Page 65 - Phonebox Magazine February 2010

Book Review
By Oxfam Bookshop, Olney
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
‘The Secret Scripture’ was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, and was the Costa Book of the Year for 2008. It has a lyrical quality about it, and it not surprising to learn that the author has also published books of poetry. It is also reminiscent in its style of Irish playwrights such as Sean O’Casey.
Roseanne McNulty is a hundred years old, and has spent most of her life in mental hospitals, first in Sligo, the town where she was born and brought up, and subsequently in Roscommon. However, that building is old and due for demolition; a new hospital has been built, which is smaller and has fewer beds. Dr Grene, head psychiatrist in charge of Roscommon hospital has the task of assessing his patients to see which of them can be discharged into the community and which of those remaining will be accommodated at the new hospital. It is as part of this assessment that he spends time with Roseanne.
The novel is structured in such a way that we have two sources of information; that which is written by Roseanne and hidden under a loose floorboard in her room, entitled ‘Roseanne’s testimony of herself’, and that written in Dr Grene’s ‘commonplace book’. Sometimes the accounts conflict and it is up to the reader to decide which is more accurate, although certain details do correspond. It is also significant that, although Roseanne was born and brought up in Ireland, Dr Grene is from England.
As the novel progresses our sympathies are primarily with Roseanne, unjustly shut away from the world for no other reason than that she is a woman who has offended a more influential family, a woman with no family of her own and no one to defend her. However, they are also with Dr Grene, struggling with the task of deciding who can manage their own lives outside the hospital, and also coping with a terminally-ill wife. As Dr Grene spends more time than strictly necessary with Roseanne, he becomes curious about her background and the reason for her incarceration. Contact with a friend at Sligo hospital results in interesting findings.
The book is beautifully written, but has a brooding sadness throughout, set as it is against a backdrop of Ireland’s turbulent history. Fascinating it may be, but it is not for the fainthearted!
My Tango with Barbara Strozzi by Russell Hoban
Review by Thelma Shacklady
Phil Okerman is a novelist and is newly separated from the wife who left him because his writing was unoriginal. At a tango class for beginners he meets Bertha Strunk, who is also recently separated. Bertha bears a strong physical resemblance to the seventeenth century Venetian singer and composer, Barbara Strozzi (with whom Phil is somewhat obsessed) but turns out to have a strong personality which is all her own.
On their first serious date Phil and Bertha watch the film The Rainmaker, which deals with wife beating and murder, and Bertha admits that she is hiding from her violent husband. When Phil subsequently finds himself carrying around an offensive weapon, in the shape of a baseball bat, he begins to wonder where film and music and literature stop for him, and where reality starts.
The story of this unusual courtship is told in the first person, with alternating chapters from Phil and Bertha so that we get both points of view. It covers a lot of ground, physically, as the protagonists make their way between various locations in London and beyond. And it covers almost as much ground in terms of ideas about life, literature and the arts. This is not to say that the book is heavy going. On the contrary, it races along and is a light- hearted and amusing read - albeit with an edge of sexual tension and potential violence beneath the wittily told, eccentric tale. In fact it is what you would expect from Russell Hoban who is incapable of writing badly and can tackle any subject from an amusing and improbable new angle – thus forcing you, unwittingly, to think about it in new ways. Enjoy it and then seek out his other books, you won't be disappointed.
Review by Sandra Metcalf
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