The Pirate's Daughter - thirty years of hurt!

The letter C was next to be drawn out of the hat, and it led me to The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezar-Thomson, a book I picked up in a charity shop many years ago but never quite got around to reading ... until now! Set in Jamaica, the story opens in 1946 when Errol Flynn washes up on the island in his yacht, Zaca. This is, of course, big news, and Ida Joseph, a local teenager, is determined to meet the "world's most handsomest man". Meanwhile, Flynn falls in love with the tropical paradise and sets up home on Navy Island, where he entertains his Hollywood friends and rekindles some of the spark that has been lacking of late. Despite the age gap, Flynn takes a shine to Ida and pays her special attention. She is convinced that they will soon marry, but Flynn's interest wanes and he moves on to other women (no big surprise there), and barely acknowledges that he has left a teenager pregnant and facing hardship. Ida fights to bring up her daughter, May, the best way she can, even leaving her on the island for years while she moves to America for work. When Flynn returns to the island, May meets him just the once and it is a strangely sad encounter. By a strange quirk of fate, Ida finally comes home as the wife of one of Flynn's closest friends. She is reunited with her daughter, and they take up residence in Flynn's old house on Navy Island. Despite the relationship often being fraught, life goes on as they try to live with the spectre of Flynn constantly haunting them. All of this is set against the backdrop of a Jamaica struggling for, and then living with the early years of independence. Whilst there was much about this book that I enjoyed, I couldn't help but feel a little squeamish about the relationship with Flynn. The two central women, Ida and her daughter May, weren't always easy to like (but then, who of us is) and I wanted to shout at them a few times for repeating mistakes or getting things so wrong in the first place. There were also many, many characters and I sometimes got confused as to who was who, but that could just be me! What was most pleasing was that the writing totally transported me to another place, one I am not familiar with. Overall, an interesting read, with a hint of "what if ..." about it. I can definitely see this as a great holiday read too.

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 528 print pages.

Price I paid: £1.50 (from a charity shop).

Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, audio CD, ebook.

The Blackwater Lightship - let go of those grudges!

And onto the letter T ... Set in Ireland in the 1990's, The Blackwater Lightship, by Colm Toibin, is a story of heartbreak and humour within the Devereaux family, as told by Helen, who became estranged from her mother Lily some ten years previous to the opening of the story. Helen is contacted by a friend of her brother Declan. Her beloved sibling is dying of AIDS and is in hospital, but this is the first Helen is hearing about his illness. So instead of departing on her own family's planned holiday to Donegal, she goes to spend time with him. But Declan wants to leave hospital and visit their grandmother, who he and Helen lived with during their childhood at a time when their own father was dying. This brings the grandmother, mother and daughter together in the same place at the same time for a decade. Into this mix are two of Declan's closest friends who also come to stay. As Declan's condition deteriorates (and no details are spared here), this proves to be a catalyst for the family who are desperate to support Declan but who cannot help but bring up grievances and deep felt hurt from the past, which lead us to the root cause of the estrangement. Whilst this could be an overly sentimental story, there is grit and edginess in the dialogue that is very convincing of a family who have held onto grudges for a long time. There are lighter moments, especially between Declan's friends and Dora, the grandmother, which are very welcome. The characters are distinct and well drawn, although I found Lily, the mother, maybe not quite so three dimensional as the others. There are beautiful passages, and emotions do run high, but overall a very satisfying read that reinforces the adage that  you shouldn't wait for a tragedy to bring healing to a broken relationship - because then it might be too late!

My STAR rating: FOUR

Length: 288 print pages.

Price I paid: £2.98

Formats available: print, unabridged audio download.

Paris Echo - dreamlike, with the odd nightmare thrown in!

Today I bring you the letter F, which gave me the chance to read Paris Echo, by Sebastian Faulks, a book my big sister gave me as a birthday present last year. Set in Paris, this novel brings together two characters who seem to have very little in common. There is Hannah, an American postdoctoral researcher who is looking into the lives of women living in Paris during the German Occupation of the Second World War, and Tariq, a Moroccan teenager who has run away from his home in Tangiers, who thinks he might be able to find out something about his mother's history. Tariq ends up living in Hannah's spare room and, occasionally, helps her to translate some of the narrated histories of the women Hannah is researching. To earn money, he works in a fast food restaurant, but he becomes swept up in the boulevards, Metro stations and people he meets in the city. While Hannah begins to uncover the lives of the women, it stirs up memories and feelings from a previous relationship which has affected her more deeply than she would probably admit to. Tariq is full of wonder and keen to experience pretty much everything, whereas Hannah is more reserved and thinks only of her work, at least until an old acquaintance appears on the horizon. This is an exploration of a city the author obviously loves and the people who inhabit it, both in the past and the present. Sometimes it's hard to get a grip on it and the narrative has a dreamlike quality in places, but that kind of worked for me. There are sections to do with the Occupation that are incredibly hard to read, but stick with it and you will be rewarded. This book has received quite mixed reviews and while it may not reach the heights of, say, Birdsong (one of my all time favourite books), there is still much to admire and enjoy.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 320 print pages.

Price I paid: free.

Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook