The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach

Originally published in 2004 as These Foolish Things, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach is a book that I enjoyed so much that I am going to recommend it to everyone who will listen.

For many of us, reading is an escape from the concerns of our daily lives – a time out, when we can disappear into a world that is not our own. When I choose a novel to read I am looking for a book that takes me to another place – one so absorbing that the characters become real – writing that is a pleasure to read – and that “something” that cannot be described that makes a particular book so much more satisfying than others. There are writers like Bernard MacLaverty, William Trevor, Ian McEwan, Colm Toibin, Julian Barnes – you know what I mean – who write with such beauty that their books are what we call literature. Then there are the next best – the really good writers whose books rise above most and present readers with a really well-written, pleasure to read, entertaining, insightful, and sometimes, funny story. Deborah Moggach is one of these, and her novel The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is of those books you just don’t want to put down, and as soon as you’ve finished you want to share it with a friend.

Recently made into a film, just opening in England, the novel The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel will be re-discovered by readers on both sides of the Atlantic. Watching the trailer for the film we see a couple of familiar faces from Downton Abbey, Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton, along with Judi Dench, as cast members. The story line seems to be quite different from the novel, so as much as I’d like to see the film I’m not sure about seeing it while the novel is fresh in my mind. I want to savour this novel a little longer before seeing it changed by a filmmaker.

The story begins in England, where we meet Dr. Ravi Kapoor, an Indian immigrant, his wife Pauline, a travel agent, and her father, Norman Purse. Norman is living with Pauline and Ravi, after being kicked out of yet another retirement home. Ravi and Pauline are not alone in their attempt to find an affordable and congenial residence for their parent. We meet a number of other older men and women – mostly women – and their adult children who do not want to live together – or alone – but cannot find a better solution. Until Ravi and his cousin Sonny come up with a brilliant idea – take over a failing hotel in Bangalore. Built in 1865, this grand building retains the charm of the days of the Raj, and is the perfect place to convert as a home for aging Brits. What better a place for them than in the warm – and inexpensive – climate of India?

And the fun begins, with the reader following along as this group of strangers meet each other, form relationships, explore an unfamiliar world, examine the past and contemplate the future over the coming months. There is some sadness for those missing a spouse after a good marriage, or regretting the estrangement of a child, now a distant grown man or woman missed by their parent. There is a great deal of sex – most of it great fun – in fantasy or fact.

Imagine if Faulty Towers was transported to India and filled with pensioners. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is altogether tremendous fun and a thoroughly “good read.” Guaranteed.

Restoration by Olaf Olafsson

Some time ago I read the books War in Val D’Orcia and Images and Shadows by Iris Origo, and a biography about Iris Origo by Caroline Moorhead (the review was posted on our website in March 2010). During a trip to Tuscany I visited the home of Iris Origo, south of Montepulciano, a farm she and her husband restored and cultivated before, during, and after the Second World War. It is still a working farm, producing olive oil, and some of the buildings are now used as tourist accommodation.

The Icelandic-American author Olaf Olafsson, researching and reading about Tuscany, came across these same books and was obviously as taken with the story of this woman as I was. He though, chose to write a novel about Tuscany, taking the liberty of using the life of Iris Origo as the all-too-real “inspiration” for one of the characters in his recently published novel Restoration. This is what drew me to the novel, but as I read I felt decidedly uncomfortable, feeling that there was something unseemly about using this woman’s personal life as the character in a novel. Perhaps it was because the author seemed to me to be far too factual in using events in Iris Origo’s life, while at the same time taking liberties with her life that somehow seemed to be over-stepping some ethical line. It was not until the author moved further away from fact into fiction that I felt that he was writing a novel and not a biography.

Restoration is not in any way meant to be historical fiction, which again makes me wonder why the author did not simply create a character who may have lived in a manner similar to Iris Origo but not so closely that she would be identified with the real woman. Olaf Olafsson does admit that he uses Iris Origo as the inspiration for the character Alice in his novel, and he gradually adds other characters who are based on some of Iris Origo’s family and friends, while others might be pure fiction.

