'My Wicked, Wicked Ways' by Errol Flynn
When I found out about this book, I knew I had to read it. I've loved the films of Errol Flynn ever since I was a child. His movies took me on exciting adventures in exotic lands beyond my innocent imagination and instilled in me a love of adventure stories which I have carried into adulthood. This book, the story of his life, is possibly the greatest adventure story of them all. Beginning with Flynn's youth in Tasmania, Australia, we follow him to gold mines and plantations in New Guinea, casinos and brothels of South East Asia, the highs and lows of the down-and-out life in Sydney and Queensland, his early acting career in England and finally to the glitz of Hollywood and the exoticism of Jamaica. In these pages we encounter angry native tribes, sharks and crocodiles, con tricks and diamond smuggling, high profile court cases and tempestuous relationships. But, surprisingly, we also find reflection and philosophy. According to the introduction by Jeffrey Meyers, this book was written to be scandalous, but the charm of the subject wins through. Although I approached the book determined to take it with a pinch of salt and not be seduced, 438 pages later I was more fascinated by Flynn than ever. However, I did feel that there was something missing. The story felt incomplete without photographs and an epilogue explaining what happened to Flynn and the key characters in his life. But that might just be me being greedy. Overall, this book spans fifty years of adventure, mischief and excitement and is well worth a read by any armchair explorer or devotee of Hollywood.
'Frenchman's Creek' by Daphne Du Maurier
Despite being a work of fiction, this book feels as though it tells a real-life tale of the author's personal feelings of isolation and longing. Set in the reign of Charles II, `Frenchman's Creek' tells the story of the restless and unhappy Lady Dona St Columb, who flees London after playing a practical joke on an unfortunate countess, egged on by the rake Rockingham. Feeling guilty about what she has done and unhappy at what her life has become, she seeks isolation at her husband's Cornish estate and finds joy in the simple pleasures of playing with her children and exploring the coast. On one such walk, she encounters a French pirate, Jean Aubrey, and her life takes an unexpected turn... Du Maurier wrote this book while in Langley End, Hertfordshire, away from the wild Cornish landscape which she loved, perhaps inspiring Dona's sense of longing in the story. Also, according to Sheila Hodges, Du Maurier's editor, Dona carries many of the authors own feelings about wanting to be a boy, the Cornish countryside and her passion for freedom (P. 30, the Daphne Du Maurier Companion, Ed. Helen Taylor). This was certainly the feeling I got while reading the book. Unfortunately, this view of the female experience has become a bit of a cliché in recent years and as a modern feminist, it made me a bit uncomfortable. I stuck with the book, however, and am glad that I did because the pace and adventure quickens as the story progresses, leading to a satisfying ending. Although I don't feel this is Du Maurier's best work and wouldn't recommend it to a first time reader (unless in their mid-teens!), it was enjoyable and should be accepted for what it is - a bit of romantic escapism.
'The Turn of the Screw' by Henry James
This book was one of the most difficult, irritating and intriguing things I have ever read. This novella is usually described as a classic ghost story. It tells the story of a vulnerable young woman who takes the position of governess at an Essex country house called Bly. She is to look after two angelic, orphaned children, a boy, Miles, and a girl, Flora, with the help of the housekeeper, Mrs Grose. After a letter arrives announcing Miles' expulsion from school, the unfortunate governess begins to doubt that all is as it should be with the children and starts to see signs of a supernatural cause.
This story was written in 1898, but, unlike other novels of the period, its language and style have not aged well. At some points I found it almost incomprehensible and had to read and reread some pages three or four times to get any meaning from them whatsoever. I am not entirely sure whether the style reflected the time or whether the writer was trying to imply something with the overly complex and repetitive writing of the governess. What I do know is that you should never judge a book by its thickness and assume you will finish it quickly.
Underneath the leaden prose, the themes of the book were consistent and the story is interesting. It challenged the reader to decide whether the governess was genuinely threatened or whether she was mad and does make you think.
Mad or not, I found it hard to like the governess, though I recognised the stubbornness of someone in their late teens/early twenties who is determined to show that they can do things without help. I found myself wondering why she did not speak to the local priest if the threat was supernatural. And why, after the disturbing end to the book, was she still able to work as a governess? The latter certainly just did not make sense to me.
Overall, I would say this is a challenging read, partly because its language is so complex, partly because it behaves like a puzzle with multiple solutions. Either way, it will certainly haunt the reader long after the last page is finished.
'Interview with the Vampire' by Anne Rice
It's been over a week since I finished this book and I still don't feel like I have a handle on it. Normally a couple of days is all I need to digest a volume and start to make connections that I hadn't noticed straight away. This time, however, despite being trapped in 200-odd pages of firmly printed text, I'm finding this tale as enigmatic and hard to pin down as any vampire.
`Interview with the Vampire' begins with the brilliant conceit of a young man tape-recording an interview with Louis, a two-hundred year old vampire. Louis tells the story of his life and loves, starting in New Orleans with how he met and was transformed by the self-serving Lestat. Tormented by his inherent evil but driven by his hunger for human blood, Louis attacks a young girl, Claudia, in the back streets of the city. In a complex act of cruelty and desperation, Lestat also makes Claudia a vampire, establishing the characters as the strangest of families. The story explores the relationships that these three vampires have with each other and with themselves, visiting some very dark places and sometimes taking the reader to places they never sought to go.
I neither liked nor disliked this book, but I was certainly intrigued by it. Louis philosophical ponderings on what being a vampire means offered a genuinely different perspective on a myth that permeates modern culture. However, I can see why it has retained its cult status in the last 40 years. The more brutal, visceral and sexual aspects of the vampire's existence, along with the subtle hints at what could be construed as paedophilia, could be alienating for some audiences. For me, they just sat awkwardly with what I found newer and more interesting, the more thoughtful start to the book. It's probably important however that we don't forget that vampires are supposed to be human predators rather than the damaged pretty boys so often seen on screen today.
Overall, although I'm not sure I would recommend this novel to anyone, it captured my interest enough to make me want to read the sequel, `The Vampire Lestat'. Hopefully this will be less ambiguous than its predecessor.
'Dear George and Other Stories' by Helen Simpson
I `discovered' Helen Simpson a few weeks ago when one of her short stories appeared in the Guardian magazine. It so completely blew me away that I immediately started to track down her other books and stories.
`Dear George' is a collection of short stories which explore various themes including pregnancy, child rearing and family discord, mainly from the female perspective. There is a petulant teenager who is caught out by an act of kindness, a desperate and overdue pregnant woman, a mother who finds family life to be unlike she expected and a nasty surprise for a authoritarian father on Christmas day.
There is a strange magic to these stories. Simpson deftly waves her pen and creates relationships and situations which are both realistic and recognisable, but without the reams of prose required by many authors. It's refreshing and fascinating, but above all it's a joy to find someone who creates real female characters facing everyday situations and frustrations. None of your neurotic Bridget Joneses or wan Cinderellas here! I would thoroughly recommend this book to any woman reader and probably a few men too. We need more of this sort of insight on our book shelves.
