Tag: literary fiction

Book Review: The Bell by Iris Murdoch

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The BellAbout the Book

A lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an order of sequestered nuns. A new bell is being installed when suddenly the old bell, a legendary symbol of religion and magic, is rediscovered. And then things begin to change. Meanwhile the wise old Abbess watches and prays and exercises discreet authority. And everyone, or almost everyone, hopes to be saved, whatever that may mean. Originally published in 1958, this funny, sad, and moving novel is about religion, sex, and the fight between good and evil.

Format: Paperback (352 pp.)             Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2nd August 1999 [1958]   Genre: Literary Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting local UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

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My Review

“Our actions are like ships which we may watch set out to sea, and not know when or with what cargo they will return to port.” In many ways, The Bell is a book about actions and unintended consequences.

Imber Court is described as ‘a buffer state between the Abbey and the world’ and it does seem that many of its occupants are in transition.   The most obvious is Catherine, who is spending her last few weeks before entering the Abbey as a nun.  However, as the Abbess sagely observes, “Those who hope, by retiring from the world, to earn a holiday from human frailty, in themselves and others, are usually disappointed.”

Dora is dissatisfied with and feels trapped in her marriage to Paul, but can see no alternative.  ‘That was marriage, thought Dora, to be enclosed in the aims of another.’  Having broken free once, she now feels compelled to return to Paul and Imber Court is the scene of their reunion.  I have to confess I found Dora irritatingly passive about her situation for a lot of the book.  I tended to sympathise with her friend’s advice that ‘You must either knuckle under completely or else fight him.’ My view did change once she and one of the young visitors to Imber Court, Toby, embark on an enterprise together.  ‘It was as if, for her, this was to be magical act of shattering significance, a sort of rite of power and liberation.’

Dora’s husband, Paul, remains a rather peripheral figure.  He comes across as moralistic, cold and possessive and I rather struggled to understand what could have been attractive about him to Dora.   However, he’s clearly deeply hurt by Dora’s desertion but unable to forgive her, to articulate his feelings or to show any warmth towards her that might provide hope of a full reconciliation.

And there’s Michael, always struggling to do the right thing but not always succeeding.  I found him the most empathetic character.  Betrayed in the past, he still feels guilty about his part in the circumstances that led to it and struggles with what he sees as a conflict between his sexuality and his faith.  An instinctive and momentary expression of his feelings threatens to bring to light his past actions and sets in motion a chain of events that will culminate in tragedy.

During one of the regular community meetings, one character says: “A bell is made to speak out.  What would be the value of a bell which was never rung?  It rings out clearly, it bears witness. It cannot speak without seeming like a call, a summons.” In fact, as events unfold, it becomes clear that confession can sometimes be dangerous self-indulgence or disguised retribution against another.  ‘There are moments when one wants to tell the truth, when one wants to shout it around, however much damage it does.’

Murdoch’s skill is to really let you see inside the minds of the characters so that the reader witnesses their (sometimes illogical) thought processes, their moral conflicts and their attempts at self-justification.  It doesn’t make them necessarily likeable but it makes them feel credible.

The Bell forms part of my Classics Club list.  To see the other books on my list, click here.

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Try something similar…Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Iris MurdochAbout the Author

Iris Murdoch was born in Ireland in 1919.  A university lecturer and prolific and highly professional novelist, Iris Murdoch dealt with everyday ethical or moral issues, sometimes in the light of myths. As a writer, she was a perfectionist who did not allow editors to change her text. In 1956 Murdoch married John Bayley, a literary critic, novelist, and Professor of English at Oxford University.

Murdoch produced 26 novels in 40 years, the last written while she was suffering from Alzheimer disease. Her novel The Sea, The Sea won the Booker Prize in 1978. In 1987 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She died in 1999.  Murdoch was portrayed by Kate Winslet and Judi Dench in Richard Eyre’s film Iris (2001), based on Bayley’s memories of his wife.

Book Review: The Fragile Thread of Hope by Pankaj Giri

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TheFragileThreadofHopeAbout the Book

In the autumn of 2012, destiny wreaks havoc on two unsuspecting people – Soham and Fiona.  Although his devastating past involving his brother still haunted him, Soham had established a promising career for himself in Bangalore.  After a difficult childhood, Fiona’s fortunes had finally taken a turn for the better. She had married her beloved, and her life was as perfect as she had ever imagined it to be.  But when tragedy strikes them yet again, their fundamentally fragile lives threaten to fall apart.  Can Fiona and Soham overcome their grief? Will the overwhelming pain destroy their lives?

