Top Five Whatever: Books

My current top five (stand-alone, not part of a series - this task would be damn near impossible otherwise) books.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

Add caption

The first novel of Kate Atkinson (possibly better known for her later series commencing with Case Histories,) details the life of Ruby Lennox, a girl born in the early fifties to a dysfunctional family in York, interspersed with a series of non-linear flashback chapters detailing Ruby's family history dating back to her great-grandmother. The story takes us through two World Wars and their impact on the family, has a massive character count and is pretty blase about announcing its characters' deaths several chapters before they happen (it probably has the highest body count on this list, which is saying something).

Ruby's story takes us through her life from conception, detailing deaths in the family, house fires, disastrous weddings, dreary holidays and a series of other events. But there's something odd about Ruby's first-person account. Details and events that don't make sense, or odd, inexplicable things said by her family that aren't clarified to the reader. Over time, we get the impression that there's a significant detail we're missing, something that even Ruby herself doesn't seem to know about...

There's a consistent dark humour that narrates events, which despite the sheer amount of disasters that take place prevents the story from becoming maudlin or alienatingly grim. Not all deaths are treated with humour, however, and we eventually discover that some are presented in a much more hard-hitting way than others. Despite this, it doesn't come off as callous or insensitive, just very resigned to the knowledge of what kind of a story it is.

The Wish List by Eoin Colfer

[X]

By the author better known for the Artemis Fowl series, The Wish List details the afterlife of Meg Finn, a troubled Irish teen killed in a gas explosion during a (reluctant) burglary attempt. With a perfectly balanced list of good and bad deeds to her name, she has the chance to get into heaven by returning to earth as a ghost to help Lowrie MacColl, the grumpy old man whose house she attempted to rob. Having lived a life full of regret, Lowrie concludes that his new ghostly assistant can help him complete his 'wish list', a bucket list of tasks that he believes will go some way towards righting the wrongs in his life.

To further complicate things, Meg's former partner in crime (who died in the same explosion) has been assigned the task of sabotaging her attempts and ensuring she winds up in hell.

This is aimed at a younger audience than most of the books on the list, falling somewhere between children's and YA novel (and I do feel like having the fourteen-year-old protagonist die in a horrific accident during a robbery attempt might be pushing the definition of 'children's book' just slightly.) It first caught my attention when I was somewhere in the early teens bracket, when someone gave me the audiobook.

It was the writing style that stood out to me the most. It's distinctly tongue-in-cheek in a way that occasionally strays into being grimly humorous, but also has its tender moments, particularly when dealing with the developing odd friendship between Meg and Lowrie, without tipping over into mawkish territory. It never talks down to its young target audience, a fact which resonated with me a lot at the time. The theme of redemption and second chances runs heavily throughout, both in Meg's effort to right past wrongs and with Lowrie's desire to finally turn his life around.

The representation of Christian afterlife is also played for laughs throughout. Among them such gems as the devil being depicted as a businessman focusing on quotas, and St Peter getting fed up with having to man the entrance to Heaven all the time. Both the protagonists too, in their own way, are flawed but still sympathetic - Meg's a snarky, occasionally insensitive teenager, but it's easy to root for her, knowing her history. Lowrie's a pessimistic, cantankerous old grouch, who gradually develops over the course of the story into someone more optimistic. Their personalities and the way they interact, combined with the darkly comic narration style, make this uniquely entertaining.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe by Fannie Fragg

[X]

The structuring of this one is, in an odd sort of way, similar to Behind the Scenes, to the point where if I was doing one of those "if you liked X you might also like Y" recommendation deals, I'd probably put them together. This one, too, has two major narratives, interspersing chapters of one 'present' storyline with another historical backstory, occasionally detailing snapshot-style chapters from the lives of side characters throughout generations.

The novel opens with Evelyn Couch, a depressed, out-of-sorts middle-aged woman meeting Ninnie Threadgoode, a cheery old lady in a nursing home who regales her with stories of her family history, primarily the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two women who became romantically involved and ran a cafe in Depression-era Alabama.

The history chapters deal with multiple side characters as well as the protagonists, occasionally using a snapshot-style depiction of their lives and events, alternating between traditional narration, newspaper clippings and a local magazine. One of the major themes is of pre-Civil Rights movement racism. The main backstory plot, however, converges into one particular mystery: what, exactly, happened to Ruth's abusive ex-husband, who disappeared one night after driving up to the cafe?

