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ExUrbanis

Urban Leaving to Country Living

#4BooksinaRow Challenge: Letter M Books

October11

As I mentioned in my last post, Bookish Beck’s variation on Phyllis Rose’s The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading is for any set of four books in a row on my own shelf. I decided to choose from the books on my fiction shelves, filed by author surname. The letter M was my first dip.

such_a_long_journey(1)The first book I tackled was Such a Long Journey which was Rohinton Mistry’s first book, published in 1991 and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, which was won that year by The Famished Road by Ben Okri. Mistry had published two short story collections prior to this first novel, but it was the magnificent A Fine Balance that catapulted him to fame in 1995.

Such a Long Journey 4 star ratingis classic Mistry: straightforward in plot development, but taking the time to build the settings, as well as the characters. Mistry is a genius in drawing us pictures of everyday 20th-century India. We can feel Gustad’s frustrations, his fears – and his loyalties to old friends that embroil him unwittingly in dangerous activities. It was important for us to realize the corner that Gustad was in and that, despite the questionable nature of the deliveries he has to make, we are fully on his side.

I have also read Mistry’s third novel Family Matters, and recommend any of Mistry’s fiction to anyone interested in late twentieth century India. A Fine Balance appears on my list of all-time favourites. His marvelous writing talent is on in display in all of his books, although the circumstances of A Fine Balance (during the Troubles and Indira Gandhi) make it the most powerful of the three.
4 stars

 
billy

Anything for Billy is the first of author Larry McMurtry’s books that I’ve read. I seldom hear much about it so I assume it wasn’t his best or, at least, his most popular. The book is fiction, based loosely (very loosely) on the last few days of the life of Henry McCarty aka William Bonney aka Billy the Kid. Billy was killed in a shoot-out at the age of 21, and that much remains the same in this book. But everything else is changed and/or imagined. Since we know how the whole mess ends, it’s almost painful to watch Billy swagger toward this death. 3.5 star rating

The narrator of Anything for Billy is spinning a yarn for us. It’s a yarn that is likely pretty accurate about the Wild West, but it’s just a yarn. 3½ stars

I have more books by McMurtry on my shelves and will definitely read them.

 
I had a choice of three books that W.O. Mitchell wrote and chose Jake and the Kid. 5 star rating
jake_and_the_kid

According to Wikipedia:

“An author of novels, short stories, and plays, Mitchell is best known for his 1947 novel, Who Has Seen The Wind, which has sold close to a million copies in North America . . and later a collection of short stories in 1961, Jake and the Kid which subsequently won the Stephen Leacock Award.”

Also, according to Wikipedia, I was really wrong in a previous post when I said ´My bet is that in the prairie provinces, the stories [in the Star Weekly] were by W.O. Mitchell.’ These stories were actually radio broadcasts of a series of the same name, which aired on CBC Radio between 1950 and 1956.

Mitchell grew up in Saskatchewan and most of his stories reflect a boy’s experiences growing up on the prairies. As I said in that earlier post, I’m keeping this book ‘forever’. 5 stars
 

And finally, there was The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell. 4.5 star rating This novel won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize regional prize (South Asia Jacoband Europe); was long listed for the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, was one of Time Magazine’s “Best Books of the Year” (#4 Fiction), was a Globe & Mail best book, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for the 2011 Walter Scott Prize. It’s also my brilliant cousin’s (well, one of my brilliant cousins) favourite book so I approached it with some degree of trepidation, fearing that in my ignorance of the finer points of literature, I wouldn’t properly appreciate it.

The amount of research that had to have gone into The Thousand Autumns is phenomenal. Not only did Mitchell have to authentically create the Dutch East Indies trading post of 1799, and also Japan (not limited to the port of Nagasaki) of that time but, as well, the complicated relationships that the Japanese had with any foreigner to their land.

