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The Piano Tuner
Daniel Mason
Picador
*****

Edgar Drake, piano tuner, forty-two, married, no kids, leads an unremarkable life in 1880s London. Until he receives an official summons to tune a grand piano in a British colony in Burma. Edgar has never left England and, although apprehensive, he and his wife decide he must meet the challenge.

The summons is mysterious and even more so the Surgeon-Major who made it. Edgar’s month-long journey is beset by pitfalls, and is full of rumours about this “poet-soldier” who, through music and culture, single-handedly keeps peace in the most difficult outpost. But inauspicious omens create a growing sense of unease amid the splendour, and the real reasons for the doctor’s unusual request do not become clear until it is too late.

It is beautifully written. The conversations between husband and wife are especially moving and the touches of magic and superstition heighten the tension. Fluent and fascinating, this is superb.

Review date: February 2003

Loving Che
Ana Menendez
Headline
*****

Smuggled out of Cuba as a baby by an uncommunicative grandfather, our heroine grows up with no idea of her roots. Now an adult, her attempts to find her mother are initially fruitless, until one day a box of letters arrives in the post.

The mother’s story is told in a series of vignettes which evoke the heady, chaotic days after Castro’s revolution, and describe, in the kind of detail you frankly don’t want from your mother, a passionate affair with Che Guevara that allegedly led to our heroine’s conception. So off she goes to ascertain the veracity of this audacious claim.

While Loving Che portrays both Cuba and the life of exiled Cubans in Miami, our heroine lacks personality and direction, and the languorous prose, initially rich, becomes rambling and repetitive. It seems to be an attempt at magic realism, but without any actual supernatural events, this is contrived and uninspiring.

Review date: February 2004

To buy this book anyway, click here Loving Che

For a good example of what she's trying to do, try Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel for the magic realism, The Women's Room for the strong woman living alone thing, Our Man in Havana for some light-hearted Cuba (though set before the revolution), or The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh for the life told in letters.

1933 Was a Bad Year
John Fante
Canongate
*****

Less a short novel than a long story, this gritty tale charts a few days in the life of Dominic Molise; the seventeen-year-old son of poor Italian immigrants in smalltown USA during the depression. Like any normal teenager, Dom worries about his ears sticking out, and lusts after his friend’s gorgeous older sister. But Dom possesses something that sets him apart from the rest: The Arm.

Dom is a talented baseball pitcher, and The Arm is his confidant and friend – he keeps it moisturised, and calms it down in moments of crisis. But Dom’s father has plans that do not involve baseball.

Quirky, stylish and often funny, there are frequent glimpses of what Fante can do. But we remain curiously detached, and Fante’s characters ultimately fail to gain our sympathy. Although this is a poetic evocation of the limitations imposed by poverty and racism, it has been done better elsewhere.

Review date: November 2001

To purchase this book, click here 1933 Was a Bad Year

Charles Bukowski said "Fante had a major effect upon me. Fante was my god" - it's not clear why from this book, but you could try these others Ask the Dust or Wait Until Spring, Bandini

Or you could try some Charles Bukowski - dirty, liquor-soaked and gutter-minded, he is the Tom Waits of the page. Try The Most Beautiful Woman in Town and Other Stories, or Post Office

Or listen to some Tom Waits

Star of the Sea
Joseph O'Connor
Secker & Warburg
*****

Star of the Sea transports destitute Irish during the potato famine to ‘the promised land’ – America. Aboard are an aristocrat with a troubled past, a maidservant with a dreadful secret, and a murderer. Hundreds more survive horrendous conditions in steerage, and during the 26 days at sea bitter resentments reach boiling point.

The evocation of the period is excellent and the backdrop of the famine truly harrowing. But unfortunately the actual story is less affecting, and rapidly descends into a nineteenth-century Eastenders. No hitherto unknown connection between characters is overlooked, no coincidental meeting avoided and no twist forgone. There are jokes – one character fabricates the entire plot of Oliver Twist so a Mr Dickens will feed him – but even this one-liner is laboured over several pages.

If you can withstand this then it is a fascinating look at distressing times. Otherwise, read Oliver Twist for a bit of a laugh.

Review date: February 2003

Frankie & Stankie
Barbara Trapido
Bloomsbury
*****

“Ughh!” When Dinah and her friends compare grossness, she is relieved that the other kids answer before her so she knows what to say. Dinah’s childhood is full of familiar incidents like this – except these children are discussing whether it is more disgusting for the black maid or an Indian to make your sandwiches. Because Dinah lives in 1950s South Africa.

Barbara Trapido has an astounding gift for recalling and evoking forgotten childhood moments – sibling rivalry, real and imagined slights, cruelty from teachers. Apartheid is merely the grim backdrop and is powerfully understated.

But the problem with what is essentially a memoir of Dinah growing up is that eventually, she grows up. And when she does, the more frequent forays into politics become heavier-handed and Trapido’s evocation of early adulthood is not nearly as convincing. Although Frankie and Stankie is excellent in parts, as a whole it doesn’t quite satisfy.

Review date: June 2003