Three book reviews

A short round up of the last three books I have read. I seem not have done this in a while! The first is The Inheritors by William Golding which was recommended reading on Mark Patton's website when he put a list together of the top 50(?) books (can't find the link now! it was some time ago). This was the third book of Golding's I've read (Lord of the Flies is still my favourite). This one, to sum up, is Neanderthals meet homo sapiens - my kind of book. This is a first encounter between the two. Most of the story is seen through the eyes of the Neanderthals, the small tribe, who are moving to their spring ground. It looks at death and ritual, myth, what we might call religion, a child is known as 'the small one'. The encounter with homo sapiens is a scary one, full of violence, new things, confusion. The new people steal two of their kind - the small one and an older child, several tribe members die until there are just two of them left. They watch the new people, try to recapture their young ones and get drunk on a brew left out by the new people (they sneak into their camp one night). This is new to them and they believe they are ill when they experience a hangover for the first time.

The ending is sad. The Neanderthals are unable to rescue their young. The huge powerful river is something they cannot tackle whereas the new people have boats and drift off with the children. And then at the end we suddenly see Neanderthals through the eyes of homo sapiens. They see them as wild, monkey like with no speech, long arms and hairy. The baby they have taken is looked at strangely and as evil by some of the members of this clan and you cannot but feel sorry for the two adults left behind. Lots of description, interesting as an encounter. Written in 1955 our knowledge of this period has increased but certainly this was thought provoking.

The Love Verb by Jane Green is a book club read which I wouldn't have chosen myself as it is American and chick-lit (though there are always exceptions to my rule!). I found this difficulty to get into - too much dialogue in  the beginning and the characters seemed too nicey-nicey all amercian (sorry!) but I stuck with it. The story eventually revolves around the illness of one of the sisters. She had previously beaten cancer but now it is back. The writing of her deterioration was well written and as this happens other members of the family and friends pull together and this is as much about their lives also. The other sister is a chef so at the end of every chapter was a recipe and I was tempted to make one of these but didn't find time. I did like that touch but it's still not my kind of book.

The Forgotten Daughter by Renita D'Silva is also about two sisters but one is adopted by a family in England. It is only by finding a letter after her parents who have died that she finds out that she was adopted and then goes searching for her real mother and sister. Meanwhile the other sister in India has always struggled with her relationship with her mother, feeling overwhelmed with her mother's love to the point of feeling claustrophobic. Only as her mother lies in hospital and she finds her diary do things begin to unravel. Like Di Silva's previous book (Monsoon Memories) this one is loaded with description which assaults all the senses but at times I was keen for the story to move on. Like The Love Verb this book also contained little recipes every so often which the mother had written in her diary and I actually tried one out! I like Plantains in curry and decided to make the Plantain Podi's but I think I made the batter too thick so I was disappointed with the result. The story was a good one but I just felt a bit bogged down with it at times.