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Care of Wooden Floors - Will Wiles
by 1st2thebar
Author: Will Wiles
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Fourth Estate 2012
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'Care of Wooden Floors,' a novel: from the off the book irked me, it didn't help by having 'A novel' on the cover as if a block of furniture. Was this supposed to be part of the title, or a sign of what Wiles had planned for his ... readers? Either way, it baffled me. I knew this was Wiles's debut novel due to last year's accolades - but I felt the author had overly-fiddled on the cover. As it so happened, Wiles has admitted influencing the cover's style and content. You mustn't judge a book by its cover, so I attempt to dust and polish it away from my initial impression.
Wiles's nameless protagonist, a writer, subsequently, had been invited to flat sit in an anonymous Eastern European city for an old university acquaintance named Oskar - he is a successful composer, apparently away, trying to deal with a messy divorce in LA. Oskar's artistic licence was a minimalist; finding the ties of being united with another entity via marriage resulted in unwanted baggage - Baggage that required to be left at LA's airport, so Oskar can endeavour composing 'Variations on Tram Timetables' (variation TWO) - notably, the first composition brought surprising rewards. What riches can be made from profound sounds collaborated together to be deemed as a valid composition, a musical piece to be reckoned with. Being a minimalist, a formidable amount of time was personally heeded for what some could see as little result, the audio result that could be easily missed by an untrained ear. Or worse still, go off track entirely. Oskar, is as stiff and wooden as his *fine French oak floor*. His human-side flooding out in notes; pedantic notes around his flat for Wiles's protagonist to pick up and decipher over - "WINE FOR YOU - ENJOY" - "PLEASE, YOU MUST TAKE CARE OF THE WOODEN FLOORS." Capitalised scripts as if for a Tannoy Announcements - You can guess what is to occur can't you. Imagine a Man Ray, real name Emmanuel Radnitzky 1940's modern art film of 'a slow train crash' and you get the picture - well, three hundred pages worth - although, one hundred pages too many. A case of over elaborate character portrayal of Oskar - if the character was an elastic band, it'll be so highly strung there would be a public health warning. PLEASE KEEP AWAY FROM THIS PERSON - if you have to approach him do so at your own risk; you can't miss him, he peruses about Tram Timetables listening for audio frequencies. Goodness knows why Oskar's wife moved to another continent, perhaps on the knowledge that high heels have an annoying tendency of scratching fine French oak floors, especially.
The novel is a good example of style over substance - a meagre "hello" to the world of scenarios. A gargantuan "HELLO" to the fickle world of the pretentious - where fads rise and fall on the whim of an editor's choice in the New Yorker, or Time magazine. Wiles imitation of Gok Wan is fascinating from a critical stand-point. Wiles obsession with the "styled moderne" ("moderne" spelt it this manner breaks the mould of pretentious text) brought on a migraine - his name-dropping of a Le Corbusier got more than a straight-lined mention, the by-product from an author who's an expert on the straight-lined interior component, floors being one of them. Wiles must have whiled away the hours tinkering with product descriptions which in the end didn't suite the cause. Have you heard of a kettle that phlegmed? - A gross connotation connecting the hot drink with the produce of a viral infection. Or maybe you can visualize an 'objet' adjacent to books and manuals on a shelf? Rhetorical question, however the term 'objet' requires a fair amount of imagination to envisage what he meant to be on the book shelf. Unless, of course 'objet' is a valid 'thought entity;' visible to the naked eye - then, I'm mistaken. Style over substance: hands up if you've witnessed a 'boiling mountain,' apart from a volcano? Wiles protagonist has, and it wasn't volcanic or splurging out lava either.
