I do not love you except because I love you

I do no love you except because I love you;

I go from loving to not loving you.

From waiting to not waiting for you

My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it’s you the one I love;

I hate you deeply, and hating you

Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you

Is that I do not see you but love blindly.

Maybe January light will consume

My heart with its cruel

Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

Is this part of the story I am the one who

Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you.

Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

1. Abandoned Reads

I was very in between books this past month. I started but couldn’t finish:

I got halfway through Cold Comfort Farm but it simply didn’t hold my interest. I expected a funny and light read but, similar to my experience with Emma, I simply couldn’t get into it. I do want to return to it in the near future though. On the other hand, John Ajvide Lindqvist has never disappointed me but I didn’t have enough time to read Little Star since it was from the library and there was a queue. I will most definitely try again.

2. Reading

I’m also halfway through Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor L. Frankl which is enlightening and heartbreaking.

I’m a quarter into The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides. Any story with a character that majors in English Literature immediately grabs my interest.

3. Finished

I only finished one book this past month and it was the quite intense Wetlands by Charlotte Roche. Some parts made me squirm and were too painful to imagine but overall, I loved it and thought it was hilarious. The main character had such a voice, filled with sarcasm and dark humour that reminded me of Holden Caulfield.

4. Other News

I made a little side trip to Sydney over the weekend to see the play Gross und Klein (big and small) starring Cate Blanchett. It was an amazing production and performance. The set design also blew me away. It was quite experimental and very minimalistic but it worked so well. It’s always such a thrill seeing Cate Blanchett live on stage and I’m lucky enough to see her for the third time. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend it!

Gross und Klein

5. New buys

I think I have finally curbed by book buying urge. I have only bought 3 books these past few months:

• High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
• The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
• The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood

And I must, must, must, stop borrowing so many books from the library. I keep borrowing and borrowing meaning to read them but I never get around to it so they end up just sitting on my shelves looking sadly back at me. At least I get their stats up!

I’ll be back and lurking around on your respective blogs in no time.

It is Berlin, 2006 and Claire, a woman from Melbourne, is mid-way drifting through a backpacking slash working holiday through the old Soviet countries. Claire is an architectural photographer and is working on a coffee table book of Soviet buildings. While visiting Checkpoint Charlie, Claire meets a local man, Andi, who randomly offers her strawberries. Delighted by this chance encounter, Claire sits down to chat with Andi who lets on the meeting may not have been random:

‘Sometimes I like to just sit there and complicate the world.’

He had watched for her reaction.

Clare had laughed, throwing her head back in a pantomime of enjoyment. Would it annoy him after some time? Would he stop trying to make her laugh?

‘Complicate? You mean contemplate…but it’s very funny.’

He had laughed with her. It was a good choice. He had almost gone with compensate. Consummate. Concentrate. Consecrate. Complicate had definitely been the best choice. – p. 15

Claire and Andi both connect and are attracted to each other but neither work up the courage to say anything. They go their separate ways but through another chance encounter at a bookstore a few days later, Claire goes home with Andi. The two begin a seemingly normal relationship and both Claire and Andi connect through their mutual disconnection in the world. Claire has left and given up keeping in touch with her friends and family, only sending her mother a few emails here and there to let her know that Claire is alright. Constantly travelling, Claire is searching for something that she cannot define and constantly looking into the distance.

‘But maybe we are always looking forward to something else,’ he  said … ‘I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Not if there are things to look forward to.’

‘It is impossible to be present in the present.’ [Claire] – p. 51

Andi only has his father with whom he shares a stilted relationship. Both are alone in the world. The romance develops but it soon disintegrates into something entirely sinister beginning with a locked front door:

She felt slighted, wanted to kick something. She gave the door a half-hearted nudge with the toe of her shoe. It was one thing not to be able to get in. But not get out? How could he have forgotten she was here? How could he have locked her in? She kicked the door again, harder, and a scuff mark appeared like a rebuke. – p. 57

Andi, utterly but quite rationally in love with Claire but completely deluded, wants to ensure that she won’t be able to leave him and so virtually keeps Claire locked in his apartment. He brings her gifts and does not harm her, hoping that Claire will soon warm to the idea and return his love once again. Like most lovers, Andi wants to save Claire:

‘Running away? What have I [Claire] ever run away from? You don’t know me at all!’

