The Honorary Consul - Graham Greene

Author: Graham Greene

Publisher: Vintage Books

First published:1973

Setting: Corrientes, Argentina
Read in January 2014

My Rating ★★★★  4.3

My Waterstones Review

Doctor Eduardo Plarr born of a Paraguayan mother and English father is living in the small river port of Corrientes in Argentina. He is one of three English residents; Doctor Humphries a doctor of letters and Charley Fortnum, the alcoholic Honorary Consul. Doctor Plarr has been having an affair with the Honorary Consul's wife, Clara. 

As a child Eduardo lived in Paraguay and at 14 he and his mother moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina leaving his father on the quay at Asunción. Eduardo is somewhat sympathetic to the causes of the Juventud Febrerista guerrilla action, two of his old school friends Father León Rivas and Aquino are members. Eduardo is aware that they aim to kidnap the American Ambassador and they may need his help. One morning in the early hours Doctor Plarr is awoken by a telephone call and told that a man is dying, he is taken to the place where he expects to attend to the Ambassador only to find that the guerrillas have bungled their mission, they have captured the Honorary Consul.

Eduardo is a bit of a cold fish, he has been emotionally affected by his childhood and finds it difficult building lasting relationships. He has had affairs and occasionally joins other locals at Mother Sanchez' brothel, here he is attracted to Clara but she has other clients one of which is Charley 40 years her senior and soon to be her husband. Eduardo is struggling to understand the notion of love.

The Honorary Consul was Graham Greene's favourite book and has his customary Catholic religious theme. The book is probably pitched in 1969, there is a reference to Nixon as USA President. These are turbulent times for Argentina, there are military dictatorships between the two presidential periods of Juan Perón, kidnapping and political unrest are common. There must have been some affinity with the area for Greene to spend time in Corrientes researching for his book. It is a beautifully written and interesting book, but it was a struggle for Graham Greene and two thirds through he hit a block and nearly abandoned it.

The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell

Author: Suzanne Rindell

Publisher: Penguin Books

First published: 2013

Setting: New York City, USA
Read in January 2014

My Rating ★★★★  4.2

My Waterstones Review

It is 1924 and Rose Baker, our narrator, is a typist at a police precinct exposed to the interrogations of criminals of all types and the smells of the drunks who are brought in for their overnight recuperation. Rose, an orphan that has been raised by nuns, has led a sheltered life where right and wrong have been clearly defined. Prohibition is well established and the mayor has ordered that the police are to crack down on the organized crime that has erupted across the city as a result, they will need to recruit another typist.

Enter Odalie Lazare, a well dressed flapper, but not like Daisy from The Great Gatsby, Odalie is charming and intelligent, but we soon find out she is also streetwise and can manipulate others to perform tasks which are out of character. Rose is drawn into Odalie's web as admiration turns into obsession. There is a growing sense that the book will climax probably with a twist and midway through we are introduced to Rose's doctor, a psychiatrist.

This is an excellent debut novel which is well paced and clever, providing a window into the world of speakeasies and the familiar decadence of the Roaring Twenties, it will more than likely be turned into a film. Throughout the book we are wondering about Odalie's true background, more than one explanation is given. We also wonder about Rose, clearly she considers herself plain and unattractive but the Lieutenant Detective, our batchelor, shows signs of interest, will Rose reciprocate or is Rose in love with Odalie and does she have lesbian tendencies? When we arrive at the end we are left with a number of unanswered questions about both Odalie, Rose and also what actually happened at the climax. Suzanne provides her answer in the last sentence of the book but by then the reader may have been led to other conclusions. As I say it is a clever book.

Exposure - Michael Woodford

Author: Michael Woodford

Publisher: Penguin Books

First published: 2012

Setting: Southend, UK - Hamburg, Germany - Tokyo, Japan
Read in September 2013

My Rating ★★★★★  4.5

My Waterstones Review

Michael Woodford joined the British company KeyMed in 1980 which became a subsidiary of the Olympus Corporation of Japan in 1986. Over thirty years Michael rose through the ranks becoming President of Olympus in April 2011. A rare state for a western man to run a Japanese giant. In October that year he was also made CEO only to be dismissed two weeks later for querying inexplicable payments in excess of  $1.5 billion.

This excellent and revealing book starts four months into Michael's presidency when in July 2011 he receives an email from a friend in Tokyo with subject URGENT NEWS alerting Michael to an article in an obscure Japanese magazine called Facta. In financial years 2008 - 2010 the article alleged that Olympus had purchased three essentially 'Mickey Mouse' companies costing hundreds of millions of dollars. This was under the Presidency of Tsuyoshi Kikukawa who was now Chairman, and having appointed Michael to President had for the first time introduced the role of CEO to Olympus appointing himself to this position.

