Saturday, September 21, 2002
Title: Norwegian Wood
Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Harvill Press
This version of Murakami's Norwegian Wood finishes off with a couple of pages from the translator. These fill in some of the details surrounding this work. Murakami had written several books and achieved a certain level of success with his quirky ideas and fluid narratives. However with Norwegian Wood he suddenly found that he had a real hit on his hands and from there he has become one of the most popular Japanese writers in the world - a result which seems to have taken him by surprise. But would certainly explain why of all his novels Norwegian Wood is in fact the most readily available, this copy having been picked up in the local branch of a chain newsagent/stationery/bookshop thingmabub which of all Murakami's novels only had this one (as did another branch which I checked after finishing the book).
Since reading Dance Dance Dance I had been intending to read more Murakami, I had even decided which of his novels I was going to go for next. Then I read an extract of Norwegian Wood online and enjoyed it a lot, and knowing that I could get a copy easily during my lunch break I did. While some slagged off this book by comparison to his other novels this still is not an entirely straight forward work, for all that it is a story of teen romance. Watanabe is 37 years old when he hears a version of the Beatle's track Norwegian Wood after a long flight. Which takes him back to the period when he was 17-20, which covers the end of the 60's and the start of the 70's. When he was at school he only really had one friend, he used to hang out with him and his girlfriend all the time. However when they were 17 his friend killed himself, affecting both Watanabe and the girl, Naoko. Watanabe moves to Tokyo to go to university, keen to leave the memories behind. But one day he bumps into Naoko, his dead friend's girlfriend, who has had the same idea. They start to spend time together, essentially not having made any friends in Tokyo. But just as it seems that things are going well between them Naoko has a breakdown and ends up in a private sanatorium, where she hopes to come to terms with her problems. The two keep in touch but in the mean time Watanabe meets Midori, a girl who shares a couple of his classes. In turn the two of them start to spend time together and the spark of life and enthusiasm that burns within Midori is something that Watanabe can't help but be attracted to. With the rest of the book Murakami charts the relationships between Watanabe and these two girls, Midori and Naoko both having their strengths, while undoubtedly contrasting each other in a clear fashion.
As I've already said Norwegian Wood is readily available, as such I had picked it up in the past. The description of a book set in the 60's and inspired by a Beatle's song didn't really capture my interest. While finding Dance Dance Dance on a display I found the description there did capture my interest. So I did find my way to Norwegian Wood anyway, and in the end one of the things I like about Murakami's work is that the time it is set and to be honest the time it was written are irrelevant to the reader to a large degree. The story is about the characters and Murakami's characters are strong, his skill with dialogue really bringing them alive and providing a spark to their interactions. So the fact that Norwegian Wood is set in the 60's is mostly irrelevant. Though there are details in the commentary which flesh the book out that are clearly references to the time, and those do add to the bigger picture rather than distracting.
Curiously the character Midori feels that Watanabe reminds her of the lead from Catcher In The Rye, which she says at least once - with that the ending, for me at least, strikes of having a distinct Catcher vibe going on. In fact the whole way the ending is dealt with is a little curious, given that we start with the character looking back 20 years. Though on the whole Murakami brings the narrative to a clear point, where an ending for this kind of scope makes sense - the start of something new rather than the end of a person's story.
RVWR: PTR
September 2002
Title: The Business
Author: Iain Banks
Publisher: Abacus
With The Business it is the first time I've read Banks for awhile, not counting the couple of Iain M. Banks that I read recently. I picked up Song In The Stone a while ago, which was his previous book, but for some reason I never got into it. Maybe got a third of the way through the book and then gave it up, overcome with boredom, but then I did that with a couple of books around that time. So anyway that means I've read everything by Banks to date except that 2/3 of Song Of Stone and for some reason Canal Dreams, which I just never got round to. I tend to find Banks to be a funny one, some of his stuff is really good, but sometimes it takes a bit to get into. Though in saying that I never especially enjoyed Wasp Factory, despite the acclaim for it, possibly because it was his first book and about the fifth by him I read and because people kept telling me how good it was.
Anyway. The Business is the current name for an organisation which dates back to the time of the Roman Empire, which it actually ran for a short period of time - an embarrassingly short period of time that they would rather not be reminded of. Since then they have dealt with states and have interests around the world, but never attempted to try and run their own state again - until now. Determined that the way forward for the Business is to get a seat on the UN they decide to buy a small country, with Kate Telman, the youngest level 3 ever, finding herself involved in this clandestine deal. For the most part the story is pretty much tightly bound to this character, so we see everything unfolding from her view point. Flashes back filling us in on how she was growing up poor on a Glasgow housing estate when she was discovered by a respected level two - who signed her up for an intensive education in the best schools. Coupled with some smart investments she has risen through the business in quick time. The downside of following one character in such a big organisation is that perhaps we don't get as much of the big picture as we could.