‘I’m just trying to help. I’m giving you a place just to be yourself. In the moment, not looking to the future. That’s what you said you wanted, isn’t it?’ He is doing this for her. Why can she not see that? – p. 97

Andi lives in an isolated apartment block and have taken away all forms of communication from Claire. Trapped, Claire eventually reforms a rather twisted relationship with Andi who wants nothing but Claire.

Berlin Syndrome is a really thrilling read and is the debut novel from a Melbourne writer. The prose is sparse but polished and, I found, very elegant. The small, claustrophobic cast was well drawn and in a rather bizarre sense, both Claire and Andi really complemented one another. They were really two lost souls and you felt for their loneliness and disconnectedness. I’m wondering if the title is a play on Stockholm Syndrome? I don’t want to put anybody off but if you liked Room by Emma Donoghue or Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson, then you’ll probably like this too because it’s in a similar vein.

Life is hard sometimes.

Beginning in 1909, Greenbanks is largely a poignant examination of the changing role of women but also a quiet family saga taking place during a critical period in history. The Ashton family reside in the estate Greenbanks. Louisa, a kindly and gentle housewife, is the matriarch and is happiest looking after and loving her children and grandchildren. Her husband, Richard, is a philanderer, which is an open secret within the family but Louisa turns a blind eye. Three of the grown Ashton children continue to live at Greenbanks while two of the girls are married. Letty has married Ambrose, the antithesis of her father, for his safety and stability and who is the mother of four children. The youngest at four years old, Rachel, is Louisa’s favourite grandchild and constant visitor at Greenbanks.

As events unfold, the Ashton women struggle to define or redefine their role and place. Letty, having married the stable but utterly boring and arrogant Ambrose, is stifled by her domestic and maternal duties:

‘Is there something wrong with me?’ she asked in alarm. ‘This is no more than other women have to put up with. Why don’t I like housekeeping?’

She thought of her mother who loved it, who snatched opportunities from every season: seville oranges for marmalade in January, strawberry, raspberry, plum as they appeared; who hailed the first spring cabbage with delight and presented early garden peas in triumph to her family; who used up unripe tomatoes in chutney and excess of mint in jelly for the winter mutton; who always had a pot of this or that to give to friends when they called … Her mother lived for and through other people, but Letty wanted something for herself. – p. 40

But Letty is committed to her place in life and the husband that she has chosen and she goes about her duties half-hearted waiting for the day when she can finally be free from her domestic duties. Letty is afraid of controversy and village gossip and Kate Barlow remains a constant warning to her.

Kate, a childhood schoolmate of the Ashton children, is a fallen woman who inadvertently returns to Greenbanks. As an orphan living with her grandfather, Louisa took pity on Kate and took Kate under her wings, trying to include her in activities Louisa’s own children participated in. Later as a teenager, at a dance Louisa chaperoned, Kate falls in love and has a short-lived fling with tragic circumstances, forcing Kate to leave the town in disgrace. Louisa bumps into Kate in London and after re-establishing a friendship with Kate, invites her to move to Greenbanks as Louisa’s companion to mixed opinions. Kate, however, remains suspicious of the society that has shunned her and who is resigned to repenting for her disgrace for the rest of her life.

Louisa herself is constantly changing and re-adjusting her role as her family grows and moves on, marries or simply become inaccessible. What is Louisa’s place after a lifetime spent as a Wife and Mother when she is no longer a wife and mother?