For an author who supposedly had some training in the history of art and design, I found myself cradling my head with angst when Wiles referred to the Renaissance artists evident in his 'Day One' chapter. "Only they felt the love of clouds and appreciation of their natural splendour, and having always felt separated from their true glory were moved to populate them with putti and seraphim." It is as if Wiles was adamant that he must include putti and seraphim into the script, so Renaissance artists were apple picked to serve the purpose. All artists for hundreds of years have 'felt the love of clouds' by them adding a plethora of angels and divine spirits doesn't make this particular group of artists love clouds more. Renaissance movement depicted new beginnings, Wiles misinterpretation goes further, to populate clouds with putti and seraphim, the correct term is putto not putti (putti is singular, putto is plural). 'Care of Wooden Floors' is littered with inaccurate terms. I've only highlighted several.
Other factors beggared belief was; why have two cats, when you possess the finest of French oak floors? Shossy and Stravvy are amusingly named with Russian composers in mind - Russian on an immaculate French oak floor is a recipe for disaster. You get the impression Oskar's nature attracts occurrences of the darkest kind and Wiles's protagonist galvanizes the occurrences - the pressure cooker syndrome of being housebound in a foreign land where you don't relate to the cities landscape, language, or cultural traits - this'll overtly in time twist the mind only Poe could literary manifest. The author is a meek pretender - the synopsis outline of the book no doubt should've been deployed as a short story. Instead the details lacked mustard and credibility and it comes from the major factor the author didn't research cultural facets closely enough. Tighter control is required on that front when Wiles writes his second novel 'Toxic Tourism' - (publishing date pending) - obviously taking note of comments that he writes about the ugly so well. Minuscule fragments of good coming from his exhaustive scripts of stark city landscapes.
Stir-craziness did not only embody the protagonist, I felt it too, while he nonchalantly plodded about at the local museum which Oskar had OCD jotted down for his flat sitters observation, one of many thousand of them. Orchestral orientated musings, profoundly outlining the chasm of character difference these two men had. University so-called friendships tend to be about 'when young and ambitious lives collide by chance under the umbrella of occupational education, what emerges from the social-experiment is a band of brothers / sisters, they incessantly remember their experiences' - a nostalgic 'living-in-the-past glue' is formed, stuck on your brain like an Oskar post-it note. Oskar and Wiles's protagonist's unlikely friendship is the tragic product of this dark fate.
The author should be deeply thankful to the BBC Radio who played an adaptation of the novel during Jubilee year - Indeed, a fortunate plug, during a time where frivolities was favored over good sound judgment. A helpful guide for the Oskars among you who have purchased a French oak floor - Otherwise look elsewhere for polish, I believe Lidl has offers.
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The Casual Vacancy - J. K. Rowling
by darren55
The Casual Vacancy is the first book by JK Rowling which is set in the world of Harry Potter, the book is aimed at the adult market. The book tells the story of the modern small town of Pagford, it tells of the events after the untimely death of Councillor Barry Fairbrother.
JK Rowling
In case you've been living under a ... stone for the last 10-15 years, JK Rowling is the biggest selling novelist of modern times with her Harry Potter books aimed at pre-pubescent readers but enjoyed by adults as well.
The Casual Vacancy
After the huge success of the Harry Potter books, I was curious to read JK Rowling's new novel wizard based book set in a modern English town. The book begins with the death of Barry Fairbrother, an eminent councillor who has a huge brain aneurism whilst at the local golf club and dies instantly. Barry is well liked but outspoken; he also has influence with the local school and wants to save the local addiction clinic. Against Barry are the Millfords who wish to close the clinic and move the troublesome Fields estate from Pagford into the local big city. The book soon spins into little stories, Krystal the troubled girl, the local Asian doctor, her daughter, Barry's scarred wife, the violent local printer, his son Andrew who is obsessed with the new girl called Gaia, whose mother is a social worker who looks after the case of Krystal's mum Terri, Fats whose Andrew's friend and who is racially abusing the doctor and her daughter and so on. Each story tries to be a thread which is part of a bigger story; all begin with Barry's death and the election for his replacement.
This book is a classic small town examined for neurosis and small mindedness; it aims to throw a spotlight on classic Daily Mail reader's mentalities. There is plenty of hypocrisy, selfishness and sheer unpleasantness, in truth the depiction of a small minded town full of unpleasantness is a little overdone at times. There are plenty of chapters in which the characters slowly show there vileness, the story of Barry's re-election gives the writer a chance to expose the worries and concerns which ravages the English middle class.