Still, an enjoyable work with a quick pace and a sense of an inherent width.
RVWR: PTR
September 2002
Friday, September 20, 2002
Title: Pacific Edge
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Voyager
It seems to be an ongoing issue when I approach trilogies unconsciously - I always seem to end up reading the wrong book first, which I guess is to say any book of three instead of the first. Here Pacific Edge is the third in Kim Stanley Robinson's "orange county" series, though one suspects that each volume is in fact separate enough as to make little real difference.
Pacific Edge is the story of one of the most eventful phases in the life of Kevin Claibourne. Kevin has just taken a place as a green representative on the town council. On the same day as he finds out that the girl he liked the most in school and has remained friends with has just become single for the first time in 15 years. However that night at his first council meeting he catches the new mayor trying to slip something past the council. A motion which relates to the last piece of wilderness in the area, an area just behind his house. This sees him in a struggle to save the land, and then to complicate things the new mayor who is driving for the change is the ex of the woman he is falling in love with.
With the intensity of Kevin's life in the months that follow it is almost irrelevant that this book is set in the 2060's after a period of sweeping political changes across the world. With the battle for the piece of land it is already clear that KRS's familiar themes of environmentalism are present here - though with the detail of the current state of things KRS goes further than that. Corporations have been dismantled, companies now having limits on how large they can grow, as have the wages of people. Everyone in a community takes part in the preservation of that community in some way and the houses they live in are increasingly ecologically sound, giving rise to expanding home farms.
KRS combines the two levels of his book well, though in the end it seems that the side of emotional relationships takes more of the driving seat while also being the most striking and gripping force of the narrative.
RVWR: PTR
September 2002
Title: Pacific Edge
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Voyager
It seems to be an ongoing issue when I approach trilogies unconsciously - I always seem to end up reading the wrong book first, which I guess is to say any book of three instead of the first. Here Pacific Edge is the third in Kim Stanley Robinson's "orange county" series, though one suspects that each volume is in fact separate enough as to make little real difference.
Pacific Edge is the story of one of the most eventful phases in the life of Kevin Claibourne. Kevin has just taken a place as a green representative on the town council. On the same day as he finds out that the girl he liked the most in school and has remained friends with has just become single for the first time in 15 years. However that night at his first council meeting he catches the new mayor trying to slip something past the council. A motion which relates to the last piece of wilderness in the area, an area just behind his house. This sees him in a struggle to save the land, and then to complicate things the new mayor who is driving for the change is the ex of the woman he is falling in love with.
With the intensity of Kevin's life in the months that follow it is almost irrelevant that this book is set in the 2060's after a period of sweeping political changes across the world. With the battle for the piece of land it is already clear that KRS's familiar themes of environmentalism are present here - though with the detail of the current state of things KRS goes further than that. Corporations have been dismantled, companies now having limits on how large they can grow, as have the wages of people. Everyone in a community takes part in the preservation of that community in some way and the houses they live in are increasingly ecologically sound, giving rise to expanding home farms.
KRS combines the two levels of his book well, though in the end it seems that the side of emotional relationships takes more of the driving seat while also being the most striking and gripping force of the narrative.
RVWR: PTR
September 2002
Title: Whole Wide World
Author: Paul McAuley
Publisher: Voyager
With increasing pressure from decency leagues and drives for child protection there is an increasing rise of puritanical thought in Britain - particularly with the rise of the internet and the like. Then there was the InfoWar - microwave bombs are set off, banks are hacked and chaos ensued. A short sharp war, a modern war, where more casualties arise from the riots than the conflict, but computers are wiped, bank balances reduced to zero across the country. From which legislation is passed easily, no longer just parent's groups and the like. Cameras are popping everywhere, intelligent surveillance software is in place.
