Book Review: Anita Shreve 'The Weight of Water'

I've read four or five Anita Shreve books, and I feel that this one belongs lower down the heap. The problems are that from the beginning you know that things are going to 'come to a climax' and with that in mind there are only a couple of ways it can go, making it a bit predictable.
Telling two stories in parallel, with the story from the past filtered through a character in the present, is a nice structure, and one Shreve has used successfully in the past.
On the upside, the setting is very interesting, the Isles of Shoals. I've always had a thing about islands, something that I go on about a bit on my blog...
She makes the bleak, bare islands with their peculiar names practically become characters in the story.
As for the actual characters in the story, they're unsympathetic across the board, which though i didn't mind it too much, it might be a problem for other readers. The lead character is a photographer, and because of this the book is constantly focussed on detailed visual descriptions of characters and scenes, which are often poetic and sometimes quite beautiful, but there's just, quite a lot of them...
So, if you like very visual books, with unsparing character examinations, intense, morally vague and fairly clipped, this is for you...

Azores and Animal Stories

After children's books with secret tunnels, ones with uninhabited islands used to be practically my second favourite. Again, Kirrin Island in the Famous Five, and all the places that Swallows and Amazons used to have their adventures, and later, the archipelago in the Earthsea Stories. I've kind of held onto this fondness for islands, so it wasn't suprising that when I got a chance to go to the Azores islands they turned into officially my favourite place in the world. Quite, quite amazing. Probably I'm going to write three or four Azores posts, about the different islands and the things you can do there. There are nine islands, stuck in the middle of the Atlantic, all different and allfantastic. We went first to Terceira, which is the second biggest island in terms of population. We flew from Lisbon, which is about the only realistic way to do an Azores trip. If you don't live in Portugal, and you're planning to go to the Azores, then go via Lisbon and spend a couple of days there. You might even be able to visit Quinta da Regaleira. In Terceira we stayed in Praia Vitoria, about 20 minutes from the airport, in a lovely hotel called Varandas do Atlantico. Which has very nice rooms, with ocean view balconies and really decent rates. There are buses all around Terceira. We went to Angra de Heroismo, which was the first capital of the Azores, a beautiful old Portuguese town, with wide streets of elegant houses and a stunning harbour with cliffs on two sides. It has a tiny park with a pond filled with millions of frogs, (see the picture) The road winds along the cliff tops, through astonishingly green countryside, chopped up into TINY fields by millions of walls made from black volcanic stone, completley cool landscape. We got a cab into the mountains in the middle of the island, again, wierdly green, and all tumbling down steeply to the ocean in the distance, visible from practically everywhere. We found another pond high in the crater of an extinct volcano, where the frogs were so many and so loud it was deafening. More animal stories about Terceira to follow, bulls and wild cattle next...

Last Night - Film Review

So last night I watched Last Night. And loved it. And so today I'm offering you a review. First, though, watch the preview. Aren't they all beautiful?



What's not to love about a film starring Keira Knightly AND Eva Mendes...? Especially when you add that in the film she plays an author, though not - I suspect - of young adults books...

The film's set in New York, based around a couple, played by Knightly and some guy ;) They seem to have a perfect, wealthy, young, cool life in a massive loft somewhere. The film certainly made me nostalgic for New York...

A perfect life apart from 2 things. 1, the husband works with Eva Mendes, 2, Kiera Knightly's ex is French and charming and in town all of a sudden...

The film is beautifully put together. The dialogue is incredibly natural, nobody says exactly what they mean but there is plenty to read between the lines. Much more of the story is shown us than told us. There are lots of meaningful silences and loaded looks. Very intelligently crafted...

Last Night is a film for grown-ups. The plot is unpredictable, complex, and has nothing in common with young adults books, but still I really enjoyed it and thoroughly recommend it. It's tricky to review without giving too much away, but hopefully you have enough of an idea. Enjoy!

A Castle near Cascais and the Famous 5...

Secret tunnels are brilliant.
When I was little I loved stories that had secret tunnels and stuff. There was one in the first Famous 5 story Five on a Treasure Island that went under the sea from Kirrin Island, near their uncle's house, and openned at the bottom of a well. There was another story set in a big house, where secret tunnels joined up the chimneys. Called Green Knowe, or something.

Last weekend I went to a house in Sintra (just inland from beautiful Cascais, Portugal) where eccentric multi-millionaire who built it decided he wanted to live in the mansion with the secret tunnels. So he dug them all under his massive garden. He built a chapel, with a crypt underneath, and a tunnel coming out. He had a pond which you crossed on stepping stones, to a passage that went behind a waterfall and joined up with the other tunnel and led to the bottom of a well!!!

I wrote my first children's story last year, The Quaravan Quartet and The Lost Ocean (see more here) and even before I started I knew it would have a secret tunnel in it. The kids find it under the staffroom at their school....
So when I went to Quinta da Regaleira it was like being a kid and pretending to be in the Famous 5 all over again. I ran round the tunnels like an idiot, while my Mum and Dad laughed at me and I had a GREAT time...

If you're in Lisbon with three hours to spare, get the train from Rossio to Sintra and follow the signs from the town centre. You won't regret it.