Book Review: The Blackhouse

The Blackhouse by Peter May is the first book in a trilogy set on the Isle of Lewis off the west coast of Scotland.

[I first heard of the series from fellow blogger Adrian of Adrian’s Images, who has been praising them on more than one occasion. But what made me really interested to read them was that Lewis has come to feel familiar to me over the past few years through the blogs of GB (Eagleton Notes and A Hebredian in New Zealand) who actually lives there (well, six months of the year anyway!) – and his likewise blogging brother Scriptor, who occasionally leaves his Chair to go up there for a visit.]

The Blackhouse had me hooked right from the start because of the the author’s way with language and his vivid descriptions of the landscape and shifting weather and other details of island life that were already familiar to me from my friends’ photos. The characters in the story also somehow rang true to me; very much formed by the conditions of life in that environment, and traditions that go back generations, now clashing with the rapidly increasing influence of modern society and modern means of transport and communication.

The main character, a police detective, comes back to the island after many years away on the mainland. Besides the murder he has been sent there to look into, he is confronted with his own memories from growing up on Lewis. The story goes back and forth between the present day mystery to be solved, and things that happened in the past.

I don’t think I’ll say much more about the plot that that; only that there are quite a few twists and turns along the way, and that it got harder and harder to put the book away…

For me I think it’s likely to be a book I’ll remember (even if that is something really only time can tell!) No doubt I’ll forget details of the plot; but I think images created in my head during the reading will remain with me, as will certain feelings, and increased knowledge and understanding of traditions and ways of life in that part of the world.

As I said above, this is the first book in a trilogy; and it might also say something about my appreciation that after finishing The Blackhouse, I went straight ahead and bought* the next two as well: The Lewis Man, and The Chessmen. (Actually I’ve got started on The Lewis Man.)

Not quite incidentally, I saw today that GB also just finished reading The Blackhouse - you can read his thoughts on it here. (I was glad to learn that even he, living there himself, found the descriptions of the island and its inhabitants to ring true.)

Here are a few quotes that I highlighted during my reading - just to give you a taste of the language and style:

The exams I would sit at the end of that year would pretty much determine my future. And the rest of your life is a lot of responsibility to carry when you’re thirteen.

It’s odd how people can get locked into a kind of timewarp. There’s a time in their lives that defines them, and they hang on to it for all the subsequent decades; the same hair, the same music, even though the world around them has changed beyond recognition.

He felt like a ghost haunting his own past, walking the streets of his childhood. He half expected to see himself and Artair coming around the bend in the road.

Fin stepped out into the blustery afternoon as the rain began falling in earnest. Horizontally.

There are moments when you look at the sky and you feel that everything revolves around you, and other times when you just feel infinitesimally small.

It’s a good place to get away from. But it’s good to come back to.

 

. . .

* PS about Kindle

I’m reading these books on my Kindle. From the discussion on GB’s post today I learn that we are not all equal in the Kindle world... While the second book in the series costs only 20p for Kindle-owners in the UK, I had to pay $11,68!

Not only did I have to buy my Kindle from the US, even though I live Europe. It seems I have to download the Kindle e-books from the US as well; I cannot buy those from amazon.uk. Hardcover books and paperbacks and other things that need physical wrapping and shipping, those I can buy from England. But electronic books – nooo…! Can anyone make sense of that??

Macro Monday: Winter Webs

The spiders must be having a tough time ;)

Saturday was sunny, but very very cold… (-16°C / 3°F)

Macro Monday

Ice Sculptures and Lucia

I wasn’t sure whether there were going to be any ice sculptures in the town square this year, as we also have the Buddy Bears exhibition going on… But we got the ice sculpture as well - and not just one, but three!

The theme this year is seedpods. The big one in the middle was carved by the same experienced ice sculptor as previous years, Ragnhild Sandelius Brodow, who has worked with the Icehotel at Jukkasjärvi near Kiruna far up in the north of Sweden. (That entire hotel is made of ice, including furniture and even the glasses in the bar. Follow the link to read more.) She got help with the two smaller ones by two local people.

The artists worked all day, and in the afternoon, as darkness fell, they were finished:

We also had the official crowning of Borås Lucia:

In Scandinavia, Lucia (St. Lucy) is venerated on December 13 in a ceremony where a girl is elected to  be Lucia. Wearing white and a crown of candles on her head, she walks at the head of a procession of more girls (and sometimes boys too). They sing Christmas carols and songs about St Lucy bringing light in the darkness. In one story about the Italian Saint Lucy who is supposed to be the origin of this tradition, she was working to help Christians hiding in the catacombs during the terror under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and in order to bring with her as many supplies as possible, she needed to have both hands free. She solved this problem by attaching candles to a wreath on her head.

In Sweden it is common for each town to elect their own official Lucia with maids who go round to all sorts of places (like hospitals and nursing homes and schools and churches) during the month of December and sing their songs and collect money for charity.

I wasn’t standing close enough to be able to get good photos of the Lucia show, but the sound in the video came out good. It’s an Advent song (in Swedish):

The show ended with a short display of fireworks:

And then Lucia and her maids rode in a horse-drawn cart around the town square:

Happy 2nd Advent Sunday to you all!

Linking to Straight Out of the Camera Sunday
(Most of the photos are straight-out-of, only the close-ups of Lucia and the fireworks were edited a little.)

Weekend Reflections – Winter Sunset

After 3-4 days of snowfall, the sun peeked out of the clouds for a little while yesterday afternoon (just before it went to bed). I took the bus into town for an errand or two and managed to catch these reflections of the setting sun in the river.

Today it’s been even colder. Around -16C (3F) this morning – brrrr. 

For Weekend Reflections and SkyWatch Friday

(What’s up with the world today? For once I’m on time with my postings, but no linky-sites are showing…)

Booking Through Thursday: Records

 http://btt2.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/records/

Do you keep a list of the books you’ve read?
How? Why/why not?

Yes, I keep a list of the books I read. I started it in January 2002, using a Works database on the harddrive on my computer. I lost track for a while a couple of years ago because of a harddrive breakdown (but my brother the computer wizard managed to restore lost files later so then I picked it up again). I probably missed a few entries here and there for other reasons as well; and I don’t always list re-reads. But it’s still a record of most of my reading over the last 10 years, and I find it quite helpful.

I use it to check if I’ve read a certain book, and when; or how many I read over a certain period of time etc. As I have it on database I can also easily find which titles I read by the same author.

So far I have not used the list for ranking books, just author and title, and whether I read it as printed book,  or listened to it as audio book (or, recently added, read it on Kindle).

Occasionally I review or mention certain books on my blog. I don’t do that with every book I read though.