Friday Five: Books Read in September

 

And yet again it seems I have read five books in a month. Here are the September offerings:

5 Books Read in September:

1. Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark (Ecco) - When there was such a thing as the wild wild West, men thought they could make their fortune by pushing through to the far frontier. It turns out they were wrong. In 1810 John Jacob Astor, the richest man in New York with the backing of Thomas Jefferson, sent out two advance parties to trade in furs and establish a township on the so-far unclaimed coast of North America. More than half of the men died violent deaths; the rest suffered starvation and madness. The colony was a disaster but its legacy was immense, opening the eyes of provincial Americans to the potential of the Western coast and discovering the route that was to become the Oregon Trail. Peter Stark writes in fascinating detail with compelling research to underpin his narrative and expand upon these adventures.  
2. By Blood by Ellen Ullman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) - When a disgraced former professor overhears his psychiatrist neighbour's conversation with a client, he decides to 'help'. His research into her background leads to information which he shares with her anonymously, such as the fact that her birth mother was a survivor of the Holocaust. Is his intervention a kind assistance or a disturbing need to control? Like a Gothic version of 'Who Do You Think You Are?', the writing is mix of Kafka and Poe with a curiously detached and unreliable narrator who nudges the plot along by drip-feeding his findings into the client's consciousness. This is an intriguing novel about the impossibility of certainty and the fragility of belief.
3. The Winter Sea by Di Morrissey (Macmillan) - This novel is pure escapism and wish fulfillment. A woman decides to leave her high-paid but unsatisfying legal job and husband in Sydney for a holiday on the coast. On a whim she buys a dilapidated restaurant and turns it into a roaring success with the help of the local fishing community. The spanner in the works (of course there has to be one) is in the form of a historic family incident with far-reaching repercussions. Because it's a typical holiday read there is a caring community for affirmation, an abandoned dog for company, and a handsome vet for romance. It contains a lot of stereotypes which are completely undemanding.
4. Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews (Reaktion Books) - When women have walked alone in the past they have been considered unfeminine and odd. More recently they have been labelled vulnerable or provocative (just consider the term 'streetwalker'). Kerri Andrews shares the rambles of ten women who have incorporated their walks into their world through their writing, from Dorothy Wordsworth and Virginia Woolf to Anais Nin and Cheryl Strayed. Walking allows time for contemplation and reflection; it can be companionable or solitary; and in certain climates, it can still be considered dangerous. The collection opens up avenues of further reading (I'm going to check out the works of Nan Shepherd), but there is a touch too much authorial intrusion - if we have the women's' diaries, we are privy to their thoughts without the need for further explanation or, in the words of My Cousin Rachael when we read this for Family Book Group, "a bit A-Level course work". 
5. The Yield by Tara June Winch (Hamish Hamilton) - Language is one of the most important means of preserving and communicating culture. In this prize-winning novel (Miles Franklin Literary Award 2020), Tara June Winch spells out the crucial need to collect the words of the Wiradjuri people and pass on the secrets of generations. Just as a mining company threatens the environment at Massacre Plains, the authorised history endangers the true heritage of the people who have cared for the land for millennia. By proving the cultural connection to country, the survivors might just be able to save their way of life. Words have meaning on multiple levels and this incredible novel digs deep to find them.