ed_moore's Reviews (345)

Great Expectations was the first Dicken’s I’ve read, and therefore my opinion of it isn’t swathed by the common criticism of Dickens that all his plots following orphaned boys are but the same narrative frame. This such orphan is Pip Pirrip, whom finds his life changed by a large expectation (or a great expectation I should say) that allows him to escape poverty, abandoning his sister and effective brother in law Joe, to pursue a future as a gentleman. I can credit Dickens on Pip’s character arc, though the two endings of the book create a controversial closure for what’d be fitting for him, the edited ending arguably being more to please readers than suiting to the character. Though the plot and character arc of the main protagonist are good, and the plot twists were surprising (one resulting in a physical jaw-drop), I do admit with hindsight that they were in fact quite predictable. I also criticise that all but one of the character deaths that occurred in the book felt rushed with little effect on the greater story. Characters such as Orlick also seemed unnecessary, his inclusion for example seeming to only create unrequited dramatic tension. Though all in all Great Expectations was very readable and the arc of Pip is highly commendable. 

Daisy Johnson’s ‘Fen’ is a collection of short stories exploring the experience of the younger generations local to the Cambridgeshire fens. The stories were often quite serious in topic, ranging from anorexia to cannibalism but also incorporating elements of magical realism. As expected, the first half of the stories were much stronger in my opinion than the second, a clear structuring choice, but none had any major flaws other than being less interesting than the initial few. I did however appreciate the connections in the stories through setting, the pub ‘The Fox and Hound’ being the most notable recurring location. Johnson’s style makes her stories easy reads, though they were also very emotionally heavy so I would proceed with caution.

The Life of St Guthlac is a medieval text written around 740 detailing the life of a warrior who gave up his ways and devoted his life to Christianity. Guthlac became a hermit on the English fenlands and the tale highlights the spiritual guidance he provided to those in need in his 15 years a recluse. With an expected religious focus, the text very quickly skipped over the earlier and seemingly more interesting aspects of Guthlac’s life, the religious focus being largely unexciting. Guthlac himself seemed to be nothing remarkable either. As a whole, the text wasn’t particularly inspiring nor is there much for me to comment on. 

Sam Selvon’s ‘The Lonely Londoners’ is an insight into the experience of migrants from the West Indies in 1950’s London. It is distinct in its tone as it is written in a creole English, which reads almost as if it is written in the present tense. It follows Moses, a man who had migrated 10 years prior to the year the novel is set, as he helps out a new migrant from Trinidad get his footing in London, whilst sharing the stories of previous migrants he’s befriended or helped during his time in London. The book has no real present day plot, only the various inserts of migrant stories that are told, but the characters are each likeable and the story has a charm to it whilst highlighting issues of politics, capitalism and migrant experience in London. 

Bowen’s ‘The Heat of the Day’ appeared to have a lot of potential: a book set in blitz era London surrounding espionage reflecting Bowen’s real affairs that she became engaged in during her experience of the Second World War.  It however did not meet this potential, as somehow nothing happened. The book was such a slog, many characters served absolutely no purpose and the one notable plot point was brushed over in about two pages. I have so little to say about this book as it was nothing but boring, after 330 pages I could hardly say much about the plot. Bowen is regarded as one of the great literate perspectives of the Second World War, but honestly don’t waste your time with her.

Elmet focuses on the arboreal lifestyle of siblings Daniel and Cathy, self-sufficient but also cared for by their larger than life father, known to them only as ‘Daddy’. Mozely explores issues of land ownership and the exploitation of the working class by employers and landlords, all while Daddy works for both an improvement in the livelihood of his community and also right to claim the land he has built his house and family on. Aside from the perspective character Daniel, whose innocent perspective obscures the full details many events in the plot, each character is likeable though morally tainted, to the point that you aren’t sure which side of the legal and physical feud portrayed by Mozely to root for. The book as a whole is quote slow paced, there is a lot of build up to a climax that is largely obscured, whereas short interjections throughout the story from a future Daniel in search of his family and the nature of the ending make the ambiguity of the novel acceptable, whereas in other books I am sometimes more against that. It is also worth noting the importance of sexual assault within the novel before embarking on it.

The Grassling is a collection of nature memoirs describing the fields and hills of Devon, written by an environmental scientist who grew up there. It contains a multitude of beautiful descriptions of nature and has an eco-critical focus throughout, exploring the connection between man and the natural world. Whereas that is also all it is, just descriptions of fields and nature, and Burnett recounting her experience performing her work in said fields. Whilst the descriptions begin nice, they quickly become repetitive and boring, there is also no real take away other than the idea of man’s association with nature. There’s little else to say, I found that after the quarter-point the book just grew to be tiresome. 

Back-to-back Sherlock Holmes, and The Sign of Four was also great. The mystery outlined a murder associated to the theft of Indian treasure, where a simple letter leads to a multi-staged killing. I preferred it to the first one, if didn’t have two parts which was an improvement and the mystery was more exciting. It still had the same flaws, namely Sherlock’s unexplained genius, and also the sequel was really derogatory toward African and Indian characters, the case of many books from such time. In looking over such issues, the story was enjoyable and Conan-Doyle’s descriptions of London were beautiful. Such prose was the highlight of the book and easily elevate it above a Study in Scarlet. 

A Study in Scarlet almost feels like two different stories. It is split into two parts, the first part following the first mystery of the Sherlock Holmes canon and the second explaining the murders motive, set in Salt Lake City, Utah. What I didn’t expect going into the Sherlock Holmes series was that it’d be told from the perspective of Watson as oppose to Sherlock or an omniscient narrator. The mystery itself was well done, however Sherlock is presented as almost a superhuman detective, to the point where his logic in solving the mystery and ease in doing so seems to be tailored by Conan Doyle to be conveniently easy for him and this damaging the legitimacy of the murder and police work to be believable. Overall, I much preferred the first parts detective work to the second part of story, but I was pleasantly surprised by my introduction to Conan-Doyle’s work.

The Grapes of Wrath was an interesting one, certainly different. It focuses on the Great Depression in America and it’s impact on the farmers who have lost their land, migrating west. The story itself places particular focus on the troubles and human spirit of the Joad family, as they get further away from home, fall into deeper poverty and the depression slowly causes the family to drift apart, though is broken up with shorter chapters with a deeper social message exploring the impact of the depression on the Everyman. The most notably unique part of the book was Steinbeck’s choice to employ the Oklahoma accent in the speech of the characters, of which made it a bit more of a complicated read, certainly a stand-out style choice but one I would argue wasn’t necessarily needed. Though the main theme of the book is capitalism and social class, the growing “Grapes of Wrath” within the migrants suggesting the potential for a mimic of the recent Russian Revolution (at the time of writing) within the working class of America, I primarily approached it with an eco-critical lens as I will have to focus an essay on this in a few weeks. The themes of the book were all of interest in their own right, although I feel this also could’ve been accomplished in a couple hundred less pages, Rose of Sharon was insufferable. The ending was one of the most ambiguous I’ve ever read. I can’t see the final image leaving me for a long while.