Imatge de l'autor

Cornelius Medvei

Autor/a de Mr. Thundermug: A Novel

3 obres 122 Membres 5 Ressenyes

Obres de Cornelius Medvei

Mr. Thundermug: A Novel (2006) 91 exemplars
Caroline: A Mystery (2011) 24 exemplars
The Making Of Mr Bolsover (2014) 7 exemplars

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Data de naixement
1977
Gènere
male

Membres

Ressenyes

This short novel is a weird and wonderful thing, slightly surreal in parts, but utterly captivating.

It is the story of Mr Shaw, who takes his family on their annual vacation where he tries to unwind from his day job in insurance, but is fretting internally (as is his wife), over his impending retirement. One day, they’re all out for a walk, and in a field up the road, Shaw’s son spots an animal…

" ‘It’s a donkey,’ my father said.
As if to confirm this statement of the obvious, the donkey stepped out of the carriage doorway and trotted up to us, and it was then we saw that she was a female. She tossed her head and snorted, and stopped in front of my father.
They faced each other across the sagging gate. He saw a rusty grey, barrel-chested donkey, with pretty ears nine inches long (one cocked, the other drooping to the left), head on one side, flicking her tail to keep the flies away. I noticed her shaggy coat and the pale whiskers on her upper lip, and wondered how old she might be. …
… And she, fixing my father with her great, dark, limpid eyes – ‘eyes a man could drown in’, as he later described them – took in the hair thinning at the temples, his nose reddened with sunburn, his stomach bulging slightly over the waistband of his shorts (like all his colleagues, my father always wore shorts on holiday, regardless of the weather; shorts were not allowed in the office).
I suppose this was the moment when the whole strange affair began; the moment, so well documented in classical poetry and TV soaps and sugary ballads, when two strangers come face to face; the heart thumps, an overpowering force shakes them like the wind in the birch trees above the stable – in short, they begin to fall for each other… An odd way, perhaps, to describe the first meeting, in a muddy field, of a middle-aged