room With a View
Literature │Life in a Multitude of Landscapes A Room with a View by E.M. Forster By Zehra Mustafa (published in “Avrupa” newspaper) Lucy Honeychurch is a young woman; vulnerable, delicate, strong and obstinate all at once, encompassing strong traits of an Austenesque character. Her mother has taught her all that she ought to know about society; her place within it as a young woman, as a wife and most importantly, an awareness of how one is in accordance to men. Lucy desires to be equal with men but finds herself pulled back by her initial beliefs as Cecil believes himself
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