"The Long Forgotten" by David Whitehouse - Review

 

David Whitehouses „Mobile Library“ was probably the first review copy I ever got, back in 2015 when I just started my book seller apprenticeship. It was also the first review I wrote for my bookshops website. And I was lucky, because I had come across a rare gem back then, so the memory of this first venture into my profession happened to be a very good one. I am still holding “Mobile Library” very dear, partially for nostalgic reasons but also because it was a brilliant book.

Now when you have read and loved someones debut novel, a second book being published is equally exciting and scary – your expectations are high, so there is plenty of room for disappointment. But like with most things in life, there is just as much room for things to go well.

I will admit it, it took me shamefully long to pick up “The Long Forgotten”. Not only because reading isn’t part of my job anymore and therefore, I find very little time in my day to day life to do so, or because my pile of shame is so much higher than I’d like to admit (but I will: Currently 55 books). I also was scared to be disappointed.

I was wrong, and I have never been this happy about being wrong in my entire life.

On the first glance, in “The Long Forgotten”, David Whitehouse tells not one story but three and at first it seems odd since these people do not seem to be connected in the slightest: Dove, an odd-ish young man from London with anger issues and memories that are not his own. Peter Manyweathers, a cleaner from New York in the 1980s who is swept away by a sudden obsession with botany. Professor Cole, a grumpy scientist who stumbled across the black box flight recorder of the lost flight PS570 in an incident that almost cost him his life.

These stories seem to be only connected by them being unlikely enough to be of interest but just likely enough to actually happen. For the sake of a spoiler-free review I will only say: They are connected, and it is astonishing how. Please do read the details yourself.

David Whitehouse has a talent to make the reader fall in love, with his language, with his characters and especially with whatever subject he decides to write about. I have never been this passionate about rare flowers and botany before. I have never related this much to an orphan curious to find his parents. And I certainly have never felt that much interest in cleaning in my entire life and hope to get some great accomplishments from this newly found and most likely shortlived obsession.

Whitehouses habit to find and portray the magical in the most mundane, to tell stories of such wonder in an every day life setting that you inevitably start to view your own life through completely new eyes, is remarkable. Personally, I hope to read much more from him.

Books to read to make you feel better

Reading can help a lot with things, I think if you, dear reader, found this humble blog, you propably know that already. Throughout my life, I struggled with a lot of different things, from things as simple and survivable as break-ups up to actual depression. And even though I tend to prefer books about the saddest, heartbreaking topics, there are some that helped, either anyway, or because I picked up something carefree for once. I will not go as far as pretending books could cure mental illness, rest assured, but what I am going to say is that personally, I found peace in reading books that are supposed to make you happy, I found calm within pages as I found useful advise from time to time when characters went through things comparable to my own situation at this point. So I don't guarantee for anything, but here are a few books that help bring me up again when I am feeling down and maybe they can help you too.

"Hectors Search For Happiness" by Francois Lelord

 See, this is one of those carefree books. The style of writing is very pure as if Hector wasn't a grown-up psychiatrist but, well, a little boy viewing the world as a very happy place to begin with (which propably makes his search for happiness easier). The movie with Simon Pegg and Rosamund Pike is very recommendable too, even though it is a lot more realistic because we rather watch Hector on his journey than seeing the journey through his own eyes.
I read this book when I just started my apprenticeship and the town I newly moved to was still a bit scary and strange and I was just starting to get a bit better after the really dark few months - it did help me with my recovery, and I still like to watch the movie on bad days (and cry like a happy little baby in the end).




"Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert

Another book turned into a movie, but this time, for the love of god, please don't watch the movie (or, if you have already, don't let the movie stop you from reading the book). I came to read this pretty coincidentally, I got a used copy somewhere for free and thought "okay, this is said to be a so called 'womens book' (=aka cheesy and lovey dovey and just not my type of books), but it's hyped a lot, so let's see what all the fuss is about, after all it's free"- this one one of the luckiest coincidences in my life so far (and I do have a lot of lucky coincidences).
"Eat Pray Love" is non-fiction but still pretty much written like a novel. It is about Elizabeth Gilbert herself recovering from her divorce by spending a trimester each in Italy (where she basically eats her own body weight in pizza and pasta to enjoy wordly things), India (where she joins an Ashram to embrace spirituality) and on Bali (to find a way to combine both). I read this book when I was recovering from a pretty rough break-up myself and found some useful advise on how to deal with my own feelings in the way Elizabeth dealt with hers, as well as advise on how to go about my love life in the future. I have since been a lot more chill about dating, so this book actually had a long-term positive influence on me.

