Hélène Wilkinson

Books (66)

All books Added (Newest) Title (A to Z) Title (Z to A) Rating (Highest) Rating (Lowest) Finished (Newest) Finished (Oldest) Published (Newest) Published (Oldest) Added (Newest) Added (Oldest)

- La Vérité sur l’Affaire Harry Quebert (36)
- By Joël Dicker
- Finished
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
La Vérité sur l’Affaire Harry Quebert

Mes quatre vérités sur l'affaire Harry Quebert

Mes quatre vérités se résument à une seule: je suis déçue. Ce livre m’a été très chaleureusement recommandé par quelqu’un qui m’a fait découvrir le (à mon sens) remarquable Club des incorrigibles optimistes de Jean-Michel Guenassia. Autant dire que j’y allais optimiste, surtout que d’autres avis fav ... (continue)

Mes quatre vérités se résument à une seule: je suis déçue. Ce livre m’a été très chaleureusement recommandé par quelqu’un qui m’a fait découvrir le (à mon sens) remarquable Club des incorrigibles optimistes de Jean-Michel Guenassia. Autant dire que j’y allais optimiste, surtout que d’autres avis favorables fusaient d’un peu partout, avec des “facile à lire, mais très, très bien, hein ?” comme si j’allais accuser mes amis lecteurs de faillir à un devoir de masochisme littéraire qui consisterait à absorber conscienseument un livre irréprochablement tout ce qu’il faut, mais chiant.
La quatrième de couv me promettait “sous ses airs de thriller à l’américaine” (avec le message qu’un thriller à l’américaine est tout simplement impensable comme lecture avouable pour des lecteurs francophones un peu sérieux) un livre qui me fournirait “une réflexion sur l’Amérique, sur les travers de la société moderne, sur la littérature, sur la justice et sur les médias”. Rien que ça. Sauf que moi, je n’y ai lu que des plates généralités et des caricatures.
Un autre motif de déception réside dans le total manque de rythme de ce roman. Il met une éternité à se mettre en route. Après, on commence un peu à s’intéresser à l’action et il y a quelques chapitres qui m’ont encouragée à revoir mon impression initiale d’ennui. Par contre, à la fin, tout s’emballe, c’est lui/elle, c’est pas lui/elle, c’est lui/elle et ainsi de suite pendant plusieurs rebondissements. En étant gentille, je me dis que c’est peut-être un hommage à Agatha Christie, vous savez, quand Hercuel Poirot réunit tout le monde dans la bibliothèque pour les accuser tour à tour, puis les innocenter, avant d’arriver au coupable.
Et pour couronner le tout, le personnage de Marcus ne ‘a jamais accrochée; ça a l’air d’être un garçon plutôt gentil, mais pas très enthousiasmant. J’ai eu du mal à croire à son grand talent d’écrivain tout au long du livre, restant plus à l’aise avec l’idée du Marcus plus jeune qui “présente” très bien mais évite de se retrouver avec plus brillant que lui. Quant à Harry, j’ai trouvé que le maître était bien à la hauteur de l’élève, c’est à dire pas très engagant non plus.
L’intrigue comprend un retournement de situation dans son dénouement, mais il n’était pas de taille à me réconcilier avec le livre, dommage.

Is this helpful?

— Mar 8, 2013 | Add your feedback
- The Mathematician's Brain (4)
- A Personal Tour Through the Essentials of Mathematics and Some of the Great Minds Behind Them
- By David Ruelle
- Finished
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- Mon grand appartement (1)
- By Christian Oster
- Finished
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- Sweet Tooth (110)
- By Ian McEwan
- Finished
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
Sweet Tooth

1 person find this helpful
Implausibly clever

This is a very frustrating book to review, as it is virtually impossible to do it justice, without totally ruining future readers’ pleasure. The overall premise and structure of the book lies is a key part of what can’t be revealed. In essence, the book is a ploy, a trick, and a masterfully crafted ... (continue)

This is a very frustrating book to review, as it is virtually impossible to do it justice, without totally ruining future readers’ pleasure. The overall premise and structure of the book lies is a key part of what can’t be revealed. In essence, the book is a ploy, a trick, and a masterfully crafted one. It is written in vintage McEwan style: smooth, classy, “best-of-British” and erudite in an understated way.
I can safely share, without spoiling anything, that you will find a description of the less glamorous side of the British Security Service (MI5) in the early seventies, to be more precise, of its low-end administrative departments - think Moneypenny, but before she got promoted to mooning over 007. You will get a little insight in that whole English class system thing: the heroine, Serena, being a bishop’s daughter, mixes mostly with people “of her kind”, apart from one of her MI5 colleagues. The novel also paints the picture of the you’ve-never-had-it-so-good era ending, with three day weeks to cope with mining strike induced fuel shortages, and a portion of the youth of the nation (like the heroine’s sister) smoking pot. And of course, we follow the life, loves and reading habits of Serena.
The charting of this young woman’s education and first job, at MI5, is very readable for its own sake. And I have to confess to getting pretty much to the end of the book, before understanding where I was being taken to. The trick is revealed in the last few pages and I was left in hopeless admiration of a master who has demonstrated his skill. The very effortlessness displayed did, however, make me wonder whether the whole thing wasn’t just a little too slick. And I concluded that I wasn’t slow in getting it, it’s not fair, the book is just too clever...

Is this helpful?

— Jan 13, 2013 | Add your feedback
- Witchend: Not Scarlet But Gold (1)
- By Malcolm Saville
- Finished
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List

- Sickened (27)
- The True Story of a Lost Childhood
- By Julie Gregory
- Finished
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
Sickened

Chilling

This is the sort of autobiographical account where my instant reaction is to say: "Only in America, right?" But I know of course, that, sadly, Munchausen by Proxy is real pathology and not one confined to the US.
Still, I hope I'm justified in thinking that this is the portrayal of an extreme case, ... (continue)

This is the sort of autobiographical account where my instant reaction is to say: "Only in America, right?" But I know of course, that, sadly, Munchausen by Proxy is real pathology and not one confined to the US.
Still, I hope I'm justified in thinking that this is the portrayal of an extreme case, and I sincerely hope that the writing of it helped the author's recovery to some extent, as the end of the book seems to indicate.

Is this helpful?

— Jan 27, 2013 | Add your feedback
- The Plague of Doves (17)
- By Louise Erdrich
- Finished
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
The Plague of Doves

In a haze of gold and brown

I’m not one of those people who “see” numbers of months of the year in colour, but for the first time in reading a book, I was conscious of a clear colour association with the story. The Plague of Doves was tinted throughout in a sort of rich sepia, a sort of brown and gold haze, a bit like cowboys ... (continue)

I’m not one of those people who “see” numbers of months of the year in colour, but for the first time in reading a book, I was conscious of a clear colour association with the story. The Plague of Doves was tinted throughout in a sort of rich sepia, a sort of brown and gold haze, a bit like cowboys someone suggested and yes, that’s very much it, except that the focus of the book is more on the Indians, as we still tend to say in the “cowboys and indians” phrase.
This novel charts the fairly loosely interwoven life stories of several native American people. It is a tale rich and quite poetic in places. A fellow book club member found the interweaving unconvincing, so googled the book, found out several chapters had been separately published in The New Yorker, and so identified the cause of her dissatisfaction. It is true that it was a bit like Olive Ketteridge, another novel my book club read, which was more of an amalgamation of stories with some links, but that didn’t really bother me. Consecutive story telling is a ploy very often used these days and I find that OK, even though sometimes I do wonder why the beginning-middle-end kind of story seems to rather out of favour.
My low point in the book was Billy’s snake handler wife, whose name I have forgotten. I didn’t like her or her story. Maybe it’s because I was reading another book at the same time, an autobiographical account, which involved some trailer trash stuff and it sort of interfered with that Billy and his wife episode, which sort of had trailer trash echoes to it.
By far my favourite scene was the closing one, where two now elderly ladies (we have met them both earlier in the book when they are younger), Cordelia Lochren and Neve Harp, take walks, go over some old stuff, and, gently humorous, decide to close down the Pluto historical society, Pluto being the town which has been the focus of most of the action of the book.
Another chapter, involving a school girl crush on a teacher, also provided a gripping read. Ah, the skill of writers who can make us see and feel what their fictional creations see and feel...

Is this helpful?

— Jan 27, 2013 | Add your feedback
- NW (42)
- By Zadie Smith
- Finished
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
NW

I found Zadie Smith’s acclaimed latest novel, NW, a challenge to read. It was a challenge in the sense that I found it difficult to follow the narrative, especially towards the beginning of the book. Characters told their stories in streams of consciousness, alternating poetry and prose to quite bew ... (continue)

I found Zadie Smith’s acclaimed latest novel, NW, a challenge to read. It was a challenge in the sense that I found it difficult to follow the narrative, especially towards the beginning of the book. Characters told their stories in streams of consciousness, alternating poetry and prose to quite bewildering effect. And yet, I felt absolutely compelled to read on, despite being a reader who does not hesitate to abandon a book I don’t “get”, if it spoils my reading pleasure too much (read more of my views on not finishing a book here).
Reading a publisher’s blurb after finishing the novel helpfully set out the main plot elements and the identitiy of the protagonists, in a far more straightforward way than Zadie Smith does. But I didn’t mind not having read this guide beforehand, I didn’t feel I needed a helping hand to enjoy this novel, because I enjoyed it very much indeed.
I loved that it was purely descriptive, and boy, what beautifully crafted descriptions they were. It described NW, as in North West London, and I understood the generic postcode abbreviation chosen for the title to be not so much, or not only, to set the scene in a geographical, but also in a social sense. The translation to paper of the lives of ordinary people is wonderfully done. And it’s entirely non-judgemental. Not does it offer any suggestions as to how things could be different, how rights could be wronged. This is highly lucid and accurate observation (probably accurate: I don’t live in NW, so people who are better placed than I am to assess the accuracy of the novel’s descriptions are invited to corroborate or contradict), not a dissertation on the whys and wherefores of modern life in North West London.
The author isn’t standing on a soapbox, asking us to reflect on “if only poor people had access to ...”, she’s just giving it us straight, a conversation in the style of a pubgoer who’s at the detached yet still coherent stage of getting drunk. And the story rambles on, sometimes a little disjointedly (that’s the alcohol kicking in). Leah, Keisha/Natalie, Felix, the near poltergeist character who irrupts at Leah’s in the opening scene, all make their several, slightly jumbled, appearances and we are invited into their funny-sad extraordinary-everyday lives.
I particularly loved a wonderful scene between Felix and Annie, which I think would be stunning on the stage. Boy visits girl he used to be in a relationship with. They talk, sleep together, have a row, he goes home. But oh, the telling of this short series of events is a masterclass in writing.
The writing was the main joy of this book for me, even it it was startling in places. Maybe what I took to be streams of consciousness were just clinical reports on drug induced hallucinations, but then I’ve lived a sheltered life, away from NW.

Is this helpful?

— Jan 27, 2013 | Add your feedback
- Opening Night (6)
- By Ngaio Marsh
- Finished
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- Black as He's Painted (4)
- By Ngaio Marsh
- Finished
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List

- Le club des incorrigibles optimistes (63)
- By Jean-Michel Guenassia
- Finished
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
Le club des incorrigibles optimistes

Un récit riche, coloré et solide

Ce livre est un récit comme on en lit peu. Riche, très bien construit, écrit avec une retenue qui n’exclut pas beaucoup de sensibilité et de finesse. L’action, qui se passe au début des années soixante à Paris, est préfacée par la description d’un enterrement, dont je suis fière d’avoir tout de suit ... (continue)

Ce livre est un récit comme on en lit peu. Riche, très bien construit, écrit avec une retenue qui n’exclut pas beaucoup de sensibilité et de finesse. L’action, qui se passe au début des années soixante à Paris, est préfacée par la description d’un enterrement, dont je suis fière d’avoir tout de suite deviné qui en était le protagoniste principal (je parle de l’enterré). OK, ce n’est pas très difficile à deviner.
Les acteurs de ce récit sont Michel et sa famille compliquée, avec une mixité sociale pas commode à gérer au sein du couple formé par ses parents - mariés à cause de l’arrivée au monde de son grand frère - le grand frère en question qui tourne plutôt mal, la péronelle de petite soeur, l’oncle parvenu en Algérie, le grandpère rital. Ensuite, Pierre, l’ami qui sort du lot avec sa rebellion, sa soeur Cécile qui en bave un peu, et Camille, l’autre jeune fille de l’histoire. Il y aussi, un peu en filigrane, quelques camarades de lycée et de babyfoot, assortis des gérants des cafés fréquentés. Et puis, bien sûr, les membres du club.
Le club ? On va dire que c’est un club d’échecs, dont les membres ont tous échappé à des autorités qui leur étaient hostiles dans le bloc soviétique. Je vous présente par exemple Victor, le taxi-troubadour ès mensonges; Igor, le médecin qui se met à travailler pour Victor, mais qui n’oublie pas son serment d’Hippocrate pour aider les infortunés qui se retrouvent sur son chemin; le pilote d’élite qui a connu une histoire d’amour extraordinaire, et même si vous avez envie de vous en moquer, il vous tient un peu en respect, le Leonid avec sa Milène; Pavel, condamné à se voir refuser à la fois la naturalisation et la publication de son opus major sur la paix de Brest-Litovsk; Sacha l’ambigü et bien d’autres réfugiés politiques hauts en couleurs, avec des histoires rocambolesques, mais historiquement inattaquables. Il y a également des personnages qui jouent un rôle purement comique, comme le policier aux grandes oreilles.
Et c’est Michel qui passe son adolescence avec eux, qui en même temps se débrouille avec sa famille compliquée, son apprentissage de la photographie, ses relations avec les filles, à l’âge où les amours platoniques rejoignent mais n’égalent pas totalement une simple amitié. Michel qui grandit, comprend des choses, en découvre d’autres, et accepte, ou pas, ce que la vie lui réserve.
Un vrai régal.

Is this helpful?

— Nov 22, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Changing Places (158)
- By David Lodge
- Finished
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (35412)
- By Lewis Carroll
- Not Started
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- Pride and Prejudice (41933)
- By Jane Austen
- Finished
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (33757)
- By Arthur Conan Doyle
- Finished
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List