Kate's Point of View

I have a new review on BookGeeks.co.uk of 22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson.

Every life contains transformative moments where life is distinctly different afterwards from that before. Marriage, children, home ownership. Illness, death, rape, war. Fallout occurs when people in our lives before these events have to adapt to the version of us that emerges. Sometimes it simply isn’t possible.

22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson centers on Janusz and Silvana, lovers who meet while very young and find themselves in a whirlwind romance leading to marriage and the birth of a son, Aurek. When World War II makes its way to their native Poland, the young family is blown apart.

Read the full review on BookGeeks.

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.

Give me a free hour and I’ll make my way up to bed with a good book in hand and be content. Give Wonder Boy a free hour and he’ll dig into a game of Call of Duty. Typically these are very different activities. For the last two weeks I’ve been reading Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes. This hefty book holds a story more lifelike than what Call of Duty presents and is a challenging read in many aspects, but well-worth the struggles.

I am not familiar with war. I cringe at the idea of people fighting to their death over just about anything. I do understand that there are times war is justified and even necessary, but I do my best to remain distant from it. Marlantes takes his readers and plops them right down in the middle of the Vietnamese bush with fighting all around.

While the setting is described in exquisite detail, what Marlantes accomplishes best is creating characters that the reader gets invested in. Lieutenant Waino Mellas makes for a unique main character. He is an ivy league grad with liberal tendencies. When he enlists with the marines and goes to Vietnam, he finds himself surrounded by many men of color and most people of a lower socioeconomic status than himself. The reader accompanies him as he navigates, and at time stumbles, through the different social groups, race relations and mores of the military. And also when he enters into the heat of battle.

Although not something I think about often, I have an idea in my head of what war is like. This vision is likely influenced by what I see on the screen every time I walk by Wonder Boy playing Call of Duty. Matterhorn added a whole other dimension to what I think of war. I don’t think I ever adequately factored fear into the setting. And I know, Matterhorn is just a book. But Marlantes was a marine during the Vietnam war so I imagine that what he’s writing gives at least some insight into war.

Each battle scene in Matterhorn is terrible. Men die violent deaths. Men watch their friends die in front of them and then have to go collect their bodies so families back home have something to bury. Politicians at home make wartime decisions that sometimes result in strategic successes and usually mean the death of someone – be they Vietnamese or American.

I could go further but struggle to do so without seeming to make a political statement, which is not my point. The point I do want to make is that Matterhorn was an emotional read that I found powerful and insightful. I would recommend it to folks, and also think it would make a nice last-minute Father Day gift idea.

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.

Look at today’s date and take a snapshot of your life at it stands today. Not go back and do the same for every year of your life on this exact day. What do you get? Is it a complete telling of your life? Does the story that comes together tell enough of the important details?

Conducting the same exercise I am left with significant gaps in my life story. One day a year is not enough to tell the story. Or is it?

David Nicholls, in One Day, explains the twists and turns of Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley’s lives. He illustrates the mundane and the extraordinary events that make up any lifetime. And he does it with one day a year.

On July 15th, just as Dexter and Emma are about to graduate university, they officially meet and enjoy one night of fun and love. Although there is a connection between them, Dexter has plans for worldly adventure and Emma has dreams of her own success so they part ways. Over the years, as told through phone calls, letters and live interactions, Emma and Dexter keep in touch.

It has become increasingly common to see the narrator in a novel change from one character to another throughout the story. Sometimes this method seems like the easiest, or even laziest, way to accomplish an end. But some authors, such as Nicholls, are able to use the different voices to illustrate depth that couldn’t come from just once voice.

Throughout One Day Dexter is easy to hate and Emma, although more sympathetic, is maddeningly accommodating of Dexter. While the reader may never overcome these feelings, empathy for each character is created when the story is told in their own words. During on stage of their friendship, Emma is dedicated to Dexter and regularly sends him long letters and books that are carefully selected to augment his phase of life. In return, Dexter sporadically sends postcards with no more than a few words on them. The reader knows from Dexter, though, that while drunk he is penning pages long letters to Emma that he never has the courage to send.

Because each chapter in One Day represents only one day, the novel is easy to read and easy to put down and pick back up again without losing your place. There are phases in both Dexter and Emma’s life that are incredibly frustrating to read about but they’re too likeable to stop reading about them.

But, when finishing down One Day, I’m curious if the reader is left thinking about either Dexter or Emma or if, as I was, they are too busy reflecting on how representative one day a year of their own life could be.

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.