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

 I actually just finished this book last week, I picked it because it's a classic and pretty short (less than 200 pages) so it was a nice read after I finished "The Blackthorn Key" and waited for the second Blackthorn book to be released. "The Alchemist" isabout following your destiny and your dreams and having trust that somehow, everything will work out.
After realizing that the next two months will be rough financially and being frustrated with the infamous German bureaucracy, this book really calmed me down - it's right, I will survive this and everything is going to be so much better after going that one last mile on my way to a life with a new, well-paid job and a new flat etc. "I'll be okay, even if everything sucks from time to time" is the message this book shouts in your face.



Other examples would be the Harry Potter books, for example, or "Ronia, the Robbers Daughter" by Astrid Lindgren, just books from my childhood in general because they always take me back in time a bit to a time where things were just easier. Of course that wouldn't work for everyone, but it works for me, and I'm glad reading helps me cope. Do you have books as well that you keep going back to when everything sucks?

"The Keeper Of Lost Things" by Ruth Hogan - Review

Many people collect something in their free time. Stamps, coins, rocks, books... but it's a lot rarer you hear about people collecting lost things, things they find somewhere. Writer Anthony Peardew is such a person. Ripped off coat buttons, umbrellas and a mysterious cookie tin filled with ashes, Anthony keeps everything, puts a label on it stating when and where he found it and tries to give it back to its original owner. He does all of this to compensate for a lost locket he once got from his deceased love Therese.

When Anthony dies he leaves his house and his whole fortune to his assistent Laura – and with it the task to bring back the lot things to their rightful owners. Laura doesn't feel like she could handle that but she gets help from Freddy, the garderer she's secretely in love with, and Sunshine, a girl with down syndrome who lives in the neighbourhood that hardly ever leaves her side.

Throwback to 1974: Young Eunice starts working as an assistent to the attractive publisher Bomber. They share a big passion for movies and an incredible love for dogs and Eunice instantly falls in love with him. But she knows that they will never be a couple and instead she stays at his side as a trustworthy friend, both at the publishing company and in their private life where she helps him facing his sister who is spoiled by a big inheritance and doesn't understand why Bomber refuses to publish her shamelessly plagiarized manuscripts.

In her first novel „The Keeper Of Lost Things“, Ruth Hogan neatly puts those two plots together without being too intrusive – the full extent of the link is only revealed on the last pages. Both stories are full of British humour, heartwarming moments and a little bit of mystic. Lauras story is also bristles with short stories about the lost things in Anthonys possesion – if they are from the writers imagination or the actual backround stories is up to the reader. All that makes „The Keeper Of Lost Things“ a light summer read without too much kitsch that should delight fans of David Whitehouses „Mobile Library“.

"Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins - Review

Not everyone likes crime fiction. But that really doesn't mean you can't read them. For those who don't like classic detective stories „Girl on the train“ by Paula Hawkins is very good to go.

In „Girl on the train“ we observe a crime from three perspectives: Annas, a overly happy wife who just got her first child, Megans, the victim, and Rachels. Rachel is divorced, living with her room mate for far longer already than originally planned, she is an alcoholic and already lost her job because of her addiction. The one thing she has besides that are the daily train rides from the suburbs to London. On those rides the train always stops for a moment at the exact same pace and she can see a house through the window with an obviously very happy couple living there. She calls them Jess and Jason and builds an illusion around who those people are that she is only watching from afar and that mean so much to her. Until, one day, Rachel sees something strange that really doesn't fit into that illusion, and just a bit after that a missing person report with a photo of Jess is published – except her name is Megan. Rachel wants to help, and doesn't only get tangled up in a net of lies she actually doesn't even have anything to do with, but she also has to deal with Anna and her husband, Rachels ex-husband, who live just a few blocks away from Jess and Jason and are not very fond of the drinking, miserable Rachel not just leaving them alone.

