December 2022 Reading List

As I write this post, it is Friday afternoon, December 30. I've just finished reading the 7th book for this month, and although there is still one more day left in the month, it is unlikely that I can finish an eighth book before the month comes to an end. Therefore, I'll write the post now and have it ready for tomorrow.

If it should happen that I'm able to finish another in the time remaining I will edit this post.

Unlike some other months, I haven't posted many reviews in December for the books I've read immediately following my having read them. I did, however manage to write something about A.J. Cronin as well as one book by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. 

I can't say enough about how much I admire the work of Dr.Cronin. His Hatter's Castle is one of the best books I've read this year. More of his novels will be going into the queue for 2023.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I enjoyed reading all three books in Kawaguchi's Café series, and I recommend the trilogy, although I'm looking forward to the day when Kawaguchi spreads out and writes a novel that is not part of the same series.

For the 4th book of December, I switched from fiction to non-fiction, reading Anna Reid's Leningrad : The Epic Siege of World War II.

I don't recall exactly how I discovered Seishi Yokomizo. Yokomizo was a popular Japanese mystery novelist during the immediate post WWII period. His mystery novels have only recently been translated into English. The first in 2019. So far, five of his mystery novels have been translated into English although #5 won't be available until sometime in 2023. I have read the first two - the third and fourth will be the first two I'll read in January.

The final book finished this month (and this year as well) is a mystery novel mentioned by Seishi Yokomizo in The Honjin Murders - The Red House Mystery by A.A.Milne.

Milne is best remembered as the creator of Winnie - the - Pooh. The Red House Mystery is his only mystery novel. He mentions in his dedication of the novel to his father that the elder Milne was a great fan of detective and mystery novels and the younger Milne wrote this novel especially for his father. I, for one, wish that Milne had written more in the genre. I enjoyed reading The Red House Mystery and would liked to have seen the amateur detective, Anthony Gillingham team up with his friend Bill Beverly in more novels.

So, now - here is the list of the books I read in December, 2022. I can recommend all seven.

The Stars Look Down                                         by A.J. Cronin 

Before Your Memory Fades                               by Toshikazu Kawaguchi  

Hatter's Castle                                                   by A.J. Cronin 

Leningrad The Epic Siege of World War II       by Anna Reid  

The Honjin Murders                                          by Seishi Yokomizo  

Death on Gokumon Island                                 by Seishi Yokomizo  

The Red House Mystery                                     by A. A. Milne

Before Your Memory Fades

 

In August of this year, I discovered the novels of Japanese writer, Toshikazu Kawaguchi . At that time, he had published two novels - Before the Coffee Gets Cold and a sequel, Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café. Both tell of a café in Tokyo that allows its customers to travel back in time.

As I mentioned in the blog post linked to above, a third book in the series, Before Your Memory Fades was scheduled for release in November. Naturally, I had to get my hands on a copy of the ebook.

The wikipedia summary of the first novel describes all three novels in the series rather well:

In a narrow back alley in Tokyo lies a café called Funiculi Funicula. In the café, customers have the opportunity to travel back to a time of their choosing, as long as they follow a long list of rules. There is only one seat in the café that allows time travel; the seat is only available when the ghost that usually occupies it goes for a toilet break; once back in time, customers can't leave the seat; the only people in the past who can be met are people who have visited the café; whatever happens in the past, the present won't change; and, most importantly, the customer has to return to the present before their cup of coffee goes cold.

The main difference in the third novel is that the stories take place in a different café (Donna Donna) in Hakodate rather than Tokyo. The same family is charge of pouring the coffee that permits the time travel.

I enjoyed reading all three books in the series, and recommend the trilogy - however, I'm looking forward to the day when Kawaguchi spreads out and writes a novel that is not part of the same series.

A.J. Cronin

I had not gotten very far along in reading A. J. Cronin's 1935 novel, The Stars Look Down when the thought came to me - why haven't I heard of this novel, or the writer, before now? I became enthralled with the work almost immediately. However, I would not have been aware of Cronin had I not been reading Dorothy L. Sayers' mystery novel, Busman's Honeymoon.

In Sayers' book, she writes that Lord Wimsey's mother wrote in her diary about her attempt to read a book entitled The Stars Look Down:
"21 May.--Was reading The Stars Look Down (Mem. very depressing, and not what I expected from the title--think I must have had a Christmas carol in mind, but remember now it has something to do with the Holy Sepulchre--must ask Peter and make sure)".

I did a web search and found this description of the novel at wikipedia:
"The novel is set in 'Sleescale,' a mining town on the coast of Northumberland, as well as in 'Tynecastle' (Newcastle upon Tyne). While 'Sleescale' is a fictional locale, it is based on an excellent knowledge of similar places and people. Cronin, a Scot, served as Medical Inspector of Mines in the South Wales Valleys during the 1920s.
Beginning before World War I and extending into the 1930s, the story shows the different careers of several persons: principally, a miner's son who aspires to defend his people politically, a miner who becomes a businessman, and the mine owner's son in conflict with his domineering father."

I suspect that Sayers' mentioning of the book was a dig at Lord Wimsey's mother, rather than any criticism of Cronin's novel.

I remained puzzled. Cronin was a very well known writer in his day - there have been at least 19 film adaptations of his work as well as quite a few television credits. And yet, Cronin is almost unknown today.

In his introduction to A. J. Cronin: The Man Who Created Dr Finlay, Alan Davies notes that he would "......rate Cronin as an author alongside most of the great names in English literature, even though he is largely ignored in Britain". Davies speculates that Cronin did not care to be remembered after his death. He points out that a number of writers who had no greater literary ability - D.H. Lawrence, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh - are remembered while Cronin is not.

I've downloaded almost 2 dozen books by Cronin which I plan to read during the next few months.It's my hope that this blog post (and any future posts I might write) will introduce more people to the work of A.J. Cronin.