Sunday 24 December 2017

Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson + Free Book


Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson
First published in the UK by Unwin in 1885.

Where to buy this book:


How I got this book:
Read a free online version at East Of The Web

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Markheim" is a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson, originally prepared for the "Pall Mall Gazette" in 1884, but published in 1885 in "The Broken Shaft: Tales of Mid-Ocean" as part of "Unwin's Christmas Annual". The story was later published in Stevenson's collection "The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables" (1887).

London, Christmas 1884. The story opens in an antique store, with Markheim wishing to buy a present for a woman he will soon marry. The dealer presents him with a mirror. Markheim is strangely reluctant to end the transaction, but when the dealer insists that he must buy or leave, he consents to stop tarrying and review more goods. The dealer turns his back to replace the mirror, and Markheim pulls out a knife...

Markheim is set on Christmas Day although, other than the lack of custom to the antique dealer's shop, we only really know this because we are told so. A regular customer has been let in to the closed shop. He usually takes items to sell, and we are given to understand that these are stolen goods, yet for Christmas Day he wishes to buy a gift for a lady friend. The dealer doesn't completely believe him, but is trusting enough to turn his back ...

Stevenson's story is very much of its time with most of the sixteen pages taken up by overwrought dialogue that is far too deep for natural conversation in the situation described. However, accepting that this is the case stops the melodrama from detracting from the tale. Markheim has led a poverty-stricken life, believing his thieving and worse to be the result of his circumstances. Now that perhaps he has sunk as low, morally, as it is possible to go, should he heed the words of a devil and profit from his crime or should he stand tall for once and Do The Right Thing?

I liked this tense story and would have preferred it actually to have been a little longer. The claustrophobic shop setting is wonderfully described and I found it easy to imagine the situation. It would be a good story to read out loud or to act out on Christmas Eve and, of course, has a strong moral message of what disaster may ensue if Christmas shopping is left until the very last minute!


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Books by Robert Louis Stevenson / Short stories / Books from Scotland

Saturday 23 December 2017

In Loving Memory by Jenny Telfer Chaplin


In Loving Memory by Jenny Telfer Chaplin
Published by Endeavour Press in September 2013.

Where to buy this book:


How I got this book:
Took advantage of a free Amazon download

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Glasgow, in the early nineteenth century. Times are hard, and the the streets are crowded with desperate and starving people. Amid poverty and strife, an insurrection known as the Radical War is about to start and two women's lives will be changed forever. 

Maggie and Sheena are both fighting for the same man. Maggie is left with child by her unwanted seducer, and is forced by her family into an arranged marriage with Fergus to cover up the scandal. Fergus leaves his young sweetheart Sheena broken-hearted and in a similarly precarious position. Distraught she turns to Fergus’s brother Rab for comfort. Against the backdrop of turmoil and revolt, Maggie and Sheena must fight to remain true to their hearts. 

In Loving Memory appealed to me because of its setting - Glasgow at the time of the Radicals - which I didn't know much about. Unfortunately, I still don't know much because, while historical events such as the Radicals and the Bread Riots are namedropped, they are not explained. Most of the novel's convoluted plot takes place in our protagonists' homes where two-dimensional characters argue frequently and, again, without much background given so I found it difficult to understand the whys of many decisions. They speak in a phonetically spelt Scots brogue that took a little getting used to, but does at least add some atmosphere. However my main gripe is the device of huge events happening to our characters off the page. At one point a chapter ends with a family boarding a ship, then the next chapter starts five years after the shipwreck. Hello? What shipwreck?!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Jenny Telfer Chaplin / Historical fiction / Books from Scotland

Sunday 17 December 2017

Salvage by Cynthia Dewi Oka


Salvage by Cynthia Dewi Oka
Published in America by TriQuarterly Books today, December 15th 2017.

Where to buy this book:


How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

How do we transform the wreckage of our identities? Cynthia Dewi Oka’s evocative collection answers this question by brimming with what we salvage from our most deep-seated battles. Reflecting the many dimensions of the poet’s life, Salvage manifests an intermixture of aesthetic forms that encompasses multiple social, political, and cultural contexts—leading readers to Bali, Indonesia, to the Pacific Northwest, and to South Jersey and Philadelphia.

Throughout it insistently interrogates what it means to reach for our humanity through the guises of nation, race, and gender. Oka’s language transports us through the many bodies of fluid poetics that inhabit our migrating senses and permeate across generations into a personal diaspora. Salvage invites us to be without borders.

I looked forward to exploring this volume of poetry, but unfortunately found it way beyond my comprehension. There are flashes of imagery, some violently graphic, which I understood and I have no doubt that for someone familiar with Indonesia or this style of poetry, Oka's poems could be very powerful. However I found her poetry too disjointed to follow so did not finish the book.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Cynthia Dewi Oka / Poetry / Books from Indonesia

Sunday 3 December 2017

Discovering Aberration by S C Barrus + Free Book


Discovering Aberration by S C Barrus
First published in America by Away And Away in January 2014.

Sign up to S C Barrus' mailing list to get a free copy of this book


How I got this book:
Downloaded the ebook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An ancient map stolen. A lost civilization discovered. A terrible secret unleashed.

Thaddeus Lumpen's archaeology career is near collapse, thanks to the machinations of rivals who would kill to claim a discovery for themselves. In desperation he turns to Freddy Fitzgerald, a rebellious writer who still maintains connections from his days as a street hooligan. For Lumpen to get ahead of his even less scrupulous competitors he must steal an ancient map and forge a path to an island where a lost civilization waits to be found. For Freddy, it's a chance to sell the story of a lifetime.

But nothing is as simple as it appears from halfway across the world. Old acquaintances become enemies, professional rivalries turn violent, and a notorious gang lord wants his map back. The island itself holds dangers that Freddy and Lumpen couldn't have prepared to face--and horrifying secrets that might be better left buried. Beset by wild beasts, cutthroat competitors, and dangers darker still, the two men fight not for glory, but their own survival... before the island pushes them past the brink of insanity.

DISCOVERING ABERRATION is a alternative history adventure novel. Inspired by the classic science fiction, adventure, and horror writers who spawned what would later become the steampunk genre, DISCOVERING ABERRATION is part Victorian era urban romp, part dark fantasy adventure.

Excellent news reached me a week or so ago that S C Barrus' steampunk serialisation, The Gin Thief, is back on its rails and I can expect the second installment in the new year. I noticed I hadn't yet transferred my thoughts on its predecessor, Discovering Aberration, from Stephanie Jane to Literary Flits so am doing so today!

I first saw Discovering Aberration some three years ago marketed on Google+ as a 'steampunk adventure' which intrigued me so I downloaded a copy. The story is inventive with an interesting plot and a strong steampunk feel. It doesn't have a particularly fast pace but Barrus' wordy style is reminiscent of true Victorian authors so I found that this helped to add atmosphere. The varying viewpoints of the narration is a clever touch and nicely done. I did like the cheeky derivation of some characters' names. Overall reading this story feels like reading a classic adventure mystery so if you like that style of book, I would definitely recommend giving Discovering Aberration a try.

"I'm always homesick for the journey" too!


Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by S C Barrus / Steampunk fiction / Books from America