Book Review: The Great Gatzby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is widely recognized as one the of the finest pieces of American literature. It is a narrative about high-living people in the "Roaring Twenties" and in particular it is the tale of a rich man, Jay Gatsby, obsessed with another man's wife and his pursuit of her just because he is able to and has more money than he knows what to do with.

The way this novel is written is similar to "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad in that it is one man's narrative about another man, one who is mysterious and draws others towards him and one who has a rather dark aspect to his personality. Gatsby and all the other characters are rather wasteful, idle people who continually gather for meaningless parties and other social meetings, none of whom, it turns out, are real friends.

Book Review: 1000 by Gavin Robertson

1000, by Gavin Robertson, is the story of how a couple of corrupt members of a corrupt system find their lives unraveling. Between them Simon Northcott and Buddy Martial have a brilliant scheme which hacks into the Foreign Exchange markets and extracts money in seconds. Unfortunately there scheme does not go undetected and they find themselves in a tough situation.

The premise behind this novel is reasonably interesting but the mechanics of it is so complicated that the author does not even attempt to explain properly what it involves, leaving the reader rather poorly informed as to what is really going on. Likewise, the structure of the novel is such that it takes four or five chapters before one is really aware of what these men do, and the beginning of the book is largely devoted to reconstructing a rather hackneyed back story for the main characters.

Book Review: The Story of Zahra by Hanan Al-Shaykh

The Story of Zahra is Hanan Al-Shaykh's novel about the life of a young woman dealing with her madness in war-torn Lebanon. She is sent to visit a relative in Africa as a rest cure but after electro-shock therapy she is worse than ever and returns to Beirut in the peak of the fighting.

Some interesting themes are touched upon in this book particularly how people deal with living in a war zone but the central theme of mental illness is rather poorly dealt with in my opinion. The subplot of madness seems to have been created to excuse the writer's inability to write in anything other than a disjointed style and many of the portrayals of madness appeared very cliched to me. In the Story of Zahra, none of the other characters are developed to any degree and this makes it bewildering as to why Zahra reacts to them in the way she does and what exactly fuels her mental state.

Book Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

Salmon fishing in the Yemen, by Paul Torday, is an original story of the attempt to introduce fly fishing for salmon into the wadis of southern Yemen, which has catastrophic consequences. This story revolves around a British fisheries scientist and his efforts to find a way of succeeding with the visionary project of a Yemeni Sheikh, and also on how members of the British government hijack the scheme for a vote-winning photo opportunity.

This book is written in a very unusual style, being a collection of documents; diaries, police reports, memoirs, letters and e-mails which at first feel rather awkward, but as the book progresses, the reader becomes comfortable with what is a rather original style which makes a fairly average book into something that stands out from others. This construction of the novel means that many of the documents are very personal to the characters, and this means that the characters become quite developed, although the ending perhaps leaves one wanting a little more from some of the main protagonists.

Book Review: Overtaken by Alexei Sayle

Overtaken, by Alexei Sayle, is a tale of the events that happen to Kelvin immediately before, during and after a road accident that kills his entire group of friends. Fighting with emptiness and depression he decides to create a "memorial" to them in the most unusual fashion - a story that contains a strange twist at the end which although it was not completely unexpected, was only anticipated, by this reader, in the final few pages preceding the ending.

With a few moments of humour, this is not the comedy novel one might expect from an author who is a well-known comedian but instead an unusually calculating story of revenge which does not work out quite in the way the reader or the main character expects or hopes for, and a few things about Kelvin's personality and ways of thinking are fairly thought-provoking.

Book Review: The Eventful History of the Mutiny and the Piratical Seizure of HMS Bounty by Sir John Barrow

This is probably the most complete and balanced account of the well-known true story of The Bounty. Compiled from accounts from mutineers, William Bligh and transcripts of the Courts Martial this tale is told from a number of viewpoints and as such gives the reader a clear picture of the confusion at the time and the poorly thought out seizure of the ship, as well as telling of the horrors that the seamen loyal to Bligh and those mutineers who were captured had to endure on the voyage home.

The chapters recounting the voyage of the Bounty, its time at Otaheite and the casting adrift of Bligh and his loyal followers tell a gripping tale and the privations endured by the group of sailors are incredible. The story of how a number of mutineers were captured, their ship wrecked and the consequent voyage to Kupang is equally amazing and rather less well known.

Book Review: Borat - Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan by Sacha Baron Cohen

This is in fact two books in one, with the second part being entitled: Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S and A. Both are spoof travel guides, by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, introduced by the comedy character, Kazakhstani reporter Borat Sagdiyev. For those that know this character the book holds few surprises, playing on the cultural preconceptions of westerners towards Eastern Europe and the perceived cultural naivete of Borat.

Those who are fans of Borat will find a lot of amusement in this book which contains visual and verbal humour, although they may be disappointed to find a number of jokes being recycled. However, those who are easily offended by racial, religious or sexual jokes will despise this publication; one thing that most will probably agree upon is that in this book Baron Cohen has taken this character just about as far as he can.