All her children had left her, she thought; died, married, gone to other places. All but one, now. It was one of life’s ironies that the only one left to her should be Jim, the one, she admitted, she could have best done without. They had all gone, but nothing in her life had been like this; this was a rending hole that nothing could fill again. – p. 79

Louisa’s relationship with her granddaughter Rachel is perhaps the most endearing and marks the contrast between two women from different generations. As the novel spans over sixteen very turbulent years, Rachel grows up in rapidly changing times and ideals. When selecting schools to send Rachel’s brothers, Ambrose muses that he:

intended to send his three sons to public schools; but it would be a severe strain on his resources and he was glad to be able to save on Rachel. She need not go away to school; nobody asked where a girl had been educated. And he did not believe in all this education for women; in fact, he considered knowledge definitely unbecoming to them. It destroyed their charm; they did not listen so well if they knew too much. – p. 137

But Ambrose too is struggling to retain his place in society and as the patriarch of the family, acting only in a way that he has been bought up to know. Admittedly, his stubbornness prevents him from seeing the bigger picture or accepting an alternative perspective which is highlighted when a brilliant seventeen-year-old Rachel finally stands up to Ambrose:

‘Oxford – bah! Do you think the men want you there? Poking in, trying to ape men. I’ve no patience with these women intellectuals – lot of frumps!’

‘Good Lord, do you think I’m going to bother about whether the men want me there or not?’ cried Rachel. ‘And when have you seen any women intellectuals, Father? And aren’t men intellectuals ever frumps? These reasons for refusing a State Scholarship are all silly – positively silly.’ – p. 238.

These four women mark a period of mass transition  – both socially and historically. A world war transpires within the novel at some stage which stuns the world and Greenbanks.

This is such a wonderful and beautiful story and rather heartbreaking too for what once was. The heartwarming relationship between Louisa and Rachel bookends the generations and Rachel is such a feisty character. She says one of my most favourite lines I’ve ever come across in a novel:

‘… have you had lunch?’

‘Er – no,’ said John. ‘Will you come to Reece’s?’

‘I’d love to, but I must pay for myself, because I want to eat a lot.’ – p. 324

Now there’s honesty for you! Dorothy Whipple writes so eloquently and quietly. The passing of time is so seamless. Characters grow and age without you realising it and by the book’s end, sixteen years have lapsed. I have read only one other Whipple, Someone at a Distance, but I think I Greenbanks tops that. A wonderful and, at times, a desperately sad read.

“The children are not going to the sea-side,” said she [Cornelia]. “They are not ordered there.”

“But they must go with me,” replied Lady Isabel. “Of course they are not expressly ordered to it. Why should they not go?”

“What should they not?” retorted Miss Corny. “Why, on account of the expense, to be sure. I can tell you what it is, Lady Isabel, what with one expense and another, your husband will soon be on the the road to ruin. Your journey with Joyce and Peter will cost enough, ma’am, without taking a van-load of nurses and children.” – p. 209

Left alone at the seaside to recover her health, Isabel bumps into Captain Levison whom she had previously felt attracted to when they were acquainted in their youth. Despite having been warned by Isabel’s uncle that Captain Levison was a bad influence, Isabel can’t deny his allure. Frightened and confused, Isabel flees back to East Lynne but a series of coincidences have Mr. Carlyle invite Captain Levison to stay at East Lynne. While Mr. Carlyle becomes heavily involved in acquitting a falsely condemned man, the brother of a family friend, pretty Barbara Hare, Isabel grows jealous and is swayed under Captain Levison’s influence. One night, both Isabel and Captain Levison disappear.

The hand-writing, his wife’s, swam before the eyes of Mr Carlyle. All, save the disgraceful fact that she had flown – and a horrible suspicion began to dawn upon him with whom – was totally incomprehensible. How had he outrages her? in what manner had he goaded her to it? – p. 281

A year passes and Lady Isabel is hiding in France, deeply regretting having run away with Captain Levison who, as soon as he received what he wanted, treats Isabel badly and leaves her unmarried just as she is about to give birth to their child. Seeking repentance, and missing her other children dreadfully, Isabel begins her journey back to England when she is involved in an accident. Misidentified, the authorities notifies her uncle that Isabel has died and the news travels back to Mr. Carlyle who is now married to Barbara. Isabel, with her face and figure scarred, adopts a disguise and a new name and, again, through twisted coincidences is recommended as a governess to Mr. Carlyle’s family which includes his children with Barbara. And so Lady Isabel returns to East Lynne once more, this time under an eccentric disguise and a new name, Madame Vine, and as a stranger to her children in a house that was once hers.

