My Friends by Hisham Matar

"And yet I had imagined the others, the many more who attended the demonstration and then resumed their lives, able to walk away on their own two feet. I feel underwater when I think of them, because to think of them is to imagine that other, unharmed version of myself, who got back on the bus to Edinburgh, and could fly home for the summer, to sleep in his own house and swim in his childhood sea. The line that now separates me from my former self is the chasm that I remain unable to bridge". - Hisham Matar, My Fruends

In thinking about My Friends by Hisham Matar (lomglisted for this year's Booker Prize) I would describe it as a novel in which the narrator, Khaled Abd al Hady, reflects on his past and how one decision he made when first arriving in the UK as an 18 year old student dramatically altered the course of his life. 

My Friends begins in London.  It is 2016 and Khaled is now in his late 50's and seeing off his friend of many years, Hosam Zowa, who is moving to the US.  Hosam will not be returning to England and so this is a final goodbye.  Hosam leaves and Khaled spends the day walking around London visiting places with special meaning for him and reflecting on his life, his family, his friendship with Hosam and his friendship with Mustafa al Touny who eventally returned to Libya.

We learn that Khaled first arrived in the UK from Libya in 1983.  He had a scholarship to the University of Edinburgh where his plan was to earn a degree in literature.  Colonel Qaddafi ruled Libya at the time and you did not criticize the Qadaffi regime or your life would be in danger.  And though no fan of Qaddafi, Khaled wanted to stay in school, earn his degree, return to Libya and get on with his life.

But then in 1984, Mustafa, a fellow student, tells Khaled that there is going to be a demonstration in London in front of the Libyian Embassy and that they should go. Mustafa is a rebellious and impulsive young man.  Khaled in comparison doesn't want to go but he doesn't want to seem cowardly.  And since everyone at the demonstration will be masked what is the danger?  They can protest for awhile, show their support, and leave.

This demonstration at the center of the novel was a real event that occured on April 17, 1984.  We know of it because on that day Libyian officers stationed at a window inside the embassy opened fire on the demonstrators.  Eleven of the protestors were wounded and a young British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher was tragically killed.  Britain broke off all diplomatic relations with Libya after that.

And in the novel Khalid and Mustafa are among the eleven wounded.  They recover but because they had to spend weeks in a London hospital the Libyian government knows who they are and they cannot return to Libya.  They are granted asylum in Britain.  The novel progresses from there and in 1994 Khaled while visiting Paris meets his boyhood hero, the writer Hosam Zowa, who is also living in exile due to his opposition to Qadaffi. 

The three men, Khaled, Hosam and Mustafa form a bond and as the years go by their lives take different routes which Khaled shares with the reader as he walks through London reflecting on his life, his family, his friendships and what it means to live in exile.

I would say that My Friends is a political novel and a very good one.  The writing is first rate and thought-provoking.  And the author Hisham Matar has first hand experience with the subject matter. His father, Jaballa Matar, a vocal critic of Qaddafi was living in Cairo and abducted in 1990 by the Libyian secret police.  Hisham Matar never saw his father again and his memoir The Return about his search for what happened to his father was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2017.  A previous novel by Hisham Matar, In The Company of Men, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006.  

So having never heard of Hisham Matar I am glad I paid attention to this year's Booker Prize nominees.  I strongly recommend My Friends and now on to The Safekeep and Enlightenment which I have high hopes for as well.  

Rules Of Civility by Amor Towles

"In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions—we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.” - Amor Towles, Rules of Civility

Amor Towles is a critically acclaimed internationally best selling author and so I have been meaning to read him.  I thought I would begin with A Gentleman In Moscow but Rules Of Civilty is a shorter read.  And Olive from ABookOlive has raved about Rules of Civility on YouTube.  She has read this book nine times and always finds something new.  And so I was curious.

Rules of Civility is set in NYC.  And when the novel begins it is the 1960's and Katey Kontent and her husband are at the Museum of Modern Art viewing a photography exhibit by Walker Evans that he took of people riding the subways during the late 1930's.  

As Katey (who is the narrator of Rules Of Civility) looks at these photos she spots a photo  of someone she once knew, Tinker Grey. The first photograph of Tinker is from 1938.  He is handsome, young and wealthy.  But then she spots a second photo of Tinker from 1939 and it's clear that in the space of a year Tinker has come down in the world financially. He's poor but paradoxically he also looks younger and more at peace with himself.  

