Review: This accursed land: An epic solo journey across Antarctica

This Accursed Land: An epic solo journey across Antarctica by Lennard Bickel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I came across this book in a second-hand bookshop and my friend was very enthusiastic about encouraging me to read it. I am so glad that he did.

The tale of Douglas Mawson's intrepid exploration of parts of Antarctica was put together by Lennard Bickel (1913-2002) and published in 1975. Bickel had been a journalist before becoming an author and knew how to do the background research needed for this kind of book. The result is a splendid and dramatic account of some of the most gruelling and difficult journeys imaginable. So many strong and intrepid men died in these explorations. The pursuit of knowledge, the exploration of new lands and the training and preparation required for such adventures are covered in good detail, without getting too bogged down in documenting everything.

The book did not capture my imagination immediately, as the early Chapters provide the context for Mawson's explorations and his associations with other, more famous explorers, such as Scott and Shackleton, with whom he had travelled to Antarctica before the journey covered in the main part of this book. After all the preparation for the journey, finding the funds and the establishment of the base, the story gets into the exploratory journey across the ice and snow in weather conditions that are still, to me, bordering on the unimaginable. So many of these journeys stretched from months into years! The commitment of these people is incredible and inspirational.

I have been to the Arctic, in Northern Sweden and in Svalbard, but nothing in the North would give an insight in the conditions in Antarctica. The explanations, in passing, of how the geography of Antarctica affects the blistering winds and endless storms are useful and very interesting. There are so many fascinating facts in this book, such as the extent of the land and the ice, the sheer size of the glaciers and the savage beauty of the place that pulls people back to it with an urge to spend more time there.

I guess this book would no appeal to everyone. But if you like to read ripping yarns about intrepid people taking themselves beyond the limit of human endurance, then this is the the kind of thing you should read. Because of the slow start to the book, and the gradual build of tension and pace, this one of the few books that led me to read it again immediately on finishing it. The imagery of Antarctica and the personalities of the characters will stay with me for a long time.

If you have got this far in my review, then I am sure you will enjoy this book!

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Review: My sister the serial killer

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I thought this was going to be a good book judging by the cover! Also, it seems to have generated many positive and enthusiastic reviews. But ultimately, I was disappointed. The book did not really have a point or a purpose. It was just a narrative about a people who were mostly self-interested and sociopathic, to the point that some of them were psycopathic. Some of the nice people were given rather marginal roles that could have developed into major roles, but not much was done with them. It was a very interesting premise and could have been a macabre tale with twists and turns, leading to an interesting conclusion. However, it seems that many opportunities were lost along the way.

Korede is resentful of her beautiful sister, Ayoola, who develops habit of killing her boyfriends for no real reason. She seems largely driven by disinterest or ennui coupled with the wish to avoid confrontation. Korede feels that it is wrong for her sister to be murdering men, and resents having to clean up and dispose of the bodies, but not suffciently to actually confront Ayoola or, indeed, do the decent thing and report her to the police. It seems just too much trouble to deal with this situation in any kind of principled way. Resentment seems sufficient, it seems.

I think a lot of this tale was intended to be darkly funny. But the way the characters were developed and the way that they behaved revealed people who were self-obsessed and not very interesting, as a result. They only wanted what was best for themselves. None of them seemed to have a sense of being part of anything greater than their own lives. This portrayal of unpleasant people through their own eyes is something that the author does well. But, despite the build up on the cover of the book, there is nothing of the thriller here. Those who are not evil are sidelined and disadvantaged, each in their own way. Those who are inherently evil, the two sisters, come closer together and develop a stronger relationship based on their complicity in the murders. Through their eyes, everyone around them is lazy and useless, and that feeds their deep resentment about the world.

I didn't enjoy the lack of character development; I didn't enjoy the lack of any aspect of a "thriller" in the tale; I didn't enjoy the lack of humour and I didn't enjoy the clumsy way in which one psycopath indulged herself in murders, helping her sociopathic sister to become comfortably complicit in the murders. While it was ejoyable to think about life in Nigeria and pick up a little of the fascinating Nigerian culture and way of life, I am left thinking that I wish I had not read this. It just so utterly disappointing on every level. It was not satirical, or funny, just a dull narrative of a sequence of rather disgusting events with no real point or purpose. It was, actually, quite boring.

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