Are You Seeing Me? by Darren Groth

Let me just say from the start that I like Darren Groth as a writer, a champion of great causes and an all round nice Canadian-Australian guy. I also like his new book Are You Seeing Me?, but I don't love it.

Groth has said previously that Are You Seeing Me? "is a gift to my daughter" and it's not hard to see why. The story revolves around twins Justine (Just Jeans) and Perry (Pez). Perry has "a brain condition that can cause him to feel anxious or upset in different places and circumstances. He has trouble with people - mixing with them and communicating with them - and it sometimes results in inappropriate behaviours. I appreciate your understanding and patience." Darren himself has twins one of which, his son, is diagnosed with autism. And there in lies my problem with this book. Darren is so close to the subject matter that it hard to see this as a work of fiction but more of a personal testimonial for his children.

But let me try forget that I know Darren's back story and look at the book as a stand alone piece of work.

The story is told as a dual narrative with both Justine and Perry given an equal voice. Justine takes Perry on a trip to Canada and North America after the death of their father. Some might see is as a holiday (or creating memories) before Perry moves into the Fair Go Community Village but its more than that. Justine is trying to connect with the mother that abandoned them when they were very young but she doesn't tell Perry about this.

We don't find out what Perry's "brain condition" is but it's not really that hard to figure out. Perry is obsessed, a part of his condition, with three things Jackie Chan movies, earthquakes, and Ogopogo all which comfort him when life outside his mind becomes too difficult. One of the ongoing themes around Parry is his 'pshycic" ability. Which doesn't exist but plays on the misled belief that all people with autism have some special skill (i.e. Rain Man). This is not true and it is one of the better things that the novel deals with. As Justine says "... amazing in his own right, and no better or worse than anyone else".

Playing centre stage in the book is their Dad. We get his thoughts throughout thanks to a journal that he left for his children. I don't particularly like this trick. We could get his love, his fears and hopes for his children through their voice without having to resort to this.

There is none of the wit that has been in Groth's previous work and although I liked Perry, Groth's previous character (with a brain condition)  Kieran Monk from his novel Kindling, comes across much stronger and altogether more believable. Maybe I am just to old now to understand YA!

3/5 stars

Week #11 - A Sixpenny Song ¦ Transitions EP

I am getting really sick of this. Another waste of my time. Is it just me? Am I been too critical? Reviews of A Sixpenny Song by the Guardian and Independent are positive reviews, the Daily Mail (I know) review by Victoria Moore is more in line with what I think "I had to start it six times because its mundane personalities and writing style kept dropping straight out of my head. Not recommended."

Things like "She turned and walked bravely towards the staircase." or "She felt cold. Nothing to do with the weather; it was the story that had frozen her." I mean, come on.

There is also about four pages of dialogue quoted from a conversation made years ago between Kevin and Jude. Word for word. It's ridiculous and so utterly corny.

If the blurb at the back is to be believed "Roddy Doyle called (Jennifer) Johnston the best writer in Ireland", then Irish literature is in a world of shit. But we know that back-cover blurbs are not meant to be believed.
0.5/5

Transitions takes me back, all the way to the late eighties, acid house, techno, 808 State and the Second Summer of Love.

There may be nothing new here but as a homage to that time and the artists this is great. I have heard of SBTRKT before but not too much. If what he/they do is all like this I might become a fan.

For it's nostalgic value (if you are old enough to feel nostalgic) then give it a listen.
3/5

Week #10 - Opposed Positions ¦ Food

For me Opposed Positions is two short stories in the one. The first deals with Aislinn Kelly's family relationship, mostly Aislinn's interaction with her father. He is an abusive man, physically with Aislinn's mother and mentally with Aislinn and her brother. Although bereft of detail the psychological harassment of the siblings by the father is spellbinding and scary and beautifully mastered by Gwendoline Riley.

The second 'story' deals with Aislinn's other relationships, her mother, her friends and her 'boyfriends'. This part of the book has little or nothing going for it. Oh, the prose might be wonderful but all you really get from this part of the book is pain having to look up words in the dictionary to find their meaning. Its pompous and pointless. A shame, the book promised so much.

This is the first and last book by Riley I will read. Most of what I can gather online about her is that the second half of this book is a true reflection on what she has written before and that should be avoided. Also she whines a lot.
2/5

Food by Kelis is her first album since Flesh Tone in 2010. An album I missed at the time and haven't caught up. Like most my first introduction to Kelis was her single Caught Out There with the memorable and powerful scream "I hate you so much right now. I hate you so much right now". Still as brutal today as it was back in 1999.

