Mister Johnson - Not for Me!

Written in 1939, Mister Johnson, by Joyce Cary tells the tale of a young African man in colonial Nigeria who lives life as largely as he can, but with little thought for the consequences of his actions. At the beginning of the book, he falls for Bamu, a beautiful woman from the nearby village, and determines to marry her. He negotiates a bride price - even though he has almost no money - and starts to make plans. But this isn't the only thing he can't afford. He works as a clerk for the Colonial Office, and dresses in the English style. He swaggers around, lavishly entertaining the townsfolk, in a manner he feels befits his position. His debts mount up all over town, but he keeps managing to put people off by his infectious manner and promises of a better future. He thinks the world of his boss, and helps him to build a road to connect the town to the North, from where more trade will come and increase the prosperity of the area. But the way he helps is by cooking the books, and this cannot go unpunished. And so things start to spiral downwards ... I really struggled with this book. I found it hard to like the foolish Mr Johnson and, indeed, any of the characters. Certain passages made for uncomfortable reading in how Mr Johnson conducted himself or was treated by others. Many of the situations I just didn't find believable or convincing. There is a deep sadness to the book and the ending is heartbreaking. I know this book is well loved by many people, but I just didn't "get it!"

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 251 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from my husband.
Reading formats available: print; ebook.

Milkman - Funny and heartbreaking!

Milkman by Anna Burns, won the Man Booker Prize in 2018 and is a very stylised novel set in an unnamed city sometime during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The narrator is a young woman whose life is changed when Milkman, a senior figure from amongst the "renouncers" (her description of the IRA), starts to pay her particular attention. As much as she might try to ignore it, this unwanted attention affects where she goes, who she sees and what she does. And, for the first time within her community, she has become someone that others start to notice - which is the opposite of everything she has tried to achieve. She just wants to go below the radar - it's safest that way. No character names are used, for instance, our narrator is Middle Sister, and the young lad she has been seeing is Maybe Boyfriend. This style took a little getting used to, but once I did, I enjoyed it - and weirdly, it did help to place everybody, whereas sometimes, when there are a lot of characters in a book (which there are in Milkman), you can lose track of who is who. The titles indicate WHAT they are in relation to the narrator, not WHO they are, if that makes sense! The story intrigued me from the outset, with the influence of Milkman over Middle Sister increasing over time and veiled (and not so veiled) threats darkening the mood. However, around three quarters of the way through, it seemed to lose a little bit of impetus and my interest started to wane. I wanted to find out what was going to happen, but the denouement seemed to take forever ... and it's not a particularly long book. However, it could just be me and what was going on in my own life outside of the book! Both funny and heartbreaking, it does give you a flavour of what it was like to live in a place so divided and dangerous. Although if you didn't know anything about Northern Ireland and "The Troubles" then some elements may be lost on you. Overall, I would recommend this book, as the characters have stayed with me - which is always a good sign. I read the audio edition narrated by Brid Brennan, who did a sterling job.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 368 print pages.
Price I paid: £5.84.
Reading formats available: print; unabridged audio download; audio CD; ebook.

Vinegar Girl - limp and lacklustre!

In this retelling of The Taming of the Shrew, Kate Battista is 29, single and keeping house for her father, an eccentric scientist, and her little sister, Bunny. Kate has a reputation for speaking her mind and seems incapable of keeping her opinions to herself, which doesn't always endear her to her work colleagues, although the kids in the preschool love it! So when, totally out of the blue, her father asks her to marry his Russian lab assistant, Pyotr, in order to prevent his impending deportation (the book is set in the USA), it comes as no surprise that Kate refuses to oblige. However, as the date of deportation becomes closer, and her father becomes more desperate (he thinks his life's work will be ruined if he cannot keep Pyotr working with him), Kate's resolve starts to crumble, and she reluctantly agrees. But the path to the "fake" wedding isn't exactly a smooth one, with Bunny trying to put a spanner in the works on numerous occasions. This is a light and not altogether taxing tale that I raced through in super quick time. There is humour, and you do end up rooting for Kate and Pyotr, even though every modern sensibility within you is screaming ... you have got to be kidding me! However, I was a little disappointed at Kate's lack of overall strength and there certainly wasn't enough sparky dialogue between her and Pyotr - I would have expected much more of that from a retelling of Shakespeare's cracking play. And I found some of the scenes and dialogue unconvincing, with people not being true to their characters. Overall, Vinegar Girl, by Anne Tyler would make a good holiday read where you don't have to concentrate too much, and you are pretty much guaranteed a happy ending. I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did, but it won't put me off reading more work by this author.

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 263 print pages.
Price I paid: FREE, borrowed from my Mum.
Reading formats available: print; unabridged audio download; audio CD; ebook.