Andrea Levy: The Long Song

THE LONG SONG (2010) is Andrea Levy's fourth novel - and the second (after SMALL ISLAND) that is translated into German. (I think there are some problems to translate Jamaican slang into German..)

In a (veeery small) nutshell:

Kingston, Jamaica, 1889.
Formerly Miss July was a slave but now she is an old and a free woman. With help of her son, who made a career as a printer, she writes down her memoirs –and that’s what we read in this book.

Well, this might sound not very tempting – but it is quite exciting! It is a captivating read which makes you anxious to know what will happen next to Miss July and all the other characters.

There is no SONG OF THE SOUTH “plantation romance” (no “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!” here – though I really like that song, because it is so merry..) with happy black people working for a noble white massa. Not so many noble people in this book at all.. I liked that.

To be honest I did not know much about the history of Jamaica – and how the abolition of slavery took place there. I found it quite interesting to find out more about what happened after the slaves were “free”. It surely wasn’t like: “Here, Miss July, take this horse and these juwels – and do you want to have all my dresses? It’s all yours. I am sorry what happened but now we’re friends and you’ll live in a little house on the hills with pink flowers all over the place. So, now let's go in and have some tea and cookies..”

Tough times - and tough people.

Here is the German cover:

The German title is DAS LANGE LIED EINES LEBENS (= a life's long song) and I like the colours of this book very, very much!
I like the English cover above very, very much, too. Somehow it makes me think of my childhood. (No, I did not grew up on a plantation - but there were some very savaged places where I spent a lot of my time..)

This book fits in one of my challenges:

Because this novel is setted into 19. century Jamaica it fits into the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2011.

Arthur Phillips: Angelica

ANGELICA is the third book by Arthur Phillips (2007) - and the first one I've ever read by him.

In a nutshell:

Victorian London. When Angelica is four years old her father Joseph Barton billets her out of the parental sleeping room and claims the fulfilment of marital duty by his wife Constance - who was (after several miscarriages ) told that she could die when she becomes pregnant again.
Than strange things happen: A blue ghost who comes up to Angelica is seen by Constance - and his intentions are not innocent. Can Anne Montague - a specialist in occultism - help? Has Joseph anything to do with this? Or is Constance going mental?

This was a very fast read - because it was extremely captivating: The story is first told like Constance is seeing it, than Anne's view follows. After that you read how Joseph experiences these events - and at least you'll read Angelica's view. The whole novel is written like a statement given to a doctor - but you'll find out pretty late, who is talking.

There are some - in the truest sense of the word - victorian views - some things we would nowadays find sexist and racist.

Like: Every woman is latently crazy - and only a man can stem that. And you're crazy when you're talking to cats. (I discussed that with my two cats - and they find that this is silly, too.)

This book is not as spine-chilling as I have thought that it would be - but it's really tragic in some parts. I got to confess when my lights suddenly started to flutter (loose contact) and the wind started to sough at the same time.. - well, it was a pretty good timing!

It's a surprising plot - every time the view changes the story will get a perfect new meaning. I loved that. In the end you should not expect to get a straight conclusion - and that's fine with me.

I could count this book to my first book of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - but I started to read it before I joined that challenge - so this will count as a warm up book. :")

Here are the German covers:

(this is for the hardcover edition)

(this is for the paperback)

This time I like the German covers very much.

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2011

So -another challenge I am going to participate in: The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2011which is hosted by Historical Tapestry.

"To participate, you only have to follow the rules:

• everyone can participate, even those who don't have a blog (you can add your book title and thoughts in the comment section if you wish)
• add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky we’ll be adding to our monthly post (please, do not add your blog link, but the correct address that will guide us directly to your review)
  
  
• any kind of historical fiction is accepted (HF fantasy, HF young adult,...)
• you can overlap this challenge with others kind of challenges
• During these following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:
  
  
  Severe Bookaholism: 20 books
  Undoubtedly Obsessed: 15 books
  Struggling the Addiction: 10 books
  Daring & Curious: 5 books
  Out of My Comfort Zone: 2 books

The challenge will run from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011."

So - I am heading for Struggling the Addiction which means I am going to read 10 historical fiction novels. And I will count every book which is setted prior 1976 as historical.



This is my progress list - every review will be linked:

Struggling the Addiction

0. (warm-up) : ANGELICA by Arthur Phillips

1. THE WAR AGAINST MISS WINTER by Kathryn Miller Haines

2. THE LONG SONG by Andrea Levy

3. VOYAGE OF INNOCENCE by Elizabeth Edmondson

4. WHAT ALICE KNEW by Paula Marantz Cohen

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Every book I review for this challenge will have this button:

So - another try on challenges.. ;") Good luck to all of you who do challenges too!! This is going to be great!