Book review: The girl on the train

Have you ever been commuting and wondering what the lives of the people were in the houses you looked at out the window? Making up stories about them? Rachel does exactly this. 

The train she takes every day to London stops at a red signal on the tracks, just opposite the house "Jason" & "Jess" live. She does not know these people, she has given them names herself and she imagines the perfect loving life they have together. Until something different happens one day and it completely changes her view. The next day the woman disappears and Rachel feels she is connected to this event, but she cannot remember how. You see, she is an alcoholic, still attached to her ex-husband, who lives with this new wife and baby girl in a couple of houses down "Jason's" and "Jess'" place. 

Rachel is desperate to find something to keep her out of the unhappiness, loneliness and misery she lives in. She pretends to know something about the disappearance and is pulled into the other characters' lives with unexpected results towards the final twist of the story.

The book is unputdownable. It keeps the reader's interest and curiosity until the last page, a psychological thriller that is well planned, well written and gripping. The three narrators of the story, who give their own perspective, are all unreliable and horrible in their own way; but the development of their characters is very strong and the readers find themselves engaged with what is happening. However, one should not expect to actually like these characters; all with their secrets and dark past in their life. Frustration, anger, pity, disgust....one may feel all these over a few pages. You will either love or hate it. Totally recommended.

+ good plot, well developed characters

- disturbing

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

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Book review: The Lowland

Subhash and Udayan are two brothers growing up in the years after the Indian Independence. They are very close to each other, but they end up taking different paths. The '60s is a turbulent decade for India and Udayan opts to join the Communist Party while Subhash continues his studies in the USA.

The years go by and practically the two brothers have very little contact, just a few letters sent by Udayan with news about India, their family and his marriage to a girl that their parents did not approve of. One day Subhash is called back home by his parents; his brother was killed due to his illegal activities.

Subhash goes to India in a house filled with memories. He meets his sister-in-law, who is pregnant to Udayan's baby and decides to relieve her from a life in a house she is not wanted. He marries her and she follows him to Rhode Island, where he completes his PhD research. Will Subhash and Gauri be able to forget the past and carry on? Will there be a happy ending for them?

The story itself is quite interesting, although the pattern of family sagas has been used by authors so many times. Lahiri's writing is quite good and the sentences flow easily. However, there are some major drawbacks.

The style is very descriptive, there are hardly any dialogues between the characters and this does not allow them to come closer to the readers. There is, also, a strong focus on the Indian history; the narrative informs on the events that took place in the country during the '60s and the '70s, trying to incorporate the story into them instead of the opposite. One feels the characters come second and some parts are more like an essay than a work of fiction. As a consequence, the storytelling becomes stiff, impersonal and dull. Moreover, the characters' lives span for around five decades and one expects that during this period their personalities, thoughts and feelings evolve and change. Yet, in this book the characters remain static; the same feelings around immigration, longing, grief, bitterness, love and sadness are found until the end. They do not grow, do not express themselves, they are not explored.

Personal opinion: unless you are into modern Indian social/political history or eager to get informed about it, try something else.




+ good writing, focus on the modern socio-political history of India
- too descriptive and stiff storytelling, characters lack of depth




(written by FK for Walkley Library)



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Tidbits of literary wisdom (2)

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

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Book review: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

"Life was very different when you walked through it."

Harold Fry is a retired middle-class old man living a conventional life with his wife, Maureen. He has never done anything unexpected; every day is the same for him. Until one morning when he receives a letter from an old friend and work colleague, who is dying of cancer and wishes to say goodbye to him. He decides to reply and leaves home to post the letter, however he realises that a letter would not be enough and he makes the decision to walk all the way from Kingsbridge to Berwick Upton Tweed to save this woman’s life.

He walks 600 miles wearing the same shoes he had on when he left home, buying some new clothes on the way, passing through villages and towns, meeting people and listening to their stories, reflecting on his life, his marriage, his past and his future. 

It is an unlikely journey. Some people encourage him to go on and sympathise with his cause. Others are negative about it and try to persuade him to give up. Indeed, there are times Harold Fry has doubts and is on the verge of returning home. Yet, something inside him urges him to continue and soon he and his “pilgrimage” become widely known and many decide to follow him. Will Harold succeed in reaching his friend on time and save her in spite of the hardships and difficulties he faces during his journey?

From one point of view, this is an extraordinary book. It refers to not only a physical but, also, a mental journey and it shows that the destination is what counts in the end. How someone finds himself through the mere act of walking, turning into his self, going through memories, emotions, regrets and the ghosts that have been haunting him all his life. Alone on this quest, Harold has the chance to face all these, and redefine the way he lives his future. He is an ordinary hero, with a sweetness and a sadness that will make you remember him long after you finish the book.

+ touching, thought-provoking story

-  a slow, bit repetitive narrative 




(written by FK for Walkley Library)




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The authors we love: Terry Pratchett

I was about nine or ten years old and a regular visitor to Penistone Library. A kindly librarian must have seen me progress from kids' books to young adult pretty quickly and anticipated my leap to adult books because I remember her coming up to me and saying, ‘why don’t you try this author’, handing me a book.

The author was Terry Pratchett and the book was “Guards! Guards!” I took it home and devoured it. After a couple of days I went back to the library and started from the very first Discworld novel, quickly progressed through them all. I made sure I bought them all, pocket money permitting. A new Discworld novel from then on became an event.   

I would ring the release date in my diary and make sure I purchased the new book on that day, taking it home and reading almost half of it before I would tell myself to slow down, enjoy it. Of course it would not last past the next day, but that was OK, because I could always start again with “The Colour of Magic”.

It is always a wonderful feeling when you connect with an author, and I would like to thank that librarian - whose name, I am afraid has been lost to time - for introducing me to Sir Terry, whose passing recently I mourned like it was a relative.

Mark Crossland

P.S.  If you have your own Favourite Author story, why not e-mail it to walkley.library@gmail.com and let us share it with all our blog readers.