In the Reading Guide at the end of the book, Mitchell posits that historical fiction endures in popularity because “it delivers a stereo narrative: from one speaker comes the treble of the novel’s own plot while the other plays the bass of history’s plot.” Mitchell seems to have done a masterful job of all of these details and the book is fascinating for the window it opens onto the land and the time. It plays the treble and the bass equally well, and blends them into a harmonious whole.

The only complaint I have is the ending that seemed rushed to me – although at nearly 500 pages the story was probably long enough as it stands. 4½ stars

 
Now I have an empty space on my book shelf that I’m actually quite proud of and, surprisingly, have no urge to fill again. What about you? Would you want to get more books to fill that empty space?

P.S. The links are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.

10 Comments to

“#4BooksinaRow Challenge: Letter M Books”

  1. On October 12th, 2020 at 1:35 am tracybham Says:

    I think I may try this. It sounds so simple and I like the idea of having a hole in the shelf (for a while). And it would be fun to go through my shelves to find a good group of four books.

    Would I want to get more books to fill the space? Ideally not, but this year I have been buying way more books. And at this point I have stacks of uncataloged, unread, and unshelved books on the floor, so they would fill in the hole eventually.

  2. On October 14th, 2020 at 1:45 pm Debbie Says:

    I really am seriously thinking – maybe planning is a better word – to give this another go, Tracy. Let me know if you do – and I’m sure Rebecca would be happy to know, as well.

  3. On October 12th, 2020 at 3:15 pm Judy Krueger Says:

    I have A Fine Balance on my shelves and had planned to read it this year. I hope I can still fit it in. I love Larry McMurtry, even when he is sometimes just goofing around because he does spin such entertaining tales. The Thousand Autumns is also on my shelves and I am glad to hear you had a fine time with it.

  4. On October 14th, 2020 at 1:46 pm Debbie Says:

    Oh, do give A Fine Balance a try, Judy. I can’t imagine that you won’t like it!

  5. On October 13th, 2020 at 5:53 pm Diane Says:

    I read A Fine Balance years ago and recall liking the writing. Can you believe I’ve never tried McMurtry? I should at least try Lonesome Dove! Another book I keep saying I want to read is Bon Fire of the Vanities.

  6. On October 14th, 2020 at 1:52 pm Debbie Says:

    I’ve never read Bonfire, Diane, even though The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was being read by all the “cool” people when I was in high school. I’ve often wondered if the content lived up to the title! Ha!

  7. On October 16th, 2020 at 12:04 pm Rebecca Foster Says:

    I’m so glad you enjoyed completing this challenge. The Thousand Autumns is one of only two David Mitchell novels I’ve read, along with Slade House; I’ve not read his more typical stuff, but would like to.

  8. On October 16th, 2020 at 2:21 pm Debbie Says:

    As I’ve said, Rebecca, I’m sure I’ll have a round of this challenge. Thanks for the idea!

  9. On December 22nd, 2020 at 9:32 am A Retrospective of 2020’s Reading Projects, Including Rereads | Bookish Beck Says:

    […] an H quartet but set both Tinkers and Plainsong aside. Meanwhile, Debbie joined in and completed her own 4 in a Row. Well done! I like how simple this challenge is, so I’m going to use it next year as an excuse to […]

  10. On April 8th, 2021 at 8:00 am First Four in a Row: Márai, Maupin, McEwan, McKay | Bookish Beck Says:

    […] I announced a few new TBR reading projects back in May 2020, including a Four in a Row Challenge (see the ‘rules’, such as they are, in my opening post). It only took me, um, nearly 11 months to complete a first set! The problem was that I kept changing my mind on which four to include and acquiring more that technically should go into the sequence, e.g. McCracken, McGregor; also, I stalled on the Maupin for ages. But here we are at last. Debbie, meanwhile, took up the challenge and ran with it, completing a set of four novels – also by M authors, clearly a numerous and tempting bunch – back in October. Here’s hers. […]

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