John is a policeman, he was involved with activities which range from the admin side of police work to hostage negotiations. During the InfoWar he was catching a life with a front line unit, where he was involved in an incident. He was the only survivor. But a death bed report put him to blame for what happened. While investigations exonerated him he was still relegated to a minor computer unit when he refused to retire. From there he is called to collect the computers from a murder scene for investigation. Looking to make this his chance to get out of relegation and back to police work he does his best to help along the homicide inquiry. A murder which involves the torture and killing of an art student that was broadcast across the internet. By a killer who should have been tracked entering the building, but wasn't. John quickly becomes convinced he knows who the killer is, but he is on his own and when no one backs him up he goes it alone. With his chance to repair his reputation quickly crashing down around him as he gets further in.
Whole Wide World is McAuley's most contemporary novel to date, set a few years from now with a character that grew up in the last century and listens to the music of the seventies and eighties. The technology and social environment are pretty much now, but bumped along by a notch. This matches a pattern of his recent work, his previous novel The Secret Of Life being closer to now than his earlier work, though one definitely got a vibe that it fit in to some degree with the likes of Fairyland - the Mars landing which was in the background and the presence of coincident characters. With the feel of the present Whole Wide World takes on more of a thriller/crime feel - the lead a police officer rather than a subversive scientist of some sort. Though with that we have a discredited officer who is on a steady slope, one which leads to the last section of the book where he is surrounded by hackers and has taken a step into McAuley's recurrent Invisible Country.
With the crime thread being the drive one does feel a certain shift from alignment, so that ones expectations from McAuley's work aren't quite being met. Though he does seem to be handling the material well, while also addressing the themes of technology and how they relate to our lives. Doing so without as much of a moralising tone as came across in The Secret Of Life, which for me is a strong step forward. Whole Wide World has a lot to say about surveillance and control and the moralising of certain groups over others in the name of "protection" - something which is particularly relevant at the moment in the UK with the rise of disappearing children and the role that the internet seems to have been credited with their disappearance and the part CCTV has played in attempts to track their last known moves. As a narrative McAuley manages to build WWW till it gains its own momentum, climaxing in a solid fashion, that weighs well with the reader, which isn't always the easiest thing to do after achieving one's aim.
RVWR: PTR
September 2002
Title: Fallen Dragon
Author: Peter F. Hamilton
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Following the massive work that is the Night's Dawn trilogy Peter F. Hamilton returns with Fallen Dragon - this time a one-off book rather than a trilogy, but still in itself a hefty read at over 800 pages. Fallen Dragon is also a story on a tighter scale, rather than spanning dozens of characters and planets sticking to one character and covering his life.
Lawrence Newton is a Sergeant in a corporate strike force, involved in what the organisation euphemistically calls "asset-realisation" and the planets subject to the act refer to as bloody piracy. Newton grew up on a colony planet, the son of the board member, the man technically in charge of the planet. This wasn't where Lawrence wanted to go though, he dreamed of being an explorer, of flying ships to new planets. To this end he breaks away from his home planet, his home company and goes to earth to join another company. But to earn enough of a stake to be eligible for pilot training he has to join up as a trooper. Twenty years later and he is still in the ranks, but has seen a dozen planets in his time. When he was on Thallspring before he came across something that made him suspicious. With a new trip to Thallspring planned he makes sure he is involved convinced that whatever it is that is out there will be enough for him to retire. However Thallspring is waiting for them, ready to show the resistance they couldn't offer the last time. And Newton and his comrades soon find themselves at the centre of a constant guerrilla war, but it all seems to be a cover for some local organisation who are a lot more organised and capable than they should be.
Throughout Fallen Dragon Hamilton switches back and forth between each chapter, covering the present of Newton's preparation for the mission then involvement in, then back in time following his life story and how he became who he is today. To a lesser extent than in Night's Dawn there is also narrative following other characters, which is one of Hamilton's strengths, fleshing out a range of characters to give the narrative a greater depth and allowing for view points which fill in the gaps that the lead character can't provide. Further contrasts to Night's Dawn come from the general level of human culture. In Night's Dawn it seemed that the human culture was unstoppable, wondrous technology, harmonious relations with alien races and an abundance of planets to be found. In Fallen Dragon the human race has hit a plateau, space travel isn't paying off and is slowly being curtailed, where everything in ND has a nice solution in FD it is awkward and unpleasant. Which provides an interesting contrast, perhaps Hamilton feels that his characters had it too easy - here something as "simple" as space travel is an unpleasant experience.
Of course one wonders whether after ND Hamilton finds it difficult to write anything that is brief, while the scope of the book covers this one trip the scale of his writing makes it into an epic and the result still has universe spanning results. Which provides for the build of the ending, which while not as sweeping and god scale event as ND is certainly potentially plateau shifting.
RVWR: PTR
September 2002