This was adapted into film in 1991, and if you've seen the film, at the risk of sounding cliched, I'd recommend reading the book. The film, for the most part, keeps the major plot intact, but the fact that they cut out so many details makes it come off as a cliff's notes of the original (it's been suggested that it would have lent itself better to a mini-series). One of the film's major flaws is the way it downplays Idgie and Ruth's relationship, so as opposed to being blatantly romantic as it is in the original story, it comes off as more ambiguous; and is ostensibly portrayed as just a really, really close friendship. If you can get past all that, though, the film's worth a watch - the casting's good, the plot remains compelling, and the scene where we find out what happened to Frank is beautifully done in particular.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

[X]

Another one that's probably better known by the film adaption, and the many, many memes it generated. (Incidentally in this case, I'd really recommend watching the film before reading the book. The film's good, and has a delightfully cheesy cult-movie quality to it, but the book has a lot more in the way of detail. Reading it after seeing the film is essentially like getting a whole load of extra backstory.)

Taking place in the (fictitious) Renaissance European nation of Florin, the story begins when Buttercup, a young and somewhat bratty farm girl, discovers true love with Westley, the farmhand she likes to boss around. Fate conspires to break the two apart as Westley is captured by pirates at sea, assumed dead.

Years later, Buttercup reluctantly agrees to marry the prince of Florin, in the knowledge that she doesn't have much of a choice in the matter and will never love again in any case. She is subsequently captured by a criminal trio in a supposed plot against the throne, and the ensuing madcap and hilarious adventures constitute the plot.

'It's still my favorite book in all the world,' the novel opens, 'And more than ever, I wish I had written it.' The story employs a framing device wherein Goldman is 'abridging' an existing novel - a scathing, but also allegedly long and boring, political satire for adults - into an adventure story that's more accessible to children. To be clear, The Princess Bride is written by William Goldman, and there is no S. Morgenstern or original story.

The meta framing device allows the author to insert himself at points, talking about how he deliberately cut this or that passage because 'Morgenstern' made it too long and detailed. Something that could easily have interrupted the flow or threatened the suspension of disbelief actually works rather well, as the descriptions of the 'removed' passages are entertaining in their own right. There's also the fact that side characters get as much attention and backstory as the main couple, which is a nice touch (somewhat lacking in the film.)

It was adapted into film by Rob Reiner in 1987.


Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

[X]

My favourite of Neil Gaiman's books (with Anansi Boys and Stardust being close contenders, if you're wondering). This story originated when Gaiman and Lenny Henry devised a TV series for the BBC, set in the urban fantasy realm of 'London Below.' As a result of some executive meddling, the series wound up not exactly lining up with Gaiman's vision, and he decided to write it in book form as a companion novelisation.

From this we get Neverwhere, the story of a young, good-natured Scottish businessman living in London who finds himself thrown into a strange parallel version of the big smoke after he unknowingly rescues one of its denizens.

While on the way to an important dinner, Richard Mayhew discovers an injured and distressed young woman curled up on the pavement, and in a snap decision that will alter his life forever, takes her back to his flat. We discover that the girl - named Door - is the daughter of a mysterious nobility, and that her family has been murdered by a pair of terrifying hitmen. The two are still after her and now, by extension, Richard. And his problems don’t end there, as he discovers that ever since encountering his new friend, he’s become virtually invisible. Cabs don’t stop for him, nobody recognises him at work, and an estate agent is showing prospective buyers around the flat he still lives in.

There ensues Richard’s passage into London below, whereupon he and a vivid, peculiar cast of characters embark on a quest to discover who murdered Door's parents, and to establish whether there's any way of getting Richard back to the London he knows.

There's a bizarre kind of familiarity that's frequently present, wherein nearly every cliched aspect of London life crops up somewhere with a new strange meaning. It contrasts a comically familiar brand of Britishness with the strange and often sinister realm of fantasy, all viewed through Richard’s nonplussed eyes.

It manages to be funny and terrifying in equal parts, with characters presenting themselves as creepy and darkly comical by turns. Richard himself starts off as kind, endearingly dorky and somewhat bumbling, and manages to retain some of these traits until the end of the story, although not all of them. In a lot of ways I identified with him a little too much.

And although I have a certain degree of attachment to nearly all of the characters, the Marquis de Carabas deserves a special mention just for being such a magnificent snarky bastard. He got himself a well-deserved spinoff story in 2015, in the form of the novella How the Marquis Got His Coat Back. which is also well worth checking out.

For the record, I'd recommend reading this on the tube.