The rest of the novel transports us back to 1938 when Katey was 25, living in Manhattan and rooming with her friend Eve Ross.  Both girls decide on New Year's Eve, as 1938 approaches, to go to a jazz club which is where they first meet Tinker (Theodore) Grey.  As Katey tells us:

"He was terrific looking.  An upright five foot ten, dressed in black tie with a coat draped over his arm, he had brown hair and royal blue eyes and a small star-shaped blush at the center of each cheek. You could just picture his forebear at the helm of the Mayflower—with a gaze trained brightly on the horizon and hair a little curly from the salt sea air. —Dibs, said Eve" 

It will be through meeting Tinker that Katey and Eve enter NYC's high society.  Wealthy young people who live on Central Park West, drive expensive cars, wear the latest fashions and dine at The El Morocco, The Rainbow Room, 21, The Explorer Club.  Amor Towles through his narrator Katey Kontent goes into great detail describing this world.  Katey is both critical of it but also hooked.  

And to be frank the book by going into so much detail about the expensive restaurants, the clothes, the beautiful apartments, the parties etc was dragging for me.  I wasn't sensing a plot.  But its around page 240 that a truth is revealed about Tinker which for me was worth waiting for and the rest of the novel was a very fast read.  

Tinker Grey went from a character I liked and felt bad for at times to a fascinating character that I ended up being smitten with.  I finished the novel wanting to know what happened to him and how his life turned out.  I hope Amor Towles will one day tell us and because of Tinker I am giving Rules of Civility 4 stars.

Jane Austen At Home by Lucy Worsley

"The Austens ‘were not rich’, yet they lived among rich people, landed squires and well-educated clergymen.  They belonged to what’s been called the ‘pseudo-gentry’, aspiring to a genteel lifestyle without having quite enough cash to pay for it. Members of the ‘pseudo-gentry’ did not own land, but were still ‘gentry of a sort, primarily because they sought strenuously to be taken for gentry’.They thought of themselves as being above ‘the middling sort’, who were connected with trade and enterprise, and, ironically, often richer than the Austens" - Lucy Worsley, Jane Austen At Home

I am a little late for Jane Austen July but I am so glad I have  gotten around to reading Jane Austen at Home (2017) by Lucy Worsley.  And thank you Cath at Read-warbler for recommending this Austen biography which I found excellent and please check out Read-warbler linked under Blogs I Follow.

Jane Austen At Home is not a very long book but I agree with Cath it's densely written and so it's not a book to be read in a day or two.  But it's a fascinating read.  Lucy Worsley is a historian and she has done her research on the Austen family and what life was like in Georgian, England and the political events that were happening during Jane's life: The French Revolution and The Napoleanic Wars.  Jane's brothers were officers in the British Navy and so they set sail for distant lands.

Jane Austen in comparison never travelled very far from where she was born in Steventon, Hampshire.  But Jane, her sister Cassandra and their mother Cassandra Leigh lived in quite a number of different homes during their lives particularly after their father passed away.  Jane's brothers helped out financially but they had families of their own to look after.  And so the three Austen women were living in increasingly diminished circumstances.  Not in poverty but money was definitely tight and a cause for worry.  

There is so much of interest in this book, so much I didn't know and I won't go into too much detail.  But I would like to mention Jane Austen's father, George Austen.  He did not have an easy childhood but George Austen worked hard and became a parson.  He also enjoyed reading novels and he bought Jane her first writing desk and as Lucy Worsley tells us:

"It was Mr Austen who took practical action to get his daughter’s work published ... He wrote, on 1 November 1797, to offer First Impressions (Pride and Prejudice) to a publisher named Thomas Cadell, asking him what sum his firm might advance for it, and indeed asking what the price would be for it to be published ... This was generous. Mr Austen was proposing an arrangement where he himself would pay for the printing of his daughter’s novel. If it didn’t sell, he would bear the loss. Just as Mr Austen had written endlessly to admirals on behalf of his naval sons, he also did his best by his younger girl". 

I really enjoyed Jane Austen At Home.  Lucy Worsley writes very well.  And with the new information I now have about Jane Austen and the times in which she lived I am inspired to reread a few of Austen's classics with a new perspective. 

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

"She had chosen to flee, and in so choosing, she had left behind her everything she had, her roof, her home, her country, her language, the only family she had ever known, the child Bess, who had been born into her care when she was herself a small child of four years or so, her innocence, her understanding of who she was, her dreams of who she might one day be if only she could survive this starving time. Think not of it, girl, she told herself, think not of it, else you shall die of grief". - Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

I was wondering what to read next and so I went to Libby clicked audiobooks and began to scroll through the choices.  I came upon Lauren Groff, a writer I have been meaning to read for some time.  Her latest novel The Vaster Wilds (2023) was available right away.  I clicked borrow and I am so glad I did.