Food on the other hand doesn't have the screams but has a lot of other great stuff going for it. Its part a throw back to the seventies, part soul and part R&B. All this combined along with Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio producing and co-writing and you have a very strong and lingering album. There are many highlights but from the first few listens you just cannot go past, Cobbler, Friday Fish Fry and the outstanding Hooch.

Give it a listen. You will be justly rewarded. Food is set to be released on 18 April 2014 and can be pre-ordered.
4/5

Week #09 - A Meal In Winter ¦ Broods

A Meal In Winter is a very brief crisp book. I understand that this is the first of  Hubert Mingarelli's novel to be translated into English. I pray it is not the last.

Three soldiers Emmerich, Bauer and the narrator wrangle there way off base for the day under the guise of hunting down jews in the frozen wasteland around where they are stationed. The writing is so astute we feel the cold as we walk with these three, looking but not too hard for anything in the bleakness.

In the bitter Polish they find a jewish man in a hole in the frozen forest and as they march him back to camp, to be shot, they happen upon an old abandoned home. It is hear that they make soup, their meal. While the soup is slowly cooking a Polish man enters the house and the tensions between the five men builds. The three soldiers have no lust or will for the killing of the jewish man and only choose this mission to get away from the base where the killings take place.

As I said it is short book but that does not distract from the vivid pictures and tension that is built in the pages. It is so staggering in its simplicity, so beautiful its prose I welcome all to read it.

4.5/5

Broods are a sister-brother duo from Auckland, New Zealand. Broods is their debut release and its very strong. In fact all six songs are good. Very good. Bridges, their first single, is probably the weakest song on the EP and Bridges is a great song.

There of course will be comparisons with Lorde as these are a new NZ band, I guess very young as well as having the same co-writer in Joel Little. I cannot give an opinion on Lorde as I only heard Royals which hasn't inspired me to hear her voice for awhile again.

Broods are good and could be big if the Lorde comparisons don't overshadow what great music they make.

4/5

Week #08 - The Adult ¦ Silversun Pickups singles

I looked at the back cover of The Adult in the library (intrigued as i was by the cover) and it said "It's England, 1989-2009. So expect a little history." I love anything 1989 so I got it. Never believe the blurb, there was very little about 1989 in the book but that's not to say I was disappointment. Quiet the contrary, this is one of the best books I have read in a very long time.

This is the first (and probably only as the library does list any more) Joe Stretch novel I have read and it is so wonderful. Jim Thorne is growing up in the nineties and through the new millennium. He is the son of a famous mother and three even more famous aunts(the Albright's).

His life in growing up in the shadow of his mother and her sisters and through an important (well it seemed at the time) time in history all seem to be too much for him. His father (a shell of a man) and his sister all have the same problems in living in the famous Albright shadow.

The little snippets of history dotted throughout plays the nostalgia card very nicely without being over used. Lots of "I remember that" moments.

The story revolves around Jim's coming of age but really he never seems to reach that point. In a family of doers, he tries but never really succeeds. His one moment of fame seems more of a burden the older he gets and it never resulted in him getting what he wanted.

4.5/5

The Singles Collection is a compilation album comprising the 10 previously released Silversun Pickups songs and a new song Cannibal.

Although a fan of Silversun Pickups there are some tracks here I have heard before but never paid them much attention. My bad! The opening track Kissing Families is a very typical SP song with some great screaming from Brian Aubert near the end. Lazy Eye has always been wonderful. The tracks from Swoon of course speak for themselves, they are outstanding.

The one new track is Cannibal, a bit more electronic than normal but it's still load and hard and Aubert is, as always, in fine voice.

If you like Silversun Pickups then you probably heard most of these before but they are selling this collection as a six-disc 7" vinyl box set. For those new to SP, this is a great collection with some great great songs. Listen and enjoy.

5/5

Week #07 - Turning Forty ¦ A Walk Across the Rooftops

Turning Forty is the follow up to Mike Gayle's Turning Thirty. It is fine by Gayle's standards. It all worked out in the end.

Mike Gayle has always fascinated me. Not so much what he writes as his fiction is very basic as to not stand out from anything. Gayle writes G rated fiction, no sex, no swear words, no graphic violence nothing.

