Perfect

Perfect
by Rachel Joyce

First published in Great Britain in 2013.

If you've been following this blog you will know that earlier this year I read The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.  I loved it and told everyone to read it.  When I walked past a bookshop and saw Perfect in the window, I immediately recognised the style of the cover as being similar to 'Harold Fry' and saw it was the next book from the author.  After I quick read of the blurb I bought it and eagerly started to read.

The story is that of Byron, an eleven-year-old in the summer of 1972, who finds out that two seconds are being added to time and struggles with this fact.  On the way to school one day, his watch seemingly shows the two seconds being added.  Whilst showing his mother, there is a terrible accident and Byron's world is turned upside down.  Blaming himself, Byron and his best friend come up with 'Operation Perfect' - a plan to save his mother.

Along side this story, and alternated in chapters, is one set in the present day.  In this one we meet Jim, a middle-aged man who struggles with OCD and has rituals he must perform every night in the van he lives in.  While he wipes tables in a supermarket cafe at his day job we are let in to his thoughts and slowly find out about his past and time spent in a psychiatric units.

I found that I didn't connect with Byron and James as much as I did with Jim, which surprised me.  Byron was just too simpering at times and so attached to James that even something as natural as James going through puberty shocks him.  James was a lot more likeable, having a sweet schoolboy crush on Byron's mother and having good ideas but then it seemed than Byron just didn't come up with the results.  Maybe in my mind Byron was older than eleven, but I wanted to go in to his house and tell him what he was doing wrong a lot of the time.

Jim was an interesting character and one who showed me that you never really know what people are going through.  I wanted to go and have a chat and a biscuit with.  There are enough details about his past that you feel a protectiveness towards him, but not too much that it detracts from the present day.

Throughout the story there is a feeling that the two stories are connected, but it is not clear how until towards the end of the book.  The chapter it is revealed in is very well written (I did cry) and it came at a time when I was basically plodding through just to get to the end.

The writing is very similar to that of Harold Fry, and the author clearly has a certain, strong style, which is good, but I just didn't love this one.  Part of me thinks that if I hadn't read Harold Fry first I might have liked this more, but to me Harold was a stronger character than any in this book and evoked more emotion from me.  I think part of the reason for this is the alternating chapters and joint stories in Perfect.  If the book had been longer there would have been more time spent with each character, but as it is I didn't get to know any of them enough.

I did like the idea of the two seconds being added being used as a plot point, as I didn't know this happened before reading this book.  It does make you realise the importance of time and that sometimes it only takes a few seconds for everything to change.

The Secret Dreamworld Of A Shopaholic

The Secret Dreamworld Of A Shopaholic
by Sophie Kinsella

First published in Great Britain in 2000.

I'm the first to confess that several of my teenage years were spent reading cheesy books about romance, shopping, holidays and other female-related dramas; in short 'chick lit'.  As I have grown and expanded my reading, most of the chick lit has been donated to charity shops, however there is one series which has survived and kept it's place on my bookcase.  The Secret Dreamworld Of A Shopaholic is the first in Sophie Kinsella's (as of April 2014) six book series.

Rebecca (Becky) Bloomwood is a finance journalist with a shopping problem.  She indulges in retail therapy without checking her bank statements and dreads getting her credit card bills.  Although Rebecca knows she should stop, she fails at both 'Cutting Back' and 'Making More Money'.  The first book follows Rebecca as she lives with her best friend Suze, tries different jobs and meets a Mr Luke Brandon, all the while telling her bank manager she is ill or on holiday to avoid seeing him.

The story is rather lightweight and easy to read, but is one which will always be relevant.  The struggle Becky faces with her bills is one a lot of people will relate to, although nowadays the idea of getting into debt through clothes shopping seems pretty silly.  The financial jargon is minimal, and the fact that most readers (unless you're a financial business person) will have a minimal understanding adds to the lack of understanding Becky has in her job and her lifestyle.

Becky is a strong character with emotions every woman can relate to, and although she is a bit annoying at times, she always redeems herself.  She manages to get herself into tangles of fibs and messes, but comes through at the last minute.  I do despair at times, but the writing is so funny that it is easy to see past Becky constantly falling back into her shopping habits and see the good heart underneath.  There are not many books which make me laugh out loud, but this series is definitely one.

The rest of the series is Shopaholic Abroad, Shopaholic Ties The Knot, Shopaholic And Sister, Shopaholic And Baby and Mini Shopaholic.  Even with Becky going through different stages and events in her life she stays true to herself and what she knows to be right.  I feel that readers will relate to each book differently, depending on where they are at in their own lives, and I know I'll be re-reading them in the future.

On a side note, there was a film released in 2009 based on the first book, but the books are definitely better.   (Don't even get me started on them making Becky American!)

Marianne Dreams

Marianne Dreams
by Catherine Storr

First published in Great Britain in 1958.

Although this is classed as a children’s book I found it really creepy when I read it as a child, and having re-read it as a teenager and an adult my feeling haven’t changed.  However it is a good read, and creates strong images in your mind.  If you’re interested in lesser known children’s novels or in stories about dreams and the influence they can have on life, then make sure you read this.

Marianne is a ten year old, who suddenly falls ill on her tenth birthday and is bed bound.  When Marianne becomes bored she looks in her mother’s workbox and finds a pencil. With this pencil she draws a house in a field.  That night she dreams and finds herself in the field looking at the house, but she cannot get inside as there is no-one to let her in.  When she awakes the next day she draws a person in the house, and in her following dreams she meets him.  This boy turns out to be Mark – a boy who is also ill in real life, although they never meet except in her dreams.  As Marianne draws more in the daytime, her dreams turn frightening and she and Mark must work out how to escape.

Marianne is a strong character, who develops from a frustrated, bed bound girl to a fierce, adventurous friend.  She shows the natural fear we all feel in strange dreams and is easy to relate to, even as an older reader.  As I have grown up and re-read I feel the unease Marianne feels in her dreams can be likened to all the worries everybody feels as they change in life.

Mark is a strange character, because he what he says and does is essentially a reaction to what Marianne draws.  He is around the same age as Marianne but more emotional.   He is scared that he doesn’t understand what is happening and angry at Marianne for being able to leave when he is seemingly always in the house she has drawn.

The basic story is one which appeals to younger readers – an ill child who is transported to her imaginary world and makes a friend.  Along with the magic of a drawing pencil the story has all you would want.  However there is an ongoing eeriness and as the story progresses it becomes outright creepy, and thus I feel it is a tricky one to attach an audience to.