The novel takes place during the Second World War as Alice’s farm provides a home for orphans, and shelters partisans and Allied soldiers who have escaped from the Nazi occupation. Alice’s husband disappeared shortly after the death of their only child, and as Alice thinks of what she would say to her husband if he were there, the story is told. A much more fictional character, Kristin, also tells her own story. Kristin is an artist specializing in the restoration of oil paintings, working for an art dealer in Rome, and later finding shelter on Alice’s farm. You will read about the theft of Italian art by the Nazi’s and the Monuments Men of the US forces who attempted to locate, and protect, and then repatriate works of art plundered during the war.

The American writer David Leavitt reviewed Restoration for the Sunday New York Times and was brave enough to express his own sense of outrage about the way in which Olaf Olafsson used the life of Iris Origo in his novel. It may be that some of those who read Restoration will be intrigued enough to want to read further about the life of Iris Origo and if they do, they will discover the story of a remarkable woman and a fascinating time in the history of Italy.

The link to David Leavitt’s review is

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/books/review/olaf-olafssons-new-novel-restoration.html?pagewanted=all

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

Susan Vreeland is well known for her historical novels, all featuring figures from the world of art. Her newest, just released in paperback, Clara and Mr. Tiffany is about the Tiffany studios, and the young women who worked there – most importantly Clara Driscoll, who was an important designer for the studios for many years.

We learn about the establishment of the Tiffany jewelry store – Charles Tiffany buying up jewels in Europe in 1848 “when Louis Philippe’s regime collapsed and the aristocracy was on the run and sold their jewels for half their value.” Tiffany reset the jewels in new styles to appeal to the Vanderbilts and the Astors and their like – and, as we know, he was very successful.

In 1893 Charles’ son Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibited spectacular stained glass windows at the Chicago World’s Fair and secured his reputation as a master of art glass design and production. The world of stained glass production in the Tiffany studios – where the women’s department employed unmarried women only – is a fascinating one. This is Clara Driscoll’s world – one she left for a brief marriage – but later returned to, and spent many years there developing an important career in art glass.

We see the New York City of the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s through Clara’s eyes, as she explores a rapidly growing Manhattan. Clara walks across the incredible Brooklyn Bridge, she rides the newly opened subway uptown from Union Square, and like anyone new to the city she visits the Statue of Liberty – “Liberty Enlightening the World.” If only the employers of women at this time had been enlightened! These are the early days of labour unions – for men only – and there are no rights for female workers.

Clara lives in a boarding house near Gramercy Park where she quickly makes friends among the other boarders, especially with a couple of young men, artists themselves. It is a lively and satisfying life, although Clara does wish for a husband, a partner in life, despite the fact that she would have to leave her job if she were to marry. We learn about the lives of some of the Lower East Side immigrants, some who are encouraged to train as artists at the various art academies – perhaps some will become future members of what became known the Ashcan School of Art. Some of these students also become workers in Clara’s studio at Tiffany –taking them out of the poverty and crowded conditions of the Lower East Side.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany is a novel about art and artists above all else – as one character says, to become an artist “it takes a person who delights in looking long and deeply at something until he sees how its shape can be rendered in changes of hue, and who can re-create that on a flat surface”. Of course it takes far more that that, but that is a good start – and it is a good description of Clara’s approach.

Clara Driscoll is now credited with designing many of the elaborate stained glass lampshades for which Tiffany is most famous – when she was working at the Tiffany studios her name was unknown, but an exhibit of her work in 2007 displayed her talent to the world, and planted a seed that for Susan Vreeland eventually led to the writing of this novel.

The War Horse & Tintin – two films and many, many books

Congratulations to Michael Morpurgo – one of my favourite authors of children’s books, and author of The War Horse – first a novel, then a stage play and now a film. There is nothing like the release of a new film to re-vitalize interest in the author of the book that inspired the film.

Michael Morpurgo has been writing books for a good long time – picture books and novels for children of all ages. He is an author I recommend over and over again – he writes with such compassion and respect for his young readers, yet his books are sophisticated enough to enchant adult readers as well. His characters are children who face challenges. They must find the inner strength to withstand the worry and distress of the situations in which they find themselves, and the physical strength to survive physical challenges. They always do find that strength and, although there may be some characters in his novels who do not survive, the main characters always do, and things resolve well.

