Sophie Reviews... Born Weird by Andrew Kaufman

Born Weird is a novel that I was lucky enough to have got freE, among other books, while I was at The SYP Conference last month. I was immediately drawn to the cover, and the fact that it was a hard back, a luxury I cannot usually afford as a student! The story follows five siblings who are reunited after an 8 year separation brought on by a family tragedy. The Weird siblings (the surname obviously inspiring the title) are

all making their way home to see their grandmother before she dies. This seems a fairly uninteresting plot, but oh wait, they're going to see their grandma so she can take away the powers she gave each Weird when they were born, because as it turns out the powers have turned out to be more like curses than blessings. 

The novel was pretty easy to get into as it mainly entailed the bickering of brothers and sisters, something I am all to familiar with! The supernatural element of each sibling having a power; Richard can always keep himself and those around him safe, Abba always has hope, Lucy never gets lost, Angie always forgives and Kent could win any fight, isn't given any magical or scientific background, it simply takes the situation for fact. This is, however, easy to accept as the book does not put itself forward as a science fiction novel, but an exploration of family relationships. 

The mystery-esk setup of Born Weird was an interesting element, I was drawn into the novel as more is revealed about the true events of the siblings' past to both them and the reader. However, towards the end the novel did seem to get slightly unrealistic (despite the fantasy aspect of the book) and I felt that Kaufman drew things together too easily, illuminating me to his careful planning out of the story. 

One of my favourite aspects of the novel was its characters. Each sibling was clearly given individual personalities, strengths, weaknesses and a backstory so that, despite growing up together, they could be easily differentiated. The connection they all still have after 8 years of not being together; going back to old habits and following through with childhood traditions, brings on a sense of nostalgia, especially for me, having moved out of my childhood home over a year ago. The detailing of these childhood traditions makes the book feel quite quaint, especially as it almost feels like there is no one else in the world apart from this one family, despite their travels all over the world.

Overall, I would say this is a very easy read and although problematic in it's 'too good to be true' plot, I enjoyed the novel and got through it quickly. I would recommend this if you need a break from any heavy reading, for example, I had just finished Ulysses before picking this one up! 

Sophie Reviews... The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending was honestly one of the most depressing novels I've ever read, and not in a good way. Now, this may be because I am simply not the right age to read this book, which is narrated by Tony, a 60-something retired man who grew up in the sixties, but I was not particularly impressed by this novel. I appreciate the need for a target audience, but to me Barnes seems to have aliened anyone who isn't older than middle-age, not really getting the younger generations into reading, is it? Okay, so maybe I'm being too harsh, The Sense of an Ending did win the Man Booker Prize, perhaps I just didn't 'get it', but to me all this novel did was create an overwhelming sense of the pointlessness of life, that all the hopes and dreams you might have when you are young for a somewhat interesting life are unrealistic. Honestly, not something I really wanted to hear.

Maybe I'm just a naive teenager, but I would like to think that marrying someone you love and having a child with them are at least highlights of your life. Barnes' narrator, however, sums this part of his life up in a single sentence, and swiftly moves onto, well, not much. Although featuring many periods of Tony's life, the novel seems to concentrate on his interactions with school friend Adrian and university girlfriend Veronica, who end up in a relationship with each other, at which point a young Tony wants nothing to do with them. Despite that these two characters are implied to be Tony's reason for telling his story, we get little insight into these enigmatic, yet uninteresting characters from Tony as he looks back on his youthful years. However, this may be somehow forgiven if the two characters related to Tony in some cryptic and unforeseeable way, which we do of course hope, as a reader, seeing as the first person narration forces us to relate to him as there is simply not enough description to relate to anyone else. But alas, no, something happened in their lives, which Tony simply figures out years later, and, oh, it makes no difference to his life whatsoever.

The previously mentioned marriage ended after 12 years, and at the time Tony tells his story, as Barnes puts it, Tony and his ex-wife have been divorced longer than they were married. And so Tony settles for the single life, he doesn't really do anything, and just accepts it. Now, again maybe I'm being unrealistic and naive, but ending up alone with no real accomplishments in life, and the only interesting story to tell being about two people you knew in your past, doesn't really give me much hope for the future, in fact it makes me want to be as unlike old Tony as humanly possible. Hey! Maybe it is an inspirational story! After I finished the novel, I had an urge to ring up my mum (who has also read it) and ask her if life really is that depressing. Of course I didn't; me and my mum don't have that sort of relationship. Or maybe I was scared that she'd say yes.

Throughout the novel the narrator puts in reflections and words of wisdom about life, etc. Which would be fine, yes yes, all very well and good, if these reflections had any sort of plot to attach to, which they didn't. In fact The Sense of an Ending seemed more like a book of repetitive observations than a novel, and that's not really what I wanted to read. In somewhat of an attempt to give the reader a shocking ending, Barnes explains the 'drama' that involved both Adrian and Veronica, through Tony's realisations. Although we accept the narrators assumption (because why else would Barnes have written it?), there is no confirmation from any of the characters involved that it is in fact the truth, and I was left wondering what the point of the novel really was.

Sophie Reviews... The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Having watched the film adaptation prior to reading the novel, I knew somewhat of what to expect with The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but of course being aware of the differing experience of watching a film and reading a book, I was excited to see what the latter provided. And I was not disappointed. Having not read a novel for pleasure in several months, I was immediately drawn into the life of Charlie, the narrator, from page one.

The main character Charlie writes of his experiences in his first year of high school through a series of letters to an unknown person, each letter beginning; 'Dear friend'. The form of the epistolary novel (written in letters) allows the reader not only a first person view into Charlie's mind, but also his initial reactions before we are told the events that have just occurred, meaning that we are not only held in a delightful yet frustrating suspense, but it is also impossible not to read on.

Using the setting of high school, Chbosky explores many social issues, such as drug use, sex, teenage pregnancy, mental illness, death and sexual abuse, yet through the eyes of 15 year old Charlie, he manages to create a very real yet innocent response to these subjects. In fact, readers who have never been exposed to such issues may feel that they have learnt something about a world they were otherwise ignorant of.

Something I personally experienced while reading Perks was that it seemed to open up my mind. It made me constantly think about not only the realities of the life, but also the nature of life, and in essence, it's meaning. Although that may seem a little absurd, I feel that the novel opened me up to emotions that may have otherwise been locked away, and I felt more alive and more myself than I had in a while.