What I find fascinating about him is that he is one of the leading black writers in Britain yet not one issue that effects black people in England is ever mentioned in his work (and I have read all of his fiction books). It may be that Mr Gayle has never experienced anything untoward in England but surely someone within his network of friends, family has. Why would someone with Gayle's exposure not want to tackle issue that are still so prevalent in the UK.

Mike Gayle writes almost exclusively about relationships, between men and women, yet no sex (some kissing) and no swear words. I don't think any group of adults go through there relationships (especially breakups which are everywhere in his books) without the odd curse word. Or like most adults with lots and lots of them.

Mike Gayle is fascinating his fiction not so but it is nice and easy to read and occasionally something insightful is said and even less occasionally something funny.

2.5/5

In 2012 The Blue Nile released a Deluxe edition of the seminal debut album A Walk Across The Rooftops. I only managed to get a copy of it in the last week.

There is not much I can write about the first seven tracks (the original album release) that hasn't been written already. Suffice to say it is one of the best album of the 80's, one of the most outstanding debut of all time and it still holds its own among any of the more recent great albums.

There are a few songs I hadn't heard of I Love This Life, St. Catherine's Day, The Second Act and Regret which compliment the original music very well and the mixes of Heatwave, Tinseltown in the Rain and Stay are wonderful (they didn't do any damage to the originals - thank god).

The album is still one of my favourites and these new songs and updated mixes make it even better. I cannot give it more than 5 so I will give it:

5/5

Week #06 - The Shock of the Fall ¦ none

I borrowed The Shock of the Fall because it had just won the 2013 Costa Book of the Year and it was also Nathan Filer's debut novel. I like my debut novels. They are either great or exceptionally pretentious. Thankfully this falls into the former.

Spoilers (for want of a better word) contained in the review.

Matthew is 9 when his brother Simon dies in an accident. Matthew blames himself on it which leads to his battle with his mental health that gets worse and worse as he gets older. Not only has Matthew lost a brother he loves he also feels the responsibility for his brothers death.

This story is about the power guilt has to lay waste to a life. Because there is no tangible link between this accident and the downward spiral of Matthew, no one puts it together. His parents, good people, don't understand either. They know Matthew had nothing to do with the accident, however they don't notice that Matthew is all consumed by it.

We follow Matthew in the downward spiral through his trips to different psychologists, before his eventual incarceration into the mental health system. The place these sick people are put into never helps "There is literally nothing to do" only the drugs can do that.

3.5/5

Music this week: I listened to lots, none new, just to get my head back into loving music again. Next week an oldie with a new twist.

Week #05 - A Thousand Mornings ¦ EP2

Poetry has always been a great love of mine. I am no purist in the art and only read what I like, hence I have struggled for years and years to find any new poetry that I do like. That could be due to the fact I really only like free-form poetry (all else seems contrived), however it has to be simple, very simple. My search has finally ended with Mary Oliver's A Thousand Mornings.

This is my first introduction to Oliver, as our library is somewhat bereft of poetry books. There is so much to like about this collection. From the first to the last, the poems are concise, simple yet they all project stunning imagery.

The poems are very earthy, full of the natures wonder and most (if not all) have been written around her home in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Oliver has a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry among her raft of honours.

By the first poem (below) I was hooked.

I GO DOWN TO THE SHORE
I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.

4/5

EP2 by the Pixies is the second EP they have released in the last couple of months. The first (weirdly titled EP1) was a shock to my ears. I have been a fan since 1988 and what EP1 offered was nothing like the classic Pixies sound. I was hoping EP2 would be different and unleash the rawness that the Pixies are about. Alas I was disappointed again.

This new music is released under the Pixies name but there is no Kim Deal. I know that she was just the bass player in this band but going by the sound she must have had a greater influence on the initial noise of the Pixies than anyone gives her credit for. I mean she does some wonderful music as a now solo artist and previous with the sublime and ridiculously brilliant The Breeders. I miss her on these new songs. I used to think the Pixies was all about Frank. Oblivious not.

1/5

Week #04 - Marry Me ¦ Rave Tapes

Marry Me by Dan Rhodes is a collection of writings about the ups, downs and downs of married life. There are funny and in some cases almost poetic. The writing in sharp and concise, a manual for a stand-up comic if ever i read one.

Here' one, Fuss
"In the run up to our wedding day, my fiancee  told me to be quiet. 'Can't you change the subject?' she snapped. 'All I've been hearing lately is "I love you so much" , and "We have such a wonderful future ahead of us", and "I can't believe I'm going to marry the girl of my dreams".' She closed her eyes and shook her head. 'It's a legal procedure; let's just get through it with the minimum of fuss.'