Reading and reviewing this book is one which is difficult, how would you review this book if you'd never read any of the Harry Potter books. To be fair to this book I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, it has a reasonably pace and tells the story of the machinations which surround the electing of a small town councillor. This is after all only a minor position and only has a modicum of power and importance, but here it is the focus of a novel about the English and how we view ourselves. There are the usual classic JK touches, a fast pace of the story and minimum attempt at true character development. I think JK Rowling is a decent writer without really being a great one; however, she does have a decent habit of producing a very readable story.
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The Rose Petal Beach - Dorothy Koomson
by KLockwood75
The Rose Petal Beach by Dorothy Koomson is a story of many parts. It starts with a visit from the police with a shocking accusation and continues through a story of twists and turns - partly a suspense-filled thriller, partly a family drama, partly a story of female friendships. It is told through the voices of the main female characters ... and switches between their present stories and their past. I had read a couple of Dorothy Koomson's earlier novels ('My Best Friend's Girl' and 'Marshmallows for Breakfast' and found them to be more typical of women's fiction , albeit with more serious issues at the heart of their stories than your typical 'chick-lit', but I felt that 'The Rose Petal Beach' was a departure from the style of those books.
It is difficult to say too much about the story without giving away the secrets of the plot. The main character is Tamia Challey, married to her childhood sweetheart, living in a beautiful house with their two daughters. Outwardly, their life seems pretty idyllic but, as we know, in this type of story things are rarely what they seem. At the outset of the book, Scott is arrested and charged with an act which sends shockwaves reverberating through the Challey family and their friends. Suddenly Tamia is forced to confront issues which she had refused to think about and question everything that she believed about her little family. The accusation also affects her two closest friends, Beatrix and Mirabelle. And, as the book progresses, things end up getting a whole lot worse.
As previously mentioned, this book is told in a variety of voices - notably Tamia and her friend Beatrix. It took me a while to get into the story because it jumped around so much in the early stages but, as you start to feel more familiar with the characters and get a better idea of their personalities, I feel that the multi-voiced style definitely works. The predominant 'voice' in the story is that of Tamia - she is very much the central character and, in my opinion, the one that has the strongest voice. Koomson's writing pulls you deep into Tamia's mind - you feel her anger, her confusion, the hurt and sense of betrayal as the story progresses, as well as her passionate desire to protect her little girls from what is happening. I also loved the flashbacks that explained the relationship between Tamia and her husband Scott - those glimpses into the past made you care about them more as a couple, knowing what they had experienced before getting to this place in their lives. Beatrix was also an interesting character - initially you find out very little about what makes her tick but, as her story unfolds in tandem with the main plot, she becomes much more central to Tamia's story. You don't get to hear Scott's side of the story in the same way - his story is told through Tamia's reaction to it, which I felt was a clever writing technique which made me emphasise with Tamia even more. The other major characters are also well developed - they don't start off with a 'back story' in the way that the Challeys do, but things are revealed during the course of the main narrative as Tamia discovers them for herself.
'The Rose Petal Beach' is available in paperback (currently £3.85 on Amazon) and for download on to the Kindle. There are also a couple of free downloads in the Kindle Store which accompany this novel, although I haven't downloaded either of them so can't comment on the content.
Overall, this is a book which I would really recommend. The story pulled me in and kept me wanting to know what happened next. It was one of those books where I often ended up feeling annoyed as the train pulled into my station as I didn't want to stop reading it which, for me, is always a sign of a good story. The storyline is fast-paced and has far more twists and turns than I expected it to have - I thought that the story would all revolve around the initial accusation but, in reality, that is merely the event that kick-starts an even more dramatic chain of events. The switching between characters and past/presents does take a little bit of getting used to, especially if you are not used to reading books with multiple narrative voices, but it is definitely worth sticking with. The characters are well-written and I felt myself really caring about what happened to Tamia and her family. And, I was surprised by the way it ended which, for me, is a sign of a good book.
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