I quite enjoyed this book, being a huge fan of Sensation fiction. This, along with Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White and Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret makes up the core Sensation trilogy. Many of the plot lines were contrived but I quite enjoyed it. It’s like a Victorian soap opera. Isabel remained an elusive character though and while I didn’t despise her, I also didn’t quite warm to her although I did pity her and her tragic circumstances. Unlike other adulteresses in many other Victorian fiction, Isabel is not painted as a ‘scarlet woman’ but merely a woman who made one mistake that ultimately cost her everything.

I’m not quite sure why I’m analysing this list anyway. I don’t live in the U.K. where this event is held! Having ‘world’ in the event name is quite misleading but who can go past a booklist?

Those in bold are the ones I’ve read and it equate to forty out of the hundred!

1 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

2 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen

3 The Book Thief Markus Zusak

4 Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

5 The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger

6 The Lord of the Rings J. R. R. Tolkien

7 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

8 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte

9 Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier

10 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini

11 American Gods Neil Gaiman

12 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini

13 Harry Potter Adult Hardback Boxed Set J. K. Rowling

14 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon

15 The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien

16 One Day David Nicholls

17 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks

18 The Help Kathryn Stockett

19 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell

20 Good Omens Terry Pratchett

21 The Notebook Nicholas Sparks

22 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson

23 The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood

24 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

25 Little Women Louisa M. Alcott

26 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden

27 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold

28 Atonement Ian McEwan

29 Room Emma Donoghue

30 Catch-22 Joseph Heller

31 We Need to Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver

32 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman

33 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Louis De Bernieres

34 The Island Victoria Hislop

35 Neverwhere Neil Gaiman

36 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver

37 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger

38 Chocolat Joanne Harris

39 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro

40 The Five People You Meet in Heaven Mitch Albom

41 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez

42 Animal Farm George Orwell

43 The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett

44 The Eyre Affair Jasper Fforde

45 Tess of the D’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy

46 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl

47 I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith

48 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks

49 Life of Pi Yann Martel

50 The Road Cormac McCarthy

51 Great Expectations Charles Dickens

52 Dracula Bram Stoker

53 The Secret History Donna Tartt

54 Small Island Andrea Levy

55 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett

56 Lord of the Flies William Golding

57 Persuasion Jane Austen

58 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving

59 Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson

60 Watership Down Richard Adams

61 Night Watch Terry Pratchett

62 Brave New World Aldous Huxley

63 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon

64 Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke

65 The Color Purple Alice Walker

66 My Sister’s Keeper Jodi Picoult

67 The Stand Stephen King

68 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell

69 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov

70 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy

71 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons

72 Frankenstein Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

73 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer

74 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde

75 Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell

76 The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman

77 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins

78 The Princess Bride William Goldman

79 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth

80 Perfume Patrick Suskind

81 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas

82 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy

83 Middlemarch George Eliot

84 Dune Frank Herbert

85 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel

86 Stardust Neil Gaiman

87 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov

88 Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie

89 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone J. K. Rowling

90 Shantaram Gregory David Roberts

91 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro

92 Possession: A Romance A. S. Byatt

93 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin

94 Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami

95 The Magus John Fowles

96 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne

97 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry

98 Alias Grace Margaret Atwood

99 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami

100 The Wind-up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami

Day 01 – The best book you read last year

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Absolutely broke my heart.

Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I re-read this once around every three years. It’s a comfort read.
Day 03 – Your favourite series

I would have to say Harry Potter! I did love it so much and despite what critics may say, I thought J. K. Rowling wrote a rather spectacular series with memorable characters and a vivid world.

Day 04 – Favourite book of your favourite series

Prisoner of Azkaban – book 3. Hello Sirius Black!

Day 05 – A book that makes you happy

Tintin! My favourite is Tintin in Tibet.

