Review: "Untold Story" by Monica Ali

There is something about book based on real persons... By using figures that are essentially real, they inhabit a strange land inbetween fiction and non-fiction and I have always found this grey-zone really interesting. One of the books that I found does this really well is "Life Mask" by Emma Donoghue about the actress Eliza Farren and the sculptress Anne Damer - it had me heading straight for the National Portrait Gallery to see sculptures.


"Untold Story" by Monica Ali is pure fiction but it is based on Princess Diana. The Diana. Princess of Wales. And to be honest, I had no idea to how to handle this. Is it wrong, is it right? Is it disrespectful or is  she making use of the artistic right of an author?
In "Untold Story", Ali speculates what would have happened if Diana if she had survived the car crash in Paris and had instead staged her own death to flee to a small town in America to live a normal life. Lydia is the name that Princess Diana takes on as she lives what is a typical life, working at a dog shelter and spending time with her girlfriends who think that she has fled from a powerful husband. It is American surburbia at its finest that has replaced the role of Kensington Palace.


As the story evolves we get the story from Lydia herself and from her former secretary who is the only person she has trusted with her secret. It is the story of a women so fed up with the difficulties of life in the spotlight that she is willing to give up everything, including her children, to start over. It is a choice that comes at a price, a high price and when a British paparazzi surfaces in this oh-so-normal American backwater (incidentally also called Kensington), it could all have been for nothing.

It is an interesting read - the story itself somehow does not come across as dramatic. It is very well-written but the beautiful literary style is very much at odds with the content. Because as much as I enjoyed reading Ali's well-crafted sentences and stylistically superior prose, I did not enjoy the use of Diana's name. The story could have been told just as well had it been based on a fictional character and I have to admit that I found the book an invasion of privacy. This feeling of partaking of something not quite right ruined the reading experience for me and the insensitivity in using the Diana icon overshadows what could have been a good read.

Review: "The Collector" - Obsessions

I had actually read this book before but I didn't realise it until I had read quite far and in the end it didn't matter because I couldn't remember anything about it anyway. That is one of the very few perks of having a bad memory - you get to re-experience great books and films over and over again.

"The Collector" by John Fowles is a great novel - his debut which I find extremely impressing. The narrator Frederick, who calls himself Ferninand, is damaged at best and outright crazy at worst. He is a 25-year-old orphan who has grown up in a loveless home with this aunt and cousin but who comes into a large amount of money when he wins at pools. Frederick is obsessed with Miranda, a 20-year-old art student from North London. Miranda is obsessed as well but not with Frederick whom she hardly notices. She is obsessed with being bohemian, arty, leaving her middle-class background behind and becoming part of the world that she adores and which is symbolized for her by G.P., an libertine and artist old enough to be her father.
However, Miranda comes face to face with Frederick's obsession with her and with love when she is kidnapped by him and imprisoned in his basement somewhere in the English countryside.

As the days go by Miranda and her captor circle each other in little power games where Miranda always has the upper hand except for the fact that Frederick literally has the key to her freedom and denies her the use of it.
What does Frederick/Ferdinand want from Miranda? She wonders and the reader wonders as well. I think Frederik himself wonders. He collects butterflies and Miranda is the triumph in his collection. He doesn't want anything from her except to have her.

It is a fascinating read because both Miranda and Frederick call for pity even though both of them are really quite annoying and caught up in their own webs of self-deceit. The story is more reminiscent of the plot in Lucy Christopher's "Stolen" which is like a YA version of "The Collector" than of "Room" by Emma Donoghue. However, all three books deal with the same topic, kidnapping, in a way that is worth reading.

"The Collector" is great. It is a piece of classic literary fiction and it deserves your attention.

Make a Mov(i)e!

So a lot of your are taking part in the Waiting on Wednesday meme but I have to admit there there are not a lot of books that I am impatiently waiting for to be published. However, there are a lot of books that I would very much like to see being adapted for the big screen! I love watching a good movie - last night my sister, my boyfriend and I had official "Eclipse" night, watching the vampires and werewolves alternating between fighting and taking off their shirts. Do I need to add that my boyfriend was less than impressed? My sister and I did enjoy it though.
There are a lot of books out there that I think could make great movies - if treated right that is. Here are some of books that I would like to buy a ticket to the theater to see - a fantasy, a romcom and a historical drama!

