My Book Reviews for December 2024
My Book Reviews for December 2024
My Book Reviews for December 2024 comprise a horror classic and three non-fiction titles: one about living under Nazi Germany and two about writing craft.
It’s fifty years since this was published. I’ve never seen the film and this is the first time I’ve read the book. It’s rather good and I can see why it did well. It mostly stands the test of time although there’s a lack of diversity in the characters and many of the males are prone to sexism, but no doubt these are reflections of its time and place.
The theme, however, feels topical. A seaside resort relies on its summer visitors to survive. Many of these visitors own second homes there, leaving it as a ghost town in the winter and reducing availability for locals. Moreover, there’s a good chance some part-time residents won’t even choose to occupy their holiday homes during the summer, preferring to travel elsewhere. Every year, local businesses hold their collective breath to see what kind of summer they will have. It’s no surprise, then, that when a passing shark munches through a late-night swimmer, the townsfolk want the attack hushed up. The chief of police, Brody, wants to close the beaches for a couple of days just to be sure the shark has moved on, but powerful locals override his decision with devastating consequences. The reader roots for Brody as he battles not only the shark but also the vested interests of his neighbours and superiors.
The gory bits are all there on the page, but mercifully brief - it doesn’t take those eponymous jaws long to do their job. The descriptions of the shark’s behaviour felt authentic and well researched. It’s notable that Peter Benchley went on to write non-fiction about ocean and shark conservation.
I’ve been lucky enough to go on a beach holiday this week and I made Jaws my poolside read. There aren’t any sharks here, but we have seen whales and crocodiles. A loud bell sounds on the beach whenever whales come close to shore and signs warn about the crocodiles. My reading seems to have taken on an added layer of suspense…
A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd
Through the gaze of Oberstdorf in Bavaria, the most southerly village in Germany, this weighty and meticulously researched book looks at the years of National Socialism from the rise of the Nazi party and jockeying for local political power, via the initially ‘heroic’, later desperate war years, to the nervous surrender and desolate aftermath.
The author goes into incredible detail to describe the lives and fates of over fifty villagers: the ardent Nazis – some cruel, some not quite so cruel; the brave anti-Nazis; the ambivalent; the ordinary; the children and adolescents; the conscripts; the refugees; and the persecuted victims.
By seeing this period in history through the life stories of individuals – such as the nineteen-year-old blind musician rounded up and sent to ‘hospital’ and murdered; the well-respected Jewish textile mill owner who was protected by senior villagers right up until 1945 when the Gestapo letter finally arrived and he commited suicide before they could send him to a concentration camp; the sixteen-year-old called up to die on the frontline in the last weeks of the war even though the German government knew they had lost; and the consistently anti-fascist pastor, who was nonetheless imprisoned by the Allies after the surrender – the reader gets an overwhelming sense of the monstrousness of the regime and the barbarism of warfare.
If you're thinking of writing a book or have one about to be published, this book explains the stages of getting it to market and what steps you can take to improve its chances of success. The best self-help guide on publishing I have read.
There’s a fair bit of overlap with book 1, Screenwriting Tricks For Authors, and with the Save the Cat series by various authors. However, I found it useful to read again the advice on structure and editing. (I can never have too many reminders to stop me sliding into old writing habits.) It was also fun to see the analyses of several romantic comedies. I’d recommend this book to anyone writing novels or screenplays.
So those are My Reviews for December 2024. Please pop back in a couple of days to see my best reads of the year.