Day 06 – A book that makes you sad

I don’t think any book makes me sad in its entirely although I did wallow on the endings for The Mill on the Floss and Great Expectations. Or any book by Hardy too, I suppose.

Day 07 – Most underrated book

I’m going to cheat on this question. I’m going to say The Age of Reason by Sartre – not because the book is underrated but because, I think, its readability or accessibility is underrated. I found it a really enjoyable read. Forget about the intimidation of the author and its philosophical significance and just enjoy the story.

Day 08 – Most overrated book

I’m afraid I still don’t get the obsession for The Great Gatsby despite reading it three times since high school. Perhaps one last shot in the future?

Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. I’m not a crime fiction fan and I’m aware that this book was the talk of the town a few years ago so I steered clear. I bought a copy at a library sale (for 2o cents!) the day before I left for my holiday and I simply couldn’t put it down. I wanted to stay in my room while in Vienna so I could just finish it. What an amazing and creepy story. If you find  an old library copy of this in Prague, that was probably mine.

Day 10 – Favourite classic book

Jane Eyre but I love most classics.

Day 11 – A book you hated

I don’t think I’ve ever hated a book but I wasn’t a huge fan of The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham.

Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore

I recently tried reading the ‘reunion’ book Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal. I grew up on these as a child and teenager and was crazy about them. I haven’t re-read any of the old titles since but the latest book was just horrendous. I couldn’t get past the first five pages because it was just so cringe-worthy and cliched.

Day 13 – Your favourite writer

Classics – the Bronte sisters. Modern – Jasper Fforde

Day 14 – Favourite book of your favorite writer

The Eyre Affair. Ah, so uber-creative. And the word play!

Day 15 – Favourite male character

I thought nobody could top Fitzwilliam Darcy but Frederick Wentworth managed to knock my socks off.
Day 16 – Favourite female character

Thursday Next! Tough, gritty, resilient, resourceful. And she knows her books.

Day 17 – Favourite quote(s) from your favourite book(s)

“He was filled with regret. In his life, nothing had ever had a tomorrow. He had admired afar all beautiful and passionate love-affairs; but a great love was like ambition, it would have been possible only in a world in which things were important, in which the words one spoke, and the things one did, left their mark; and Gerbert felt as if he were being cooped up in a waiting-room whose exit no future would ever open for him.” – p. 271. She Came to Stay by Simone de Beauvoir.

I go, I go away, I walk, I wander, and I wander to no purpose: this is the University vacation, everywhere I go I bear my shell with me, I remain at home in my room, among my books, I do not approach an inch nearer to Marrakesh or Timbuctoo. Even if I took a train, a boat, or an autocar, if I went to Morocco for my holiday, if I suddenly arrived at Marrakesh, I should be always in my room, at home. And if I walked in the squares and in the souks, if I gripped an Arab’s shoulder, to feel Marrakesh in his person, well! – that Arab would be at Marrakesh, and not I: I should still be seated in my room, placid and meditative as is my chosen life, two thousand miles away from the Moroccan and his burnous. In my room. For ever. – p. 186. The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Day 18 – A book that disappointed you

Perhaps controversially, Emma by Jane Austen really disappointed me. I found it irritating and not as funny as I’d thought I’ll find it and I just didn’t warm to Emma.

Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie

Bridget Jones’ Diary.

Day 20 – Favourite romance book

I don’t read romances but the most romantic book I’ve read would be Persuasion.

Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood

Matilda by Roald Dahl. Enough said. And The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton.

Day 22 – Favourite book you own

All my books are precious to me so it’s like choosing your favourite child!

Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t

Where do I begin *eyes off toppling TBRs*? Right now, it is Our Mutual Friend by Dickens and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.

Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read

The Child’s Book of True Crime by Chloe Hooper. Loved this strange, eerie book.

Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most

Would it be disturbing if I said Esther Greenwood? At least I’m not answering with Patrick Bateman!

Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something

Dark Victory by David Marr. It’s a detailed investigation on the Tampa asylum seekers crisis back in 2001. It completely opened my eyes to the situation and it’s saddens and infuriates me that ten years later, asylum seekers are still used as political fodder.

Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending

I’m not really sure. Most of the books I read plod gently and aren’t really into shocking readings. I suppose the last twisting-and-turning book I read is Before I Go to Sleep by by S. J. Watson.

Day 28 – Favourite title(s)

‘What I Loved‘

Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked

I can’t really say but I did really like American Psycho. What does that say about me?

Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. “I married him, dear Reader”.

Mrs Brant had gone into Mrs Welt’s shop one morning to find her engaged in jabbing a pin into herself again and again, and weeping as she did it. This had not seemed good to Mrs Brant, so she had dragged her off to see Willers. He gave Mrs Welt some kind of sedative, and when she felt better she had explained that in changing the baby’s napkin she had pricked him with a pin. Whereupon, by her account, the baby had just looked steadily at her with its golden eyes, and made her start jabbing the pin into herself. – p. 99

As the children grow, the the women find themselves detached from their children. The Children (now with a capital C) now also seem capable of rapid learning and have a form of unnatural intellectual connection with one another. When one of the boys or girls learn something, the entire gender group will suddenly also absorb the new knowledge. The Children grow rapidly and suddenly, they become a much larger threat than Midwich initially thought putting everybody at risk.

Despite its fascinating premise and storyline, I found this quite boring. Perhaps it’s just me, not being a sci-fi fan, but I found I just couldn’t connect with the characters and the writing sort of just plodded along and was rather dry. I kept losing track of which character was who. The first part started off quite well but then it just sort of withered down. Interesting but it was just a bit ‘blah’ for me unfortunately.

Maisie Dobbs is the first book in the series starring…Maisie Dobbs! Set in 1929, Maisie is trying to establish herself as a private investigator in a country, and world, that is still haunted by the horror of WWI. As a single, young woman working in an unorthodox career, Maisie was always going to be a little unusual. Her first case brings her Christopher Davenham who suspects that his wife is cheating on him. To Davenham’s surprise, Maisie questions his intentions with any information Maisie will provide him about his wife:

“The information I gather will be presented in a context. It is in light of that context that we must continue our discussion, in order for you and your wife to build a future.”

…

“My job is rather more complex than you might have imagined, Mr Davenham. I am responsible for the safety of all parties. And this is so even when I am dealing with society’s more criminal elements.” – p. 14

Integrity and morality is what sets Maisie apart from the typical private investigator. She does eventually get to the bottom of Davenham’s wife’s regular, unexplained disappearances which is connected to the aftermath of the war, which in turn forces Maisie to remember her own past.

Born into a lowly, but well loved, family, Maisie is sent at the age of 13 to the Belgravia estate of Lady and Lord Compton to work as a maid. Harbouring a passion for reading and displaying deep intelligence, Maisie soon concocts a way to read her way through the Compton’s rich library undetected by sneaking up early in the morning before the household chores.

The feeling inside that [Maisie] experienced when she saw the books was akin to the hunger she felt as food was put on the table at the end of the working day. And she knew that she needed this sustenance as surely as her body need is fuel. – p. 87

The secret visits to the library continued for some time before she is caught out by Lady Compton. This ultimately works out to Maisie’s advantage who demonstrates her intelligence and  becomes the Compton’s and their family friend, a highly regarded intellectual, Dr. Maurice Blanche’s protege. Life goes quite well for Maisie until the outbreak of the war where she eventually volunteers herself as a nurse and she is shipped to France.

The past and present becomes interconnected. To solve her case, Maisie must not only analyse the physical, but also the psychological, scars left by the war, horrors unforseen by anybody in the world.

Maisie Dobbs is a lovely first book and establishes the characters and setting. This is indeed somewhat a cozy crime fiction but the psychological examination of WWI and the surviving soldiers return to society gives it an edge. Maisie is an interesting character but I couldn’t help thinking some areas of her life were cliched and at times, she seemed a bit weak. However, I did thoroughly enjoy this first book and will seek out the other Maisie Dobbs books soon! And is it terrible of me to think that this would make the most lovely mini series?