Praise for The Fragile Thread of Hope

“Pankaj’s characters certainly evoke sympathy and throw light on important social issues. A good read.” (Chitra Divakaruni, award-winning bestselling author of The Palace of Illusions)

“An epic tale of love, loss, hope and faith that will remain with you long after the final page. With its lovely characters and beautiful prose, it ranks right up there with my favourites.” (Renita D’Silva, award-nominated bestselling author of The Forgotten Daughter)

“A literary masterpiece!” (Keshav Aneel, bestselling author of Promise Me A Million Times)

Format: ebook (408 pp.)                       Publisher:
Published: 29th October 2017              Genre: Literary Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ Amazon.com
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My Review

The Fragile Thread of Hope is a powerful story of grief, loss, betrayal and survival.   At times, the thread of hope feels very fragile indeed – frayed almost to breaking point, in fact – as tragedy follows tragedy for its protagonists, Soham and Fiona.  Told in separate, alternating storylines that have shifting timelines and flashbacks, the book does require a degree of concentration from the reader to make sense of the chronology.

As a debut novelist, the author is naturally still developing his writing skills but already he shows an eye for imaginative metaphors and evocative description.  For instance, after a telephone conversation is abruptly ended, Soham wonders if the sudden termination of the call is an indication of ‘the harsh unpredictability of life – all it needs is a flick of a heavenly switch to abort the feeble connection.’  Another imaginative phrase I noted down was ‘Sorrow hung in the air like a curse.’

Occasionally, some of the similes felt a little forced – ‘Time passed like a bulldozer through a marsh of silence’ – or overdone. For example, I loved this description of two tea glasses: ‘Clouds of steam rising from the glasses twisted and twirled around each other like long lost partners.’  But the preceding sentence didn’t work quite so well for me: ‘Water droplets dripped from the side of the cone-shaped glasses like cold sweat.’ (Ugh!) However, there are some wonderful descriptions of landscape and of food.  Like this, of a paneer cheese grilled sandwich: ‘Soham bit into the melange of cottage cheese chunks, juicy onion, capsicum, tomato slices, and rich mayonnaise wrapped inside crunchy grilled sandwich bread slices.  Traces of the topping – grated, luscious mozzarella cheese – stuck to his teeth like gum.’ My mouth was watering at this point and I don’t even like paneer!

One of the author’s chief achievements is to make the characters feel real, so that the reader becomes fully engaged in their emotional journeys.  I especially liked the relationship between Soham and his older brother; a really affecting picture of brotherly love.  And I felt incredibly angry on Soham’s behalf at one particular point. (You’ll know it when you get to it.)   I also felt drawn to Sharon for her resilience and her desire to do the best for her daughter, Fiona, despite the traumatic experiences she had suffered herself.  Finally, in Fiona, the reader gets a real sense of someone struggling to trust others and to regain a sense of her own self-worth.

Sadly, for both Soham and Fiona, the prospect of happiness may be eagerly grasped but is often found to be transitory or deceptive.   However, the book also delivers an uplifting message of the possibility of overcoming even the most devastating tragedy.  ‘It is easy to lose our way in the dark maze of despair and give up on our precious lives, but we must hang on.’  That thread may be frayed but, in the end, it is not broken.

If my review has piqued your interest in The Fragile Thread of Hope  – and I hope it has – you can read an extract from the book here.  I also recently had the pleasure of interviewing Pankaj about the inspiration for the book and his writing journey.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.  I’d like to thank Pankaj for his patience in waiting for his book to reach the top of my review pile.

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In three words: Emotional, intense, expressive

Pankaj GiriAbout the Author

Pankaj Giri was born and brought up in Gangtok, Sikkim – a picturesque hill station in India. He began his writing career in 2015 by co-authoring a book – Friendship Love and Killer Escapades (FLAKE). Learning from experience and the constructive criticism that he got for his first book, he has now written a new novel, The Fragile Thread of Hope, a mainstream literary fiction dealing with love, loss, and family relationships. He is currently working in the government sector in Sikkim. He likes to kill time by listening to progressive metal music and watching cricket.

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