Posted by: Fence in Books
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
ISBN: 0571154913 DDC: 823.914
LibraryThing : More Reviews
It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been occupying my imagination now for some days.
The Remains of the Day is about Stevens, a butler in a “grand old English house”. He spent his life trying to be a “great” butler in the service of Lord Darlington. With the death of Darlington he remains in Darlington Hall working for the new owner a rich American, Mr Farraday. It is at Mr. Farraday’s suggestion that Stevens, our narrator, first begins thinking about taking a short trip out into the English countryside, and to see Miss Kenton. Now Mrs. Benn she recently sent him a letter, hinting, Stevens thinks, at her unhappy marriage and her wish to return to service in Darlington Hall. On his journey Stevens reflects over his life and the changes he has seen.
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10 Stars,
823.914,
Booker Prize winner,
Britain - 1900s,
character study,
England,
English aristocracy,
first person narrator,
historical fiction,
Interwar Britain,
Kazuo Ishiguro,
social history,
The remains of the day
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Posted by: Fence in Books
Author: Terry Pratchett
ISBN: 9780552154901 DDC: 823.914
A Discworld novel.
LibraryThing : More reviews
They lay in the dark, guarding. There was no way of measuring the passage of time, not any inclination to measure it.
We first met Moist Von Lipwig back in Going Postal, now, with the Post Office running successfully Ankh-Morpork’s beloved tyrant Vetinari has another role in mind for our con-man gone straight. What would suit him better than taking over one of the city’s ailing banks. Afterall a city needs money and investment in order to grow and prosper.
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6 Stars,
823.914,
Ankh-Morpork,
Discworld,
golems,
humour,
Locus award winner,
Making Money,
Moist Von Lipwig,
sff,
Terry Pratchet,
Vetinari
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Posted by: Fence in Books
Author: Christopher Priest
ISBN: 9780575075771 DDC: 823.914
See also: LibraryThing ; More reviews
This much I know for sure.
My name is Peter Sinclair, and I am, or I was, twenty-nine years old. Already there is uncertainty, and my sureness recedes.
Peter Sinclair is 29, and, following his girlfriend’s attempted suicide he runs away from London, to the countryside. There he is supposed to be redecorating and doing up a family friend’s cottage in return for being allowed to stay there. But he gets distracted and begins to write his autobiography. In the course of writing this he discovers that the real truth can only be found within metaphors and through creating an alternate version of his past. And so he begins to write of his past in Jethra. He renames and recreates his family and friends. He recreates a reality.
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8 Stars,
823.914,
Christopher Priest,
reality,
self-creation,
sff,
suicide,
The Affirmation,
unreliable narrator
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Posted by: Fence in Books
Author: Michael Collins
ISBN: 9780753820605 DDC: 823.914
See also: LibraryThing ; MichaelCollinsauthor.com ; Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind ; Lizzy’s Literary Life
In the Friday-afternoon lull within the English Department of Bannockburn College, E. Robert Pendleton sat listening to the sound of life outside his window.
The E. Robert Pendleton of the title is a professor struggling to keep his tenure at Bannockburn College where he lectures in English. He is also an author; although recently he has been suffering from writer’s block. He hasn’t had any successful books in years. And he is feeling the strain. A strain made even worse when an old rival shows up to give a guest lecture. This rival is a best-selling author; in many ways he represents everything that Pendleton yearns for.
It all seems to much for Pendleton, he has suffered previous break-downs, and he attempts to commit suicide. But graduate student Adi finds him and gets help for him. Pendleton had left his writings to her, for her thesis, and so she takes it upon herself to look after him as he recovers. Along the way she discovers a self-published novel, Scream, which details the abduction, rape and murder of a young girl. It is a true work of art, she feels, and helps arrange to get it re-published. But then discovers that the details match up with a real murder. Could Pendleton have been responsible?
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7 Stars,
823.914,
academia,
Death of a writer: a novel,
IMPAC nominee,
Michael Collins (author),
murder,
mystery,
The Secret Life of E. Robert Pendleton
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Posted by: Fence in Books
Author: Graham Joyce
ISBN: 1857983424 DDC: 823.914
Read for the Once Upon A Time Challenge
See also: LibraryThing ; Author’s Site ; Scooter Chronicles ; SF site ; Tier 3000
Clive was on the far side of the green pond, torturing a king-crested newt.
I’ve read a few Graham Joyce books at this stage; this one by him won the British fantasy award so I was hoping for good things. It tells the story of Sam, a young boy growing up in 1960s England, who one night is visited by the tooth fairy, an entity that is not the insect sized woman with wings that you might expect. Instead he or she changes depending on circumstances. Sometimes male, sometimes female, sometimes an androgynous figure, but always unsettling and unwelcome in Sam’s life.
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1960s,
5 Stars,
823.914,
Britain - 1960s,
British fantasy award winner,
coming of age,
England,
folklore,
Graham Joyce,
meh,
Once Upon A Time Challenge,
sff,
The Tooth fairy
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Posted by: Fence in Books
Author: Christopher Priest
ISBN: 9780575081154 DDC: 823.914
See also: LibraryThing ; Grumpy Old Bookman ; Singling out the duplications ; Guardian Review ; Excessive Candour ; Sandstorm Reviews
The rain was falling steadily on Buxton that Thursday afternoon in March, the town veiled by drifting low clouds, grey and discouraging.
Jack and Joe are identical twins. Medal winners in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, their lives diverge down different paths. One joins the RAF and flies bombing runs during World War II, the other is a pacifist and a conscientious objector.
But it is hard to describe the plot of this novel with a brief paragraph; it is about the choices people make, about the different possibilities that are out there, and about how there is no such thing as being totally right or wrong in war. It is an alternate history, starting with the present-day investigations of historian Stuart Gratton, who lives in a world where Churchill and Hitler stepped down from power after a deal negotiated by Rudolph Hess, and saw the emergence of a far different world order.
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Tags:
1936 Olympics,
8 Stars,
823.914,
alternate history,
Arthur C. Clarke Award winner,
Britain - wwii,
BSFA Award winner,
Christopher Priest,
Germany - wwii,
London Blitz,
multiple narrators,
RAF,
sff,
War,
WWII
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Posted by: Fence in Books
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
ISBN: 057122539X DDC: 823.914
See also: LibraryThing ; Jabberwock ; Fantastic Metropolis
Surreal and weird are terms that come to mind when I attempt to review this book. Or to be even more accurate, very weird and extremely surreal 
The story revolves around a world famous pianist who travels to a city, in Europe somewhere but we’re never told where exactly, and then travels around meeting people and being late for other meetings with people. Ryder seems to be suffering from some sort of amnesia at first. We don’t really know anything about him, and he doesn’t really seem to know anything about himself either.
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Tags:
823.914,
9 Stars,
amnesia,
Kazuo Ishiguro,
pianist,
surreal,
The Unconsoled,
weird
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