I have been a fan of Rhodes since I first read Anthropology and a hundred other stories, which Marry Me is a somewhat follow-up too. I have followed his career through highlights like the bizarre yet brilliant Timoleon Vieta Come Home, Gold and The Little White Car by Danuta de Rhodes.

Read it if you are married or getting married or thinking of jacking the whole wedding game in, it's short and very funny.

4/5

Rave Tapes, a soundtrack to a movie not yet made. Like all of Mogwai's work that I have heard it is wonderful and light. Nothing new but then again who wants that when this is so good.

This is my first Mogwai album I have listened too all the way through. Bar (Repelish) it is very unobtrusive and a great sound scape for a day at work when nothing is urgent and all will be fine in the end.

The beautiful Remurdered is a standout track, so is Blues Hour. Nice

3/5

Week #03 - Raising Steam ¦ Warpaint

Raising Steam is the 40th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett and the 40th Discworld novel have I read. You don't need to have read the previous ones to understand this but it helps. It helps a lot.

The railway comes to the Discworld and Moist (or Slightly Damp) Von Lipwig is at the helm with the ever vigilant and ever vengeful Lord Vetinari watching every step.

The sub-plots are just as gripping and nearly overtake the railway in importance during the novel. There are terrorist attacks by fundamentalists dwarfs. Clacks towers are burnt and railway workers murdered. The Low King of the Dwarfs is unseated from his throne. Tensions between dwarfs, trolls, golems, humans are still simmering.

Vetinari has always been my favourite of all Discworld characters (Death a close second), but Moist Von Lipwig has been such a great addition to the cast of Discworld.

"Moist waited. Lord Vetinari could out stare a statue and make even a statue start to feel nervous and confess. Moist's counter was a fetching grin, which he know annoyed Vetinari beyond measure, and there was absolute silence in the Oblong Office while blank stare and cheery grin battled it out for supremacy ..."

It's a wonderful book. Different in so many ways to early Discworld novels but Pratchett's style and detail, humour and characters are so beautiful in this book. Pratchett is a master storyteller, who is likely to never get the credit he deserves because of the genre he writes in (see Stephen King).

4/5

I have never listened to Warpaint before this so I am light on their history. A quick search, however, tells me they are an all female band from California formed in 2004. Wikipedia also offers this

Warpaint have been compared to Cocteau Twins, Joni Mitchell, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

I loved Intro. A simple and yet luscious track to open with. The drums, oh the drums. The record proceeded like this. I was waiting for the 'rock' tracks to come, that Wikipedia lead me to believe Warpaint where all about. That never happened. Disco/Very one of the few tracks that differed throughout the album from it's "dream pop" status and is one  of my favourites, along with Teese and Go in which had an almost Grizzly Bear feel to it.

From my listening I couldn't find any of the comparisons mentioned by Wikipedia to be correct. They are very light indie! Before reading about them I would have sworn they were an English band, more in line with The Xx, London Grammar, Daughter even Bat for Lashes.

They are good, great musicians and the vocals a standout. I listened to this for a week and gave it a rest. At that time I thought good, not great, nothing new and a bit full of itself. I revisited it with a week break and I find I am liking it much more. It's cohesive, fresh and altogether a wonderful record. It's early in the year but so far so good. Give Warpaint the time it needs and deserves and I am sure you will fall in love with it too.

7/10

Week #02 - The Boy ¦ High Hopes

This weeks book, The Boy by Lara Santoro. I like the book. Nothing especially new but a good story with an ending, thank god. Anna is trying to to get her life back on track, after a failed marriage, alcoholism, little work and a child she basically didn't like. Anna tries in her 'new life' to make everything better but the problem was that Anna brought back herself which was the reason she disappeared in the first place. It is a brave novel. Issues of trust, selfishness, abandonment. Lara Santoro gives us a flawed woman in Anna, a woman who wants it all but doesn't know her boundaries, her responsibilities. When she does have it all she destroys it. We never find out why!

As I said I liked it but there are so many things wrong. Firstly, none of the characters outside Anna feel real and Anna is a most horrible person. There is Eva, Anna's 8-year-old daughter. She was basically abandoned by Anna during her infant years as Anna was too self-absorbed to care for her.  With Anna gone, Eva had to grow up fast but not so that she has the mind of an eighteen-year old. She flies to different sides of the world by herself. She says things like

"Everyone has a first memory".
"It's like me going out with a four-year old."
"He's Richard's son and Richard's your friend"

She is her mother's daughter and will grow up to be a mess like her, which is sad.

