Page 57 - Phonebox Magazine May 2011

Book Review
By Oxfam Bookshop, Olney
After the fire, a still small voice by Evie Wyld
This novel consists of the stories of two men, so intertwined that the reader is sometimes in danger of confusing the two. They have much in common, though they are from different times, each attempting to escape from lives which have been disrupted.
Frank leaves his girl friend and runs away to the beach shack formerly owned by his grandparents. He makes the acquaintance of his neighbours, Bob and Vicky, who accept this rather strange, inarticulate man, and Bob finds him work at the local marina, where he gets satisfaction from the hard physical effort which stops him thinking too much. His neighbours also provide him with two hens, and their silent seven-year-old daughter turns up on her bike to plant a vegetable garden for him. no questions are asked about his past, and he is content to live in the present, although nightmares follow him around.
Leon lives a generation earlier; when his father volunteers for the war in Korea, he leaves school to take his father’s place in the cake shop, baking elaborate confections, creating figurines for the wedding cakes, learning his trade. At first letters arrive regularly, but then two months go by without word, until they are informed that his father has been taken prisoner. When he eventually returns, he is not the man he was. Then comes the time when Leon is conscripted; this time the war is with Vietnam, and events there change Leon’s life, so that on his return he, too, seeks for escape from the life he once led.
The writer vividly portrays life in the more isolated parts of Australia, and the way in which that life is fashioned by the country itself. She conveys its wild, primitive state, the heat and the vast distances which can be daunting to the unwary. It is a tremendous undertaking, which she achieves with great skill.
This is Evie Wyld’s first novel, for which she was awarded the John Llewellyn prize and shortlisted for the Orange award for new writers. It is not the easiest of books to read, but it is well worth the effort.
Review by Thelma Shacklady
Review by Sandra Metcalf
Elena Irinovna is not what she might at first seem – a young woman who cleans offices in Almaty, Khazakhstan and who buys and sells what she can to earn a living. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union she was an astro-physicist who worked for the Soviet space programme and her love for the idea of space exploration has never left her: “The cosmodrome had been a bleak place, even in summer. But at night it changed. Then if you stepped outside, you could see all the way to Andromeda and beyond; galaxies uncoiling clear and distant in the vast ocean of darkness, suns like sparks on the water. . . . hurrying from one office to another after dark, she happened to look up and was lost forever. . . She fell into the sky and she still hadn’t come down”. The collapse of the soviet system, as you might have expected if you had thought about it, was not going to be good news for everyone.
On a selling trip to Tashkent, during an unpleasant incident at the border, Elena finds a strange artefact which sets in train a whole series of encounters and events. One of those meetings is with Ilya Muromyets, mercenary, spy and drug addict who has been hired by an unknown organisation to track down the artefact found by Elena. But appearances are even more deceptive in Ilya’s case. He is a bogatyr, one of Russia’s mythical heroes, who has somehow survived into the twenty-first century but at great personal cost - he can think of no reason to want to go on living.
The artefact remains enigmatic even as it begins to offer Elena and Ilya glimpses into what appears to be a alternative reality, a place which seems to be Russia, but isn’t the Russia they know. As they begin to unravel the artefact’s secrets and understand what motivates others who are attempting to acquire it, they also begin to understand and to re-claim the very human need to have dreams and to be the hero of your own life.
This is an absorbing, occasionally dark but highly original and thought-provoking read. It offers excellent storytelling and a fascinating layering of ancient myths, modern life and the possibilities of alternative futures and, like all good fantasy novels, it has a lot to say about the world we live in and the human condition.
Nine Layers of Sky by Liz Williams
Steve Dolan Ran the London Marathon in 5 hours 6 minutes – in aid of MENCAP – so congratulations to Steve.
Also a big thank you to all who have sponsored Steve so far – there is still time to make a donation to MENCAP c/o 11 Spring Lane – Olney
Again – congratulations to Steve Cicely Cooper – Chair M.K. MENCAP
Phonebox Magazine 57
Reviews brought to you by Oxfam Books & Music Stanley Court, Olney
Tel: 01234 714592
OpEnIng HOURS
Mon – Sat: 10am – 4.30pm
First Sunday of each month (Farmers’ Market): 10.30am – 1.30pm
The books reviewed above are from Oxfam Books and Music, Olney, which sells donated books, records, CDs, tapes and music to raise money for Oxfam’s work in combating poverty around the world.
EMBERTON AND DISTRICT FLOWER CLUB
Amanda Cameron demonstration entitled
“Here comes the bride”
Tuesday 3rd May, The Olney Centre, 7.30pm
Raffle • Tea • Coffee • Visitors £4.00
A warm welcome to all
For more information please call Sandra 01234 714144