Michael set about trying to uncover the truth behind these allegations and in so doing risked his job with possible threats to his life. The Japanese police are well aware that people who know too much in Japan tend to meet a bleak fate when corporate scandal erupts. Michael collected the evidence and created a statement to the board of directors for a meeting to be held on October 14th, 2011. In the statement he registered serious concerns in relation to the companies governance. At the board meeting and in the face of the evidence the 15 member Olympus board chose to acquiesce to Kikukawa's motion to dismiss Mr Woodford as President and CEO rather than discuss any of the allegations. Having been dismissed Michael submitted his prepared dossier to the Financial Times in Tokyo and in so doing become one of the worlds biggest corporate whistleblowers, within a few hours he was heading for Hong Kong and for his connecting flight home to safety.

There is no doubt that Michael's values of honesty and integrity drove him to becoming a whistleblower. His preference would have been to root out the issues from within and having been dismissed he could have kept quiet, the safer option. But he was prepared for his dismissal and what he would do when the inevitable occurred. There is a Japanese saying which when translated reads 'The honest man is sure to lose'. What is revealed by this book is how the corporate systems of Japan appear closed and not open to as much scrutiny as would be the case in other parts of the world. But perhaps a new wind is emerging; the Japanese edition of Exposure has become a bestseller.

This is a great book and recommended reading for all business people, it is easy to read and gripping, a real page turner for a business book!  Since the story became public Michael has been named Business Person of the Year 2011 by the Sunday Times, the Independent and the Sun, and in 2012 won the Financial Times ArcelorMittal Award for Boldness in Business. In 2013 he was the winner of the inaugural Contrarian Prize.

Field Grey - Philip Kerr

Author: Philip Kerr

Publisher: Quercus

First published: 2010

Setting: Cuba, New York, Germany, Minsk, France, Russia
Read in January 2014

My Rating ★★★  3.4

My Waterstones Review

Field Grey is set in 1954, starts in Cuba, ends in Berlin, in between Bernie Gunther, our ex-detective, will go via New York, Germany, France and back to Germany, most often traveling from prison to prison. The book is not written linearly and under interrogation Bernie reminisces events from 1941, 1931, 1940, 1945, and 1946 and in various locations; Minsk (Belarus), Germany, France and Russia. If you have gathered the gist, with 21 time and location changes across 40 chapters this is not the easiest book to follow, but at least Philip must have recognized this as a problem because each chapter heading repositions us by location and time. Just keep reminding yourself that time now is 1954 and when it isn't then we are time traveling.

This is my 7th Bernie Gunther story, Berlin Noir counting as three of these, I am a great fan, but Field Grey was disappointing. It is the 7th in the series of 9, the last was - A Man Without Breath (2013). I am treating Field Grey as a bit of a blip as I loved Prague Fatale which was published one year later in 2011. Then again it might just be me, the 1500+ goodread reviewers rated it at an average of 4.03.

Goodread reviews of Philip Kerr books

Field Grey has a great start and end, but at 567 pages it is the middle which starts to drag. It is the lack of plot which drove my rating. The reminisces follow the history between Bernie and Erich Mielke who in 1954 is not quite the top dog in the East German Ministry of State Security, the Stasi. Erich Mielke was actually a real person, the head of the secret police for 32 years from 1957. In 1993 after German reunification Erich Mielke was convicted of the murders of two police officers Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck in 1931 which is when Erich and Bernie first met in Field Grey, but in Chapter 12.

All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren

Author: Robert Penn Warren

Publisher: Penguin Modern Classics

First published:1946

Setting: Louisiana, USA
Read in December 2013

My Rating ★★★★  4.2

My Waterstones Review

Robert Penn Warren won a Pulitzer Prize (1947) for this novel. It was made into a film in 1949 (winner of 3 Academy Awards and nominated in 4 other categories) and also in 2006. It is written in the first person, Jack Burden is a journalist and fixer for "the Boss" Governor Willie Stark. We follow the life of Willie from a "play by the book" lawyer who is respected for his anti-corruption stance through to his ultimate demise, in politics you cannot always play with a straight bat.

This is a great book with a number of themes, love (and affairs), family, race, slavery, education, alcohol, religion and politics. It is loosley based on Huey Pierce Long Jr, a Governor of Louisiana and a member of the United States Senate until he was assassinated. You will find on the first page that it uses politically incorrect language in today's terms but this should not spoil the enjoyment of reading this long book.

The book jumps back and forth in time and this can be a bit confusing. The present is 1936 but we start with a journey remembered back three years earlier and Jack soon recollects the time when he first met Willie Stark in 1922. In Chapter 4 we are thrown even further back in time, pre-Civil War, when slavery was rife in the middle of the 19th Century, this chapter seems a little redundant with the rest of the book. While the book is considered as a political story, we are also following the developing relationships between Jack, his mother and father, and the fellow residents of Burden's Landing, Judge Irwin, and his childhood friends Anne and Adam Stanton. Will Jack and Anne eventually get together?

