Ketts Books

An independent community bookshop run by volunteers in the historic market town of Wymondham, Norfolk

Book Review

Where the Crawdads Sing

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Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Everyone I know who has read this book, has loved it.
The unfurling life story of Kya, the ‘Marsh Girl’ is a compelling tale, wrapped up with an absorbing murder mystery.
Isolated, distrusted and rejected by the locals, the lonely girl immerses herself in the poetry of the natural world around her. As she grows into an adult, we share her joy in the flora and fauna of the marsh through the well-crafted descriptions and sublime use of details provided by the author, Delia Owens. But being an outsider brings unhappiness for Kya and trouble to her quiet door…
With plenty of twists, it is an especially poignant read for lockdown because it opens a door into a world stripped back to its essence. There is a purity in Kya’s part-feral existence which takes us far away from the hustle and bustle of our modern society. To me, that is a real treat.

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Before the Coffee Gets Cold

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When I was young, coffee shops were dangerous venues. I was never allowed to go to one. Youths would congregate and drink frothy coffee – we had never heard of cappuccinos- and stay for ages getting up to some sort of mischief. These days, the main mischief is young folks, sitting with half a cup of cold coffee, occupying the best seats and fiddling endlessly with their laptops.
In a back alley in Tokyo, there is a coffee bar where it’s best not to let your coffee get cold – that is, if you sit in a certain chair where you may, if you wish, briefly revisit the past. (Watch the coffee!) For the time travellers it’s terribly important not to do anything the disrupt the present, but it addresses a yearning, that I am sure we all have, to focus on what we did not do, did not ever say. The more they delve, the more poignant the dilemma.
The book is ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold’ by the Japanese star, Toshikazu Kawaguchi. I loved it.
David

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place called perfect

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i think a place called perfect was a bit confusing for me i liked the base story of it but then got confused because it said there was four archers in the title of the chapters but not in the story bit. I liked how everyone was obsessed with tea though.

Sacred Country

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SACRED COUNTRY
Rose Tremain
Vintage 2017, 391 pp.

First published in 1992, the novel was reissued twenty-five years later with a foreword by Peter Tatchell. Gender has been a major focus of attention in recent years, and here, Mary Ward (though born a girl) knows from the age of six that she is a boy. Her passage through childhood passes with that knowledge. The story brings out her challenges and confusion when growing-up, but also the determination and courage a person needs in later years to bring about the logical consequences. It is the more interesting that Rose Tremain gave the tale an historical setting in which prejudice abounds; we follow Mary’s life from the 1950s through to 1980, by which time she is Martin Ward. How much we have progressed since?
The location at first is a village in Suffolk, moving to London and onward to Nashville, Tennessee. Mary/Martin is not exactly surrounded by natural sympathisers. Her mother, Estelle – a well-crafted study in dreamy insouciance – seems to drift through life, not wishing to face realities, absorbed by endless TV shows. Her daughter meanwhile seeks comfort elsewhere. In this way we are introduced to a large cast (possibly too large?) of characters who influence the plot in one way or another. The author’s approach is to present the perspectives of several of these individuals, showing us scenes and dialogue within their own lives. Mary/Martin seems drawn to others who don’t quite ‘fit’ for one reason or another: the maker of cricket bats; her grandfather, Cord; and Walter, the Country singer. The village is somewhere to escape from, and as the story continues, we get the feeling that at some point Martin’s growing inner anger must show itself.
I am not really convinced by good ol’ Nashville, but Sacred Country moves at a good pace toward a satisfying conclusion. It is a story which involves much physical and emotional pain: all the pain of a new life struggling to emerge.

Ray
Feb 2020

Passionate Spirit

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I finished A Passionate Spirit by Cate Haste which was about the life of Alma Mahler. It is the story of an extraordinary woman in turbulent times. I would say it was fairly niche, it is created extensively from her own words and perceptions as the wife of Mahler in a world of creatives. I found it absorbing and alarming. A portrait of the agonies and ecstasies of a woman always in company yet desperately alone.