With „Girl on the train“, Paula Hawkins managed a brilliant debut that readers can't let go of. She shows an absolutely human quirk of big city residents – observing and de-humanizing others – and puts it into a thrilling, complex, thought-through story with a main character that you will pity and admire at the same time. Rachel is a wonderful anti-hero you just can't help to love despite her muffed life, and „Girl on the train“ is a book very fit for non-crime fiction readers and fans by Gillian Flynns „Gone Girl“.

"Mobile Library" by David Whitehouse - Review

A single mum, her daughter and a boy steal a mobile library – David Whitehouses book „Mobile Library could almost be summarized like a bad joke, as absurd but also unique the scenario is in which his characters find each other. Bobby Nusku is the child of a loveless father and wants to find his best friend whom he made a cyborg, Rosa Reed has trisomy 21, Valerie, Rosas mother, instantly feels responsible for that strange boy her daughter likes so much and who treats her daughter just like everyone else. She wants to protect him from his father, and when the mobile library she cleans one a week is about to be shut down, the three of them sense an adventure: They steal the bus and go on a wild road trip across Great Britain, the police always upon their heels.

Most of all things, “Mobile library” fascinates with its blunt take on real problems that lot of people like to turn a blind eye to, be it problems that come with disabilities, bullying, abuse or suddenly losing your job which can happen to anyone. David Whitehouse knows his craft: he puts all this off-putting truths in a contrast to beautiful fantasies, to the fact that you can lose yourself in stories and that they are able to comfort and distract when it is truly needed. As direct and honest this novel is, it just as well is a declaration of love to literature and fantasy itself, so as a bookworm you can't help to fall in love anew with thousands of classics and every book that ever meant something to you. Due to the road trip through the UK, a smack of adventure is added to this already pretty appealing mixture, making this book a masterpiece well and truly.

"Maggot Moon" by Sally Gardner - Review

Standish Treadwell is 15 years old and he can neither write nor read. Because of that, people view him as stupid while actually, he is really clever. In the eyes of the government compliant teachers, classmates and neighbours he is worthless, because of his dyslexia and because of his different-coloured eyes, because of his unusual name and everything in general that makes him so different from the proud citizens of his home country who see themselves as superior human beings. They won the war, raised to global power, and in a few days they are going to land on the moon, equip it with nuclear weapons and gain unlimited respect from the other nations once and for all.

Standish despises his home country since it took his parents and also his best friend Hector and his parents. He lives alone with his grandfather who struggles to keep both of them from starvation with great difficulty. Standish dreams of traveling to the country of Croca-Cola some day where everything is colourful, and drive around in an ice creme blue Cadillac with Hector. Everything would be better when he made it out of the rundown zone 7.

When Standish finds the moon man in his basement, a member of the moon excursion team, just after Hector disappeared, his life is turned upside down.

„Maggot Moon“ is set in a fictitious worst case scenario: What would have happened if not the allied forces but the Nazis won world war two? If not the USA but the Third Reich wanted to send the first man to the moon? One can indeed call it a dystopian concept, but what makes it special is that it is set in the past in 1956.

The author, Sally Gardner, is dyslexic herself, only learned to read and write when 14 years old – and she proves with her young readers book „Maggot Moon“ that this is in no way an obstacle for making something great. She follows the dystopia trend in the manner of classics like „1984“ by George Orwell and more recent works like the „Hunger Games“ series by Suzan Collins but skillfully and innovatively interprets the topic in a wholly own way that clearly distinguishes this book from others. Standish Treadwells rebellion is not a loud one, not a bloody one, but silent, considerate and peaceful. As paradox as it seems, his weapons are words and truths, as he puts it, the pebble bringing the giant to the fall. Due to the short chapters that rarely exceed two or three pages the novel reads without effort and fluently.

Visually, „Maggot Moon“ is a true eyecatcher as well: Besides the cover being designed with great devotion the pages are a flicker book showing a rat and a fly having a whole different story. Those illustrations are what makes the book a double work of art.