Booked In Brum - book recommendations for the summer

The Rotter’s Club by Jonathan Coe If, like me, you grew up in the 1970’s this book will remind you just how dismal the decade was with its strikes, terrorist attacks and growing racial tension. The story chronicles the growing pains of four Brummie schoolboys who inherit the editorship of the school newspaper and proceed to put their own spin on the turbulent events of the outside world. Essentially, it is a coming of age novel  and an amusing reminder that the 1970s was a period of great social and political upheaval. The Rotter’s Club succeeds in making some serious political points whilst simultaneously entertaining the reader with the exploits of the the four main characters: Philip, Sean, Doug and Benjamin.  

Turning Thirty by Mike Gayle Published in 2001 this is a follow-up to Gayle’s well received My Legendary Girlfriend and Mr. Commitment. Matt Beckford is hurtling towards the big 3-0 and reckons he’s got it sussed with a good job in New York a gorgeous girlfriend. When his relationship flounders he returns to his parents’ in Moseley and bumps into a childhood sweetheart, Ginny. Things start to become complicated as Matt embarks on a bizarre transatlantic love triangle involving himself, Ginnie and Elaine. A refreshingly funny, very truthful and also unsentimental read. 

Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morrall 

 This one is published by Birmingham’s well respected Tindal Street Press and I would recommend checking out their website. Tindal Street have a superb record or publishing high quality writing from new local authors. The central character in this novel, Kitty, suffers from synaesthesia, a condition in which feelings are experiences as colours. The youngest of a large bohemian family where she is the only one not to remember their mother, Kitty feels detached. Even her nickname was on hold until the death of its previous bearer, the family cat! Now drowning in bereavment, Kitty’s worsening psychological condition unravels in distressing ways, as the roots of her family’s dysfunction slowly unfold before her.

Cut on the Bias by Julie Boden Thought I’d throw in some poetry by the former Birmingham Poest Laureate. Cut on the Bias is Boden’s second Collection published in Summer 2002. This is a short collection of contemporary work with many references to Birmingham landmarks. Boden’s style is distinct and extremely accessible. A particular favourite of mine is Cafe Rouge which tells of an illicit meeting between a married man and his lover in a restaurant followed by a quick knee trembler beneath Alpha Tower. 

Nice Work by David Lodge This novel was adapted for television (as was The Rotter’s Club) and starred the excellent Warren Mitchell. Nice Work is a tale of academia and industry colliding as Robyn Penrose, temporary lecturer in English literature and Vic Willcox, MD of Pringle and Sons Industrial Engineering meet when they take part in an “Industry Year” scheme. The consequences of this ill-considered exercise are often hysterical although proabaly predictable as we watch the clash between the harsh 1980s world of West Midlands manufacturing and the more leisurly pursuit of academic research and teaching. Birmingham is renamed Rummidge but it will be apparent to anyone who has so much as sniffed a balti that Lodge is writing about the second city. 

Book Recommendation - The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany

There can’t be many dentists who can claim to have written a critically acclaimed novel whilst still managing to fit in the occasional root canal filling. Egyptian writer, Alaa Al Aswany is one such man. His second novel The Yacoubian Building has been universally acclaimed as a triumphant representation of contemporary Egyptian society and has even been made into a high budget film, starring some of Egypt’s top actors. Al Aswany was born in 1957 and had his first surgery in the Yacoubian Building. In addition to writing novels he has also contributed many articles to newspapers and journals.

As well as eliciting plaudits The Yacoubian Building received its fair share of criticism, especially from within Egypt itself, particularly for its portrayal of some of the more hidden problems within this complex nation. The book pulls no punches in its description of subjects considered taboo in traditional Egyptian society, such as homosexuality, and even features a corrupt imam.

The Egyptian Daily Start wrote in 2005 that ‘Al Aswany has successfully provided readers in the West with a glimpse at what he characterizes as the lives of the desperate and oppressed Arab people. Coinciding with the recent political turbulence in the region, as well as the rise of religious extremism worldwide, Al-Aswany’s book documenting the lives of a group of Egyptians living in the same downtown Cairo building, has been picked up by international publishing giant, Harper- Collins. Having sold more than 100,000 copies in three years, Yacoubian Building now joins the ranks of HarperCollins classics, such as ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and The Alchemist’.

The book is devoid of the heavy metaphor and symbolism often so present in Arab literature; instead it is an accessible and entertaining read which will give readers outside the Arab world a unique window on the struggles of people from all walks of Egyptian life. It also provides an insite into how easily youthful idealism can turn into extremism, something which Europeans are still struggling to come to terms with in the light of several terrorist attacks in recent years.

In this book you will find the real day-to-day Egypt. The Egypt which tourists  rarely encounter as they are sped away to manufactured resorts such as Sham el Sheik or whisked around the official sights by sanitised tours. Alaa Al Aswany has picked up the mantle of Naguib Mahfouz and looks set to become one of the most influential, accessible and popular novelists of his generation.