After a rather slow start to my New Year’s Resolution of reading the Bookers and managing only to read Wolf Hall in January, February has definitely been more productive as I finish my fourth this month. The idea of doing a blog is becoming more of a plan as I now have five reviews to show for my efforts and therefore feel I may as well share my thoughts with the world (or at least people I know who are interested!) Although I do have issues with why anyone should care about my opinion…I do read a lot, however, not in any professional capacity. I am a junior doctor with leanings towards the arts in my spare time. I love stories and escaping to other existences as often as I can. And so on to the next…
This book takes a leap back through Booker prizes to 1979 and is a pleasant read. It chronicles the lives of a disparate group of people living in houseboats on Battersea Reach in the 1960s. It conjures up a feel for what life would have been like with a slight hangover from the war with a sense of the emphasis on youth from an unusual view from an unconventional perspective.
The writing conveys the haphazard life experienced by these slightly eccentric characters united through a wish to live on the water. In contrast to other books which highlight a particular part of history through fiction, this was almost more like a short story. It gave you a glimpse into the characters’ lives and although events occur there is no dominating plot, rather a narration of the happenings of every day lives of everyday people coping with what life, and the river throws at them.
I can’t say that I have been hugely impacted by this book but feel it was a quiet story depicted well in an understated way, with no message or huge insight to impart. Just a tale of ordinary lives told elegantly.
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