The Pickwick Papers (Charles Dickens)

Charles Dickens

The Pickwick Papers

Dickens' first novel which came out in installments in a paper which was usual at the time. It was extremely popular at the time of publication leading to hotly anticipated next installments and caused civil disorder in the docks in New York as people scrambled to get a copy of the papers sent from England. It made Dickens famous and rightly so. Typically it's a great story with humour and some tribulations incorporated into it with a brilliant insight into human behaviours which are timeless. Character description is fantastic as ever and of course the main characters are larger than life. Not a complicated plot and without real surprises it's an apparent account of the excursions of The Pickwick Club written down (the "papers") and chronicling the scrapes and they get into and people they meet. The central character is a wealthy retired businessman (Pickwick) who is by turns efficient and sharp but also bumbling and naive. His character is very gentle and always looking to help others as best he can. The other main character (Sam Weller) becomes his manservant although the relationship is more of a friend or possibly a father figure. Mostly the plots are gentle and the few nasty characters are treated with humour mostly ending up on the good side or at least not dominant. However, there is a darker side that is explored more in Dickens as yet unwritten novels especially related to the debtors prison. There are also a few short stories inserted as narrated by various characters and these are far from gentle and bring a darker edge to the story indeed nearer to later novels. In addition to the descriptions of landscapes, cities and characters there is a lot of travelling around the country to which I was often researching the different types of coaches etc. through web searches. Also looked up the various inns and places that are mentioned and satisfying to know that at least some are still around in London two centuries later. A thoroughly enjoyable book and I must read more of his.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie)

Dai Sijie
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Recommended by Zayn (thanks!) which made me search out Balzac and only now 18 months after have I read the book. Which only took a day. Although small it's packed with story about love, relationships and awakenings. Set in China's 1970s with two sons of city intellectuals being sent out into the countryside to live as peasants as part of their re-education which may be forever. Their awakening is less about the Maoist kind rather in reading classic novels that are illegal. Mixed into this is their friendship with the Little Seamstress and her awakening in discovering the classics through the two boys which leads to another realisation and action which... well I won't put a spoiler in here suffice to say that the novel is a great read and possibly a classic in itself. 

Hooked (Paul Merson, Rob Bagchi)

Paul Merson (Rob Bagchi ghost writer)
Hooked

An honest (I assume) and all laid bare history of Paul's addictions that covered alcohol, cocaine and gambling. Although all interconnected it's interesting that gambling is the one that he sees as the hardest to kick (excuse the pun) and the most devastating to his wellbeing and life. Coke is the easiest for him to stop. It's written in a convincing and engaging manner which I assume is largely due to the ghost writer Rob Bagchi. The first part documents how Paul falls into drinking, gambling and then cocaine and how they take over his life exasperating feelings of low self esteem with the only relief coming from his 90 minutes on the football pitch. As an aside he was one of the best players of his generation and a key member of the league and cup winning Arsenal team. The middle part continues with his addictions and his latter years as a play post Arsenal but here I feel he loses his way and goes off into moaning about managers and players sometimes quite critically which is uncalled for in my opinion. And uncritically of a certain manager that left a certain south coast team deep in the financial mire. The latter part picks up again on what the book is about in how hard Paul finds it to quit gambling and losing literally all his money. The ending is optimistic in that he is a well regarded pundit and has a loving wife who has complete control over his finances to prevent him gambling it all away. The big take away for me is how devastating a gambling addiction is and how little is in place to help addicts which is something that Paul references too.