Jonathan Stranger and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - the fantasy movie
New Line Cinema has bought the rights for making this fantastic novel into a film but so far not a lot has happened. Get your skates on New Line!!
The story is set in England around the Napoleonic Wars - a time where magic is returned to England at the hands to two magicians. The gentleman Mr. Norrell and his apprentice rebel Jonathan Stranger. Lots of drama and magic. A Harry Potter for adults.

Got You Back by Jane Fallon - the romcom
Jane Fallon's first novel Getting Rid of Matthew is apparently on the way to the big screen - but I would prefer to watch her second novel, Got You Back - come to life. This is the story of two women who share a man... One is married to him, living a jet-setty life in London, one is his girlfriend living in a small village in rural England. They don't know about each other but when they find out, he is in trouble. Big trouble. Perfect for Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore, if you ask me.

The Life Mask by Emma Donoghue - the historical drama
This drama is based on real historical characters and they sure come to life in this dramatic tale of love, riches, plays and a touch of lesbianism. If you like Sarah Waters, you will love this book about the acclaimed actress Elizabeth Farren (in the picture) who becomes close friends with a famed sculptress while being pursued by a rich earl. The fact that this all builds on historical facts only makes it better! Please please please cast Keira Knightley!

Which books would you like to have adapted to films?

Review: "Room" - Life within four walls

You have probably heard about the Natascha Kampusch case or the Elisabeth Fritzl case. "Room" by Emma Donoghue is the story of the Jack and Ma case. Jack is five years old and he lives in Room with his mother, Ma. Room is his little kingdom - he sleeps in Wardrobe and is friends with Spider, Plant and even Door. Sometimes he watches TV even though he knows - Ma has told him - that the people inside the TV are not real. There are only three persons in Jack's world, himself, his Ma and Old Nick, the evil old man who brings them food and Sunday treats and who visits them only at night.
For Jack this is the entire world but his Ma knows that there is more in Outside and one day she decides that she needs to save herself and save Jack. However, becoming part of the world outside is not easy - neither for Jack, nor for Ma.

This book was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2010 and I can see why. It is an amazing literary book that Emma Donoghue has written. She really takes the reader into Jack's world, letting us experience this from his innocent perspective. His love for Ma, his fear of Old Nick and his dependence on Sunday treat. And through his eyes we understand Ma, a 27-year-old who has been trapped in a garden shed for eight years and who has almost more trouble dealing with the vast real world than with her confinement between the four walls.
Jack loves his Ma unconditionally and so did I. Though we never get to experience her thoughts or feelings directly, I came to respect this character immensely for what she inspires in Jack. He is such a sweet kid with such an childish insight in life.

I read this book more or less in one go, once I started on it, I just could not put it down. It is a fantastic book and all it lacked from my perspective was more pages. I really wanted to read more about Jack, he had become so real for me and he really interested me. Emma Donoghue has written a beautiful book that I think many of you out there will enjoy.

"The Fingersmith" - Who's fooling who?

After ready so much praise of "The Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters on blogs, in newspaper reviews etc. I finally decided to give it a go. Not sure why I haven't done so before because it is just the kind of book I enjoy! It reminds me of "Slammerkin" and "The Life Mask" by Emma Donoghue and it is really ejoyable. The plot is full of twists and turns and I really didn't see any of coming. It was such a pageturner and I really had a hard time turning off the light last night before I was done reading it.
Basically it is about two girls whose fates are inextricably linked. Sue Trinder grows up in the poor London streets of Borough, south of the river, among thieves and swindlers. She has questionable morals but a good heart and it is with some worry that she agrees to a plot to snare a young aristocratic woman and steal her fortune. The young woman in question, Maud Lilly, lives in a country estate with her neurotically strict uncle who collects lewd pornographic books. When these two girls meet, their fates change forever.
If you like mysteries, books about women taking control of their own destinies, then read this book. It is so wonderful.