Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

This book is currently on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2016. In our shop we seem to be selling more of this and also 'His Bloody Project' by Graeme Macrae Burnet, than any of the other books on the shortlist. But the feelings of the public don't always match those of the Booker judges!

So what did I think about Eileen. Well there's a quote on the front cover from The Times describing it as 'A taught psychological thriller, rippled with comedy as black as a raven's wing'. That would definitely make me buy it immediately, but I would've been disappointed in the end. I think that makes it sound more of a thriller than it actually is. It's quite a short book, and about two thirds of it describes Eileen's character, home life and work life. It's only the last third where the story builds, once she meets her co-conspirator Rebecca. But even then, I was expecting something more.

The whole story - the characters and the setting - is quite depressing. The main story is set in 1964 when Eileen is 24, but it is narrated by Eileen 50 years on. It is set in a small town in Masachusetts, it is 5 days before Christmas, it's cold and it's constantly snowing. Eileen has not had a happy upbringing, and she continues to be unhappy. She was never loved by her parents, she was maltreated and poked fun of by them. Once when she was little and she hadn't tidied her room, her mother pushed her down the basement stairs and locked her in there in the dark as punishment. Her mother has since died of cancer, and her father turned to drink. He continues to be verbally abusive towards her, even though she is his main carer. They live in filth, the house doesn't get cleaned, and Eileen herself has no personal hygiene. She barely eats, (she lives on peanuts, bread and milk) but takes laxatives daily as she feels she is big and bloated. She is fed up with her existence but doesn't want to die. A common occurrence in the book is the mention of the icicles hanging precariously over her porch, and how they could easily fall and pierce through her or her father at any time. She dreams of running away to New York.

Eileen works as a secretary in a correctional facility for teenage boys. She doesn't like anybody at work, and they don't seem to like her - in fact, most of the staff don't seem to notice her existence. She fantasises about Randy, one of the guards, and most evenings she drives to his house and sits outside in the car and imagines what he'd be doing inside. Her sad and lonely existence changes with the sudden appearance of Rebecca at the facility. Rebecca seems to understand Eileen, she talks to her and appears to want to be her friend, but Eileen finds herself drawn into something a lot more sinister.

The character descriptions are excellent, the author does a great job of creating a sombre setting for Eileen (well, she couldn't make it any more depressing really!), but the finale wasn't as big I was expecting. I find that how you feel at the end of a book sums up your feeling about the whole book - so, disappointed really.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Having worked in the children's department at Waterstones for many years, Anthony Horowitz was more famous to me for the bestselling 'Alex Rider' series of spy books (recommended highly for ages 10+). However, in the adult world, he has also written two Sherlock Holmes novels ('The House of Silk' and 'Moriarty') and a James Bond novel ('Trigger Mortis'). He has written and created Foyle's War for television, and he writes newspaper columns.

Most interestingly for this book, he produced the first seven episodes of Midsomer Murders. I say interestingly because the murder story in this book could be taken straight out of a Midsomer Murder episode!

Susan Reynolds is a book editor at a small publishing house, Cloverleaf Books. Their main money-making author is crime writer Alan Conway, whose novels featuring the German detective Atticus Pund sell in their millions. He sends her the manuscript of his latest detective novel, 'Magpie Murders'. She spends the weekend reading it (as do we, as the novel is part of this book), but when she reaches the end, she realises frustratingly that there are pages missing - pages where Atticus Pund is just about to reveal the murderer. When she goes into the office Monday morning to tell her colleague about it, she is met with the news that the previous day Alan committed suicide. Susan decides to become detective herself - she doesn't understand why Alan would take his own life without finishing the book. She thinks he may have been murdered. As she delves into his past and his family and friends, she realises that perhaps this may be one instance where life imitates art, and clues may be hidden within his novel.

This is a very clever book - you get a novel within a novel. While I was reading the section of Alan's book, I forgot that it was part of another story, so when it came to an abrupt end, I too was surprised, just like Susan. Anthony manages to keep all the characters interesting, and importantly keeps them all under suspicion. It was like a book version of Cluedo! Booksellers will delight in all the references to authors, festivals, publishers, radio shows and publicity tours.

The only downside to the book was that I got confused between the names in Alan's novel, and those in his real life, there were so many characters to remember!

Other than that, I can recommend this book to those who love to read a good murder mystery, very much a la Agatha Christie.

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

The last book I read by Maria Semple was 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette?' which I absolutely loved. This one....meh...hmmm...not so much. A bit higgledy piggledy, a bit all over the place, some early facts I think she actually forgot until later, when she quickly had to tie it up in a few sentences, the young boy in it is only 8 but sometimes talks and acts older than his mother, and the ending is a bit too unbelievable for me.

Eleanor Flood, well known for being the Director of Animation on a famous cartoon show 'Looper Wash', is married to Joe, a well-revered hand surgeon to the stars. They are both 50 years old, and have an 8-yr-old son Timby (born Timothy), and a terrier/pug cross, Yo-Yo. Eleanor wakes up one morning determined to be different - she will give more time to her husband and son, will put on a dress and look smarter, she will be a nicer, calmer person. She walks the dog (because she has to - Joe doesn't particularly like Yo-Yo), drops Timby off at school, and goes off to her poetry class (to try to improve her memory by learning and reciting the lines). But soon the day starts to take a turn for the worse. 

Timby's school rings to say he is feeling unwell. This is the third time in a couple of weeks that he's done this, and has feigned tummy-ache, so already Eleanor's new state of calm is unravelling. She takes him to the doctor's where Timby reveals,much to Eleanor's surprise, embarrassment and shame because he hasn't told her, that he is being bullied at school. Eleanor decides to spend some time with him for the day. It is over the course of this day that Eleanor's past catches up with her, and memories which she has tried to kept hidden for years are brought back up to the surface. We learn about her parents, her sister, her brother-in-law, and she learns more about her husband in one afternoon than she wanted to - will this bring their relationship to an end? 

I felt the story didn't flow incredibly well, it felt rather clunky. We spend more time in Eleanor's past than in the present, so much so that I sometimes forgot what she was doing and where she was before we ran off down memory lane. Even the characters she was with at the time seem surprised to have her back. There's so much to-ing and fro-ing that at one point poor Yo-Yo is forgotten about - seemingly even by the author herself - abandoned outside a supermarket for hours. It's only when Timby reminds us and the author about him that he is quickly retrieved. The revelation concerning her husband at the end was, to me, complete nonsense. From what we learn about him during the story (again, from the past, he doesn't make much of appearance in the present), it doesn't fit with his character and way of thinking. Indeed, Eleanor is just as shocked as me, but the final way she responds just doesn't fit right.

It's a whirlwind of events and characters, and a story that left me feeling a little indifferent.