The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald

Author: F.Scott Fitzgerald

Publisher: Wordsworth Classics

First published: 1925

Setting: Long Island, New York, USA
Read in January 2014

My Rating ★★★★  4.3

My Waterstones Review

This is a short novel at 115 pages which is as much about the narrator Nick Carraway as it is the subject of the title, Jay Gatz (Gatsby). It is the summer of 1922 and Nick lives in the fictional area of West Egg on Long Island directly across the sound from his second cousin once removed Daisy, who is married to Tom Buchanan, they have a three year old daughter. Nick has a small cottage next to the mansion owned by Mr Gatsby whose lavish parties are the talk of New York. Nick is reacquainted with Daisy and meets Daisy's friend Jordan Baker a golf champion, Daisy is to encourage the pairing up of Jordan and Nick. 'Tom's got some woman in New York.' says Jordan. Soon we are to meet Myrtle the wife of George B Wilson a garage owner and mechanic. Back in 1917, five years earlier, Daisy had met Jay Gatsby, an officer from the nearby Camp Taylor who was waiting to embark for Europe, they had fallen in love with each other.

This is a book about love and obsession driven by wealth. Tom has inherited wealth, old money, and he is obsessed with finding out how Gatsby has obtained his new money, a form of snobbery. Tom suspects Gatsby is involved in bootlegging, prohibition had been introduced in 1920; it was not illegal to own or consume alcohol, and it was abundantly available at Gatsby's parties. Gatsby is obsessed with winning back Daisy, Mrytle is obsessed with milking her position as Tom's mistress and trying to extract herself from her loveless marriage. This is the quintessential book describing the American Roaring Twenties (The Jazz Age) and its decadent living. The Great Gatsby was inspired by the parties that Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda attended when they became the celebrity couple following the publishing success of Fitzgerald's first novel - This Side of Paradise. It predictably ends in tragedy for all concerned.

This Side of Paradise - F.Scott Fitzgerald

Author: F.Scott Fitzgerald

Publisher: Alma Classics

First published: 1920

Setting: Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Read in December 2013

My Rating ★★★  3.4

My Waterstones Review

This is the first of F.Scott Fitzgerald's novels. It introduces us to the ambitious young Amory Blaine from the midwest and his arrival at Princeton University. It has parallels with Fitzgerald's own life, he also attended Princeton. It is split into two books.

The first book - The Romantic Egotist - soon introduces us to the sudden revulsion felt following Amory's first kiss with the unfortunate Myra St Claire whose party is now spoiled. But Amory is not discouraged and through his school years proceeds to collect locks of hair and rings. Amory considers himself in possession of personality, charm, magnetism, and poise, an exceedingly handsome chap with the gift of fascinating all women. Amory is sent by his mainly absent mother, Beatrice, to St Regis boarding school in Connecticut and he is also to visit a family friend, Monsignor Darcy, a Roman Catholic priest. At St Regis Amory reads voluminously, classifies men into "The Slicker" or "The Big Man" and concerns himself with the intricacies of a university social system. At 18 and while in his Sophomore year at Princeton, Amory briefly returns to Minneapolis and falls for Isabelle Borgé his arranged dinner partner. Isabelle remarks on his keen eyes, and in response Amory attempts to make his eyes look even keener. The first book completes with Amory in his Senior year at Princeton with The Great War scarcely touching him and his friends except for the sounds of the afternoon drills.

The second book - The Education of a Personage - follows a short Interlude which finds Amory as second lieutenant preparing for embarkation to Europe. The second book starts by introducing us to the Connage daughters, 19 year old Debutante Rosalind and her sister Cecilia 16. Amory is nearly 23, a second love to be won and lost. Amory is now bored and restless and no longer able to wander the bars due to the introduction of prohibition. Amory is starting to write and has some articles published but is not earning enough to make a living, his inherited investments are doing poorly. He needs a purpose and seeks help from his old friend Monsignor Darcy. We follow Amory through various incidents involving Eleanor (a third love) and her horse, and in Atlantic City with his friend Alec Connage; this had chilled following the brief encounter with Rosalind. These are life's lessons, far from the optimism experienced at Princeton (Paradise) and in a world full of struggle where disillusionment with life itself is all too real. Following Monsignor Darcy's funeral and Amory's walk to Princeton when he is picked up and discusses politics with Jesse Ferrenby, the man with the googles, there is a road to Damascus moment, whether in art, politics or religion, whatever his medium Amory cries "I know myself, but that is all".