The Vaster Wilds is a beautifully written haunting and atmospheric novel that includes powerful scenes of nature and the elements.  And Lauren Groff has a fascinating story to tell about a teenage servant girl (we never learn her name) who arrives in Colonial America with her mistress, her mistress' husband, and their four year old daughter.

The time is the 1600's and the servant girl and the family she works for are living in a  settlement in Jamestown, VA and the situation there is grim.  The settlers are starving and then something happens which requires the servant girl to flee.  We learn at the end of the book why she needed to run away and the reason is shocking.

As to where the young girl is headed she doesn't really know.  But she has heard about another settlement run by the French.  Maybe she could meet a young man there and they could eventually move to France where their lives would be much easier and happier.  That is her dream at the beginning of the book.

But the deeper into the wilderness she goes the more The Vaster Wilds becomes a story about survival, finding shelter, searching for food and hiding from dangerous animals and people.  And as the girl makes her way through the wilderness she reflects on her short life which has not been easy.  She has a deep puritan faith when her journey begins but she starts to question what she has been taught as she experiences the terror but also the wonder of the natural world.  

The Vaster Wilds is one of the best books I have read this year and Lauren Groff is an excellent writer.  She has expertly woven a young girl surviving the elements into a marvelous coming of age story.  And in terms of a lone character confronting nature this novel reminded me a bit of Jack London's The Call of The Wild or To Build A Fire.  I highly recommend The Vaster Wilds and please check out the audio version narrated wonderfully by January LaVoy which definitely adds to this brilliant book.

A Ticket To The Boneyard by Lawrence Block

A Ticket To The Boneyard by Lawrence Block is book eight in his Matthew Scudder series of crime novels.  I have been reading this series somewhat in order and for me A Ticket To The Boneyard is the best Scudder novel I've read so far.  

But it's also the darkest.  A sadistic serial killer that Matthew Scudder sent to prison twelve years ago is back on the streets and is determined to kill the women in Matthew Scudder's life.  And in this book Scudder's sobriety is tested like never before.  The violence and to be blunt sexual violence in this novel is intense.  It didn't bother me that much because I knew Matthew Scudder would do everything in his power to bring the bad guy to justice.  But the violence might bother others and so that's something to  consider.

And I would say that if you are new to Lawrence Block's Scudder series it's best to begin with the first book Sins Of The Father (1976).  All seventeen novels are set in NYC and as Scudder's life changes through the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's up to A Time To Scatter Stones (2019) we see NYC changing as well which is an added bonus.  I was born and raised in NYC and lived there until 2011.  The detailed way Lawrence Block describes NYC rings so true.  I am rating A Ticket To The Boneyard four stars and will be going on to book nine.  It's a great series.

The Lady And The Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier

The Lady And The Unicorn (2004) by Tracy  Chevalier is the fifth book I have read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader And Baker.  Thank you Marg for hosting this challenge and thank you JaneGS for recommending Tracy Chevalier.  I plan to read more from this novelist going forward.  And please check out Jane's excellent book blog Reading, Writing, Working, Playing linked under blogs I follow.

The Lady And The Unicorn is a novel dealing with a real historical event, the creation in the late 15th century of six beautiful tapestries titled The Lady And The Unicorn.  But to this day these tapestries remain a mystery as to who created them.  Art historians believe it was a collaborative effort involving a team of artists and weavers.  But who were the ladies depicted and what does the unicorn symbolize?  In her novel The Lady And The Unicorn Tracy Chevalier does a fine job of imagining how and why these six tapestries came into being

It is 1490 in Paris when The Lady And The Unicorn begins and Jean LeViste a French nobleman commissions the handsome and very talented artist Nicholas des Innocents to create a series of paintings involving battle scenes and his famiy's coat of arms.  These paintings will be turned into tapestries that Jean Le Viste will be able to hang on his walls and impress his fellow noblemen and the King.  

Nicholas is unsure.  He is an expert painter of miniature portraits of ladies but he has never depicted battle scenes.  Fortunately Jean Le Vistes' wife Genevieve wants the tapestries to depict unicorns and she convines her husband that their guests are not going to want to dine in a room where they are surrounded by war and blood. 

