Jonathan Buckley, Tell

 

- British author Jonathan Buckley's latest novel Tell, published recently in Australia by Giramondo, is an entrancing tale of personality, family and friends. It was a joint winner of the 2022 The Novel Prize, a global biennial award for literary fiction written in English. 

- What makes the novel such a pleasure to read is the voice of the narrator. An unnamed woman, who has long worked as a gardener on a wealthy man's estate, is telling an unnamed listener the story of the man and his family and close friends. 

- Apart from their wealth, the family is fairly ordinary. The man is a very successful clothing entrepreneur and art collector who adored his wife, now deceased. They had three children and daughters-in-law, some talented some not, some good some not so good. 

 

- The unnamed woman is a wonderful story teller. She's definitely a ‘talker’, thoroughly enjoying this opportunity to give her views. They're detailed, insightful and earthy. She’s almost omniscient. She refers constantly to Harry, the maintenance man on the estate, who is a mate and obviously also an acute observer. Ordinary folk are telling the tale. 'You know what I mean?'.

- The head of the clan, Curtis, had various female friends after his wife's death, some intimate, some not. Lara, a journalist and author, was very close. She was working on a biography of him. He was an abandoned baby who grew up in foster care passed on from various couples.  

- Gradually, as we learn more about all the characters involved in this tale, we become aware of the various ways personalities are created. There's truth and falsity, self-awareness and pretence, comfort and anxiety, pain and drugs. 

- Curtis tells a story at the end of the narration that sticks. A young Jewish nurse, Lea, and a German law student, Adrian, fell in love but were separated before the war. Accidentally they found each other 50 years later. 

- Our narrator insists: ‘No one could take the place of Lily’. 

- I absolutely loved this brilliant novel and its brilliant narrator. That voice! 

Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club

 

- First published in 2020 this delightful, very English murder mystery accompanied me on a short visit to Noosa this week. The characters from the Coopers Chase Retirement Village in the town of Fairhaven, were marvellous companions. The book has been a huge bestseller world wide.

- A rich tapestry is slowly constructed with heaps of detail but all the threads are satisfactorily resolved in the end. It's full of stories of redemption, forgiveness, joy and hope. And Osman’s wit enlivens the tale immeasurably. 

- The Murder Club's four seniors in their mid-seventies are full of vitality and intelligence. They don’t miss a beat, despite the standard physical ailments relating to old age. There are a couple of murders in the village and the police, Chris and Donna, of course get involved. Their relationship with the seniors is a central focus of the book. And as characters, they're lovely. 

 - Of course there are red herrings everywhere. The story gets pretty convoluted towards the end, and minor characters whom we barely remember surprisingly emerge as major ones. Yet justice has been done.

- Osman has written three more novels in this vein - The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, and The Last Devil to Die. I'm certain they'll be as delightful as his first. 

Three short novels I read while holidaying in Tokyo

Keigo Higashino, The Devotion of Suspect  X

- This bestselling novel written in 2004 starts off as a fascinating crime thriller set in Tokyo. 

- A hard working woman is visited by her ex-husband who has tracked her down and wants to re-unite with her. She and her teenage daughter, however, want nothing to do with him and during an argument end up killing him in their apartment. Their neighbour hears the commotion and offers to help dispose of the body and clean up any evidence of their crime. 

- As the drama develops however it thickens with so much microscopic detail it totally bogs the story down and becomes tedious.

- The resolution, blurbed as a surprise ending, is also quite absurd.

- Why this was a bestseller is beyond me. Forget it.  

                                         Seishi Yokomizo, The Honjin Murders

- This detective story was written in 1948 and set in 1937. Yokomizo, who died in 1981, was a prolific and very popular crime writer in Japan.

- The novel is a fascinating and enjoyable read. It’s a ‘locked room’ mystery, a genre that is frequently used by seasoned crime writers.

- The narrator is a character in the novel. He confides in us as he outlines what he’s doing. He’s charming and likeable. The Japanese setting is also captivating.

- The resolution is surprising, and how the perpetrator pulled the whole complex thing off a little hard to believe. Nevertheless he did it!

- Definitely worth reading.

                                              Yu Miri, Tokyo Ueno Station

- This is a brilliant, big picture perspective on Japan and particularly Tokyo.

- It focuses on one man's sad life, a life encompassed by tragedy and poverty. Now dead, the man reflects on all the major events that affected him, his family, his friends, and his country - the Second World War and the huge number of lives lost, the horrendous Kanto earthquake of 1923 which killed hundreds of thousands and injured many more, the sudden deaths of his young son and wife, how he ended up homeless and sleeping on the streets, and his frequent urge to commit suicide. 

- It's a short 180 page novel that I will definitely re-read. Beautifully written and full of wisdom.