More literary backlog

A. S. Byatt Possession This is one of my all-time favourites and I have re-read it several times. Funnily enough, I have never managed to get through any of her other books, but this one I love. Roland, a young scholar, considered mediocre by both himself and his employers finds, by chance, a letter written by a prominent (fictitious) Victorian poet. He identifies it as being a draft meant for an equally fictitious, but more obscure female poet; a connection no one has made before. In the company of a more successful scholar, Maud, he embarks on a quest to find out more. In a sense, it’s a mystery, but it’s also two love stories unfolding, the Victorian and poets and the modern scholars. I also find it amusing as I studied what in Sweden is called Literature Studies at University, so a lot of the jargong and theories are familiar with me. Nowadays it’s also firmly embedded in the 1980s, both in the descriptions of clothes, and the lack of modern technology. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Ben Aaronovitch: Rivers of London, Moon Over Soho, Whispers Underground, Broken Homes, Foxglove Summer, The Hanging Tree and The Furthest Station. I binge-read these during my holiday. They’ve been on my reading horizon for several years. Peter Grant, a young, not completely brilliant, police officer encounters a witness to a murder. Only the witness is a ghost. About two minutes later he is transferred to a little-known branch of the London police, so small and obscure there is only one person in it. And he’s a wizard. Peter’s world gets a complete overhaul when he realises London is full of supernatural beings; most notable Father and Mother Thames (not related, and that’s part of the problem), the gods of the River Thames and their numerous offsprings. And Molly, a perpetually silent housekeeper, with far too many teeth.

I enjoyed these books enormously. Peter is a good hero, and there is a large cast of very diverse characters, who are mostly quite interesting. If I have any complaints is that the light-hearted humorous tones sometimes depict rather horrific events, which can feel a bit surprising. But it’s not really bad, more like something I had to get used too. I’ve been to London several times, and even if I don’t know all of the places described in the books, I know about a lot of them, and it’s nice to be able to “see” when you read. I also, vastly, enjoy the idea of gods having semi-normal lives among us. Not unique to Aaronovitch, of course- Neil Gaiman springs immediately to mind there. There a new book coming soon, and I look forward to it.

Genevieve Cogman: The Invisible Library, The Masked City, The Burning Page and

( Error: Irreparable invalid markup in entry. Raw contents behind the cut. )