POPULAR FICTION
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS by Elizabeth Gilbert (Bloomsbury £18.99 % £16.99)
ELIZABETH ‘ Eat, Pray, Love’ Gilbert brings us another questing heroine, only this time she’s fictional and ready to bust her corsets taking on 19th-century social norms.
Meet American princess Alma Whittaker, only daughter of millionaire horticulturalist Henry and his stern Dutch intellectual wife Beatrix (a stand-out character in a book that is full of them). Alma is not beautiful but is brains on a stick, a botanist like her father.
Her interests, initially plant-related, grow more personal and physical as she seeks an outlet for her strong sensual streak. She starts to specialise in orchids and moss (metaphor alert!). Outside of her microscope, there are tragic friendships, disastrous affairs, troublesome siblings, always drama.
Gilbert writes superbly well, especially in the opening sections of the novel where Alma’s father’s rise to riches is grippingly told and would have made a wonderful book in itself.
SUBTLE BODIES by Norman Rush (Granta £14.99 % £13.49)
ALWAYS a brilliant premise for a story, a former college clique gathering for the funeral of the clique leader.
Lots of scope t here f or ruminations on friendship, elitism and the passage of time. Douglas has died young, suddenly and — given his celebrated arrogance — somewhat bathetically (he falls off the edge of the cliff whilst driving his tractor mower).
The long-dispersed clique members, gathered from the four corners of America to Douglas’s luxury country compound, have changed surprisingly little since college days.
Main character Ned, still feeling like the least successful of the bunch, is trying to conceive with his jolly girlfriend Nina, who follows him to the funeral so they can have sex on time. Once there, she brings her kooky brand of sanity to the occasionally weird proceedings. Absorbing, entertaining and agreeably sombre.
THE WILDFLOWER PATH by Sarah Harrison (Orion £14.99 % £13.49)
THE wonderfully middle-class world of Harrison’s Drake family is as relaxing as an extended omnibus of The Archers. The action spans most of t he 20th-century and most parts of the globe.
There are betrayals and disasters, twists of fate and new beginnings for all members of the extended clan. I loved matriarch Kate’s always ladylike behaviour and her cool King’s College choirboy great-grandson.
But my absolute favourites were Stella, the cheerfully promiscuous not-very-maiden aunt, and feckless but adorable father, Will. Everyone gets their just deserts and it all ties up most satisfactorily in the end. This was my f i rst Harrison and her highly- detailed, perspicacious style, full of insight and gentle humour, was a revelation.