 

Meanwhile Nicholas while he is visiting Jean Le Viste's home is doing what he always does, trying to seduce another young woman who he believes is one of the ladies in waiting at the Le Viste home.  Instead he discovers she is Claude Le Vista:  

Nicholas has a way of causing trouble wherever he goes and later when he meets the De La Chapelle family in Brussells who will be weaving his paintings into tapestries the father of the family Georges De La Chapelle does not like what he sees in Nicholas:

"I had never heard an artist so keen on his own work. He should know better—first designs always change when cartoonists make them into the large paintings on cloth or papers that weavers follow as they make the tapestries. It is the nature of the thing that what looks fine small doesn’t when made large. There are gaps to be filled—figures must be added, or trees or animals or flowers ... I did not address him as Monsieur. He might be a Parisian artist, but I ran a good workshop in Brussels. I had no reason to grovel".

And true to form Nicholas while at the De La Chapelle home supervising the weaving is also making advances on Georges De La  Chapelle's daugter Alienor.  

To my knowledge Nicholas and all of the characters in The Lady And The Unicorn are fictional but they are well drawn and Tracy Chevalier has done her research about this time period and also the process of turning a painting into a tapestry.  And here are three of the actual Lady of the Unicorn masterpieces which are now hanging at the Cluny Museum in Paris:

I am probably not going to be able to read 15 medieval historical books by the end of this year but I might be able to squeeze in five more and Tracy Chevalier has helped me achieve this goal.  The Lady And The Unicorn is an enjoyable and informative novel that taught me about a 15th century masterpiece I never knew existed.

The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes

The Library of America chose five books for their 1961- 1964 volume of classic crime novels and the Expendable Man (1963) by Dorothy B. Hughes made the list.  I am not surprised.  Having read In A Lonely Place many years ago I know what a talented writer Dorothy Hughes is and The Expendable Man is every bit as good if not better.  

The setting for this novel is the early 1960's and Dr. Hugh Densmore a young intern at UCLA Medical Center is driving from California to Phoenix to attend a family wedding. His niece is getting married.  But on the way to Phoenix Dr. Densmore spots a teenage hitchhiker out in the middle of nowhere.  He is unsure about whether to stop and give her a ride:  

"Even as he slowed his car, he was against doing it. But her possible peril if left here alone forced his hand. He simply could not in conscience go on, leaving her abandoned, with twilight fallen and night quick to come. He had sisters as young as this. It chilled him to think what might happen if one of them were abandoned on the lonesome highway, the type of man with whom, in desperation, she might accept a lift. The car was stopped. He shifted to reverse and began backing up".

Once in the car the hitchhiker tells Dr. Densmore that her name is Iris Croom and she is 18.  But the doctor begins to suspect that nothing Iris tells him about herself is true.  He. becomes increasingly anxious to get this young woman to the bus stop so that she can be on her way.   They reach the next town and Iris and the doctor part company.  But later when Dr. Densmore is in his hotel room in Phoenix resting before the wedding festivities there is a knock on the door and it's Iris.  

Dr. Densmore is stunned and shaken.  What is she doing here? Iris explains that she is in trouble and needs help.  Dr. Densmore wisely suggests other places she can go for help and does not let her into his hotel room and Iris leaves.  But a day later Dr. Densmore picks up the local newspaper and there is a story about a 15 year old teenager named Bonnie Lee Crumb found dead in a canal and the accompanying photo shows that this girl is Iris and Dr. Densmore becomes a prime suspect.

What makes The Expendable Man so riveting is first and foremost the writing.  Dorothy B Hughes was one of the few women who wrote crime novels in the noir style during the 1940's, 1950's and early 1960's and she really knew her craft.   And the Expendable Man is not only a crime novel.  This book touches on important issues involving race. 

We are not told for example at the beginning of the novel that Dr. Hugh Densmore is black.  But once we know it explains the tension we feel from the very first page when Dr. Densmore wants to leave the drive-in where he is eating lunch when a rowdy bunch of teens pull up next to him in their car.  Why the police later on ask Dr. Densmore to pull over so they can search his car for no reason.  And why he was hesitant to give Iris, a young white girl, a ride.

Other characters appear in this novel.  Dr. Densmore's family, his attorney, the detectives investigating the murder. And there is Ellen Hamilton a beautiful and supportive young woman who stands by him.  But make no mistake this is Dr. Densmore's story.  We see everything through his perspective.  He is afraid but he is also determined as he tries to find the real killer and end this nightmare which began when he tried to be a good samaritan.

Dorothy B Hughes needs to be better known and now with The Library of America including her in their list of classic crime novelists I hope she will be. And if you are interested in very well written noir crime fiction with alot to say about America in the early 1960's I heartily recommend The Expendable Man.