There are two other war stories that I recommend by Michael Morpurgo. The first, Waiting for Anya, is the story of children in a French village under Nazi occupation during the Second World War. Michael Morpurgo writes about the relationship between the villagers, frightened and secretive, and the German soldiers so far from home who are missing their own families. When a young boy discovers that Jewish children are being smuggled across the mountains to safety he must not only keep this secret, but help when he is needed.

The second is a book for much older children, darker than many of Morpurgo’s novels, Private Peaceful takes place during the First World War and could be seen as a companion novel to The War Horse. Two brothers enlist in the army, and only one returns after experiencing the true horror of war.

As with all of Morpurgo’s novels these books are as riveting to read for adults as they are for children – he is an author I never hesitate to recommend for readers of all ages.
The film The War Horse has introduced Michael Morpurgo to a new generation of readers who will discover his many very excellent books.

Then we have Tintin! The books that make up The Adventures of Tintin have also been around for a very long time – the first published in 1930. Belgian writer Georges Remi – his pen name Hergé – was a political cartoonist who first published his Tintin stories as serials in a newspaper. They were hugely successful as readers followed Tintin’s travels to all parts of the world. As the world, and indeed Remi’s political thinking changed with the rise of Fascism and the Nazi Party, so did the focus of the Tintin stories. Throughout the Second World War Tintin carried on – entertaining and educated his loyal readers.

Always popular in Europe, in North America Tintin’s popularity has fluctuated over the years, a generation ago he was still avidly being read, especially by teenage boys. More recently, with the popularity of graphic novels, and now a film, we can re-introduce Tintin to a new generation of readers.

Gustav Klimt and The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey

2012 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the painter Gustav Klimt. Klimt was born in Baumgarten, now the outskirts of Vienna in 1862, into a creative but poor family. Gustav Klimt attended the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts on a scholarship and then made a career as a commissioned painter of murals. To mark the anniversary the museums and galleries in the city of his birth, Vienna, are mounting exhibits of his work and the work of other artists and designers of the Vienna Secession movement.

Elizabeth Hickey uses fact and imagination to weave together a story about Gustav Klimt and Emilie Floge in her novel named for one of the artist’s most well known portraits The Painted Kiss. The works we know best by Gustav Klimt are his portraits – many are of the wealthy Viennese women of this time, the daughters and wives of powerful men, including Emilie Floge. Klimt and Emilie met in 1886 when she was a young teenager and was brought to Klimt for art lessons. Their relationship changed when Emilie comes of age and, as other women came into and out of the life of Gustav Klimt, Emilie remained a constant companion, his friend and (possibly) sometimes lover until his death in 1918.

Emilie Floge also became a successful business woman, operating a fashion design house, many of her creations echoing the Klimt designs we know so well.

For most of his adult life Klimt spent summers at Attersee with Emilie Floge painting the landscape. Less well known than his portraits and murals the landscapes show the painterly talent of the artist.

Some of Klimt’s portraits have been in the news in recent years. Many were portraits of wealthy Jewish women painted in Vienna, and belonging to families who were still living in splendor in Vienna prior to the Second World War. When families fled, forced to leave their possessions behind, some of these paintings ended up in the hands of the Nazis. Now, at the centre of court cases families have fought to have these – now extremely valuable – paintings returned.
Klimt was also involved in design work with the Secessionist designer Josef Hoffmann and the Weiner Werkstatte known for their geometric design in the early 1900’s, a departure from the Victorian style of an earlier generation. Those who could afford to embraced, both the art of Klimt and his circle, and the interior design and furniture of the Weiner Werkstatte.

The Weiner Werkstatte was planned over a dinner, set with Sevres china and French silverware, by a group of young artists and designers influenced by the work that Charles Rennie Macintosh was producing in Great Britain, as the world moved from the ornate Victorian to simpler geometric design.

The Painted Kiss gives us a portrait of Gustav Klimt, the man and the artist, his story told from the point of view of Emilie Floge, the woman who knew him best.