Second. Anna's friends, Mia and Ree are just as terrible and so shallow they wouldn't leave a shadow in the midday Australian sun. These characters may be real. I'm just glad I never met any of them in my life thus far.

Third. There should be laws against these sort of blurbs on books. You should be able to go back to the store and demand a refund as none of them bare any resemblance to the actual novel. Words like witty, sensuous, a coming-of-age story, masterful are misplaced in all the reviews here.

Esperanza, the gambling, drunken, street-fighting maid in the house is the only woman who's life we get any  glimpse into and understand why she is who she is. The drunken voice of reason.

As for the boy. Well men just out of their teens could be like this but again the confidence and conviction he has in himself is never explored. Anna falling for him is simply a case of the raging hormones in us all. Why is the Boy the focus of the novel I do not know. It's all about the women.

My favourite line.

"He's not mean, he's English. They have their hearts taken out at birth." 

3/5

I like Bruce Springsteen, but don't think of him as the god a lot of people do.Springsteen is very American. What he sings about is not matters of the global village but rather the US, more precisely a small part of the US, New Jersey. On one hand it can be wonderful, on the other boring and insular. With that said a review of High Hopes.

The first two tracks are outstanding, High Hopes and Harry's Place, and there are some other excellent tracks, The Ghost of Tom Joad, and some filler album tracks, that would appeal to the more fanatical of Springsteen followers, Hunter of Invisible Game. High Hopes, according to Wikipedia, is "a collection of cover songs, out-takes and re-imagined versions of tracks from past albums, EPs and tours." Springsteen himself said that the new music was "some of our best unreleased material from the past decade" and among the best of his writing and deserved a proper studio recording.

As I said I am not a big fan, although I have loved and still do, his stadium rock of the 70's and 80's. All told a good album but other than replaying the ones I like I don't think there are any 'high hopes' I will play this album in full again. But who knows what tomorrow brings ...

He does sound a bit like Chris Rea (or Chris Rea sounds a bit like Springsteen) on some especially Harry's Place and American Skin. This is not a criticise of either by the way. He may have sounded like this all his career.

Week #01 - The Spinning Heart ¦ Disco

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan originally published in 2012 is my first book of 2014. If truth by told it wasn't actually my first. I started to read Shall We Gather At The River by Peter Murphy and had to put it down after 20 pages for fear I would do damage to it. It's the kind of book that could ruin the fun and beauty of reading for a "normal" reader. I digress ...

Review: The Spinning Heart is Donal Ryan's debut novel and there is a lot to like about it. It is the story of Bobby Mahon and how he adjusts to the death of the 'Celtic Dragon". The book starts off with Bobby's short story, and continues to introduce a new character in each chapter with the one constant of Bobby in all bar one of the stories. Most of the character short stories are wonderfully written and most add to the story. There is death, kidnapping and lots of tortured souls along the journey. Even a voice from 'beyond the grave'!

As I started reading I thought I was going to love this book, but as each new player was introduced I started to feel it was stretching the concept of the story too far. Although the book is only 156 pages long, half-way through reading it I could feel my resolve wain. Lloyd - "Opacity has trumped clarity again." - was ridiculous, most of the females weak and then when the recently murdered Frank spoke from the dead I just went through the motions to the end. Frank's part could have been introduced earlier, before his killing. The less said about Triona the better.

This is a story about the collapse of the Irish economy and the effects it has on people, but these short sketches of those most touched by it left me not caring and dreading the ending that should have been more in line with the events it spoke about.           

I picked this book as I saw it mentioned in a number of tweets after it won the Guardian First Book Award. It was also longlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize and won the Irish Book Awards: Best Irish Newcomer in 2012.

2/5

Since before Christmas I dived deep into some 70's disco. Starting off of course with Donna Summer which lead onto others. I then downloaded The Best Disco In Town [Box Set] by various and oh what a joy! There's Chic, The Trammps, Sister Sledge, Earth Wind and Fire, Chaka Chan,  Gloria Gaynor, Diana Ross and so much more. Oh and of course the Queen herself Donna Summers.

Disco is not just for dancing. I love it and can not dance one step without looking like a mountain of jelly during an earthquake. Disco is for making a day in the office seem like the funnest place to be.