#5 Platform - The Last Samurai

Poor Helen DeWitt. Tom Cruise took over the name, despite the clear quality difference.

Book #39: The Last Samurai
Author: Helen DeWitt
Provenance: Bookmooch

I picked this up mostly because I remembered regyt recommending it at some point, and then I left it around for a few months before finally picking it up. And boy, did it not disappoint at all.

The story, basically, is that of a woman trying to raise her intelligent son without a father, and then the search by the boy for his father. The name of the book comes from Sibylla, the mother, watching and rewatching Seven Samurai in an attempt to provide male role models for Ludo, the son.

Really, though, the book is much more than that. The style is dizzyingly interesting at points, and varies over the course of the book. I didn't like some of it in the earlier parts, particularly with the pacing and interruption of narrative flow, but once it gets going, it's great. The plot is driving, and the working of the themes of interpersonal connectedness, finding the ones most meant for you, and the nature of intelligence are thought-provoking and artistically superb. Structurally, it's very interesting as well, with threads coming in and going out at unexpected points sometimes. It builds very nicely.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, and believe it to really be a great work of fiction. I just have to try to get more people to read it.

Next up (for review): The Ladies of Grace Adieu. Already finished reading it, but still have to write it up.

#5 Platform - The Ladies of Grace Adieu

Short stories based in the world of a successful novel... well, not like that's not been done before.

Book #40: The Ladies of Grace Adieu
Author: Susanna Clarke
Provenance: Bought off of Amazon.ca using a gift card from timingspoons

As much as I liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, I was wary of picking up the short story collection that Clarke released as a follow-up. These things often don't turn out all that well, particularly when the book was so well-crafted and took so long to put together.

All things considered, this wasn't that bad, although much of what I liked about the book isn't present here. The scope of the stories are naturally less than the novel, but the feel of the writing is varied over the stories. Perhaps this isn't a surprise, since the stories were written over the course of several years, but it does feel somewhat uneven. There weren't any stories that I outright disliked, but there were only a couple that I really enjoyed. Probably my favorite was Tom Brightwind, and the Fairy Widower was quite good as well. Most, though, I finished and felt sorta meh. I'm not a huge short story fan, so maybe others will like it better, but I'm more looking forward to her next novel, personally.

Next up: The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden. Again, already done, but I need to write up the review.