Book reviews: fiction from Yann Martel, Ernest Bramah and Charles Dickens
Martel is moving and redeeming once he gets the whimsy out of the way; Bramah, a forgotten bestseller of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, gets the Stephen Fry treatment; and Richard Armitage relishes the many voices of Dickens
by Yann Martel (read by Mark Bramhall)
Canongate (audiobook)
The High Mountains of Portugal employs that most 21st century of literary forms: the interlinked novella. “Homeless” starts in Lisbon in 1904 before, as its title suggests, roaming farther afield. Its hero, Tomas, is so overwhelmed by grief (his son, partner and father have all died) that he walks backwards in defiance of the world. He borrows his uncle’s car and starts to drive, albeit badly, in search of a mythical crucifix. “Homeward” inverts the spaciousness of part one, being set in a single room, again in Portugal. Dr Lozora, whose wife has also died, is performing an autopsy, only to be interrupted by debates linking Hercule Poirot, Jesus, humour and fiction. There is also a skin-crawling autopsy and a something strange inserted into the corpse. “Home”, the least fantastical section, is set in contemporary Canada, and features a third widower, this time politician Peter Tovey who finds weird, but poignant solace at a monkey refuge in Oklahoma. Mark Bramhall does a fabulous job, lending a lightness of touch to Tomas’ absurd reversed life, while convincing us that Peter Tovey really does find wisdom through a chimp. He can do accents but reins them in to create characters not caricatures, something Martel’s fantasies flirt with, but just about avoid. Moving, whimsical and ultimately redeeming.
by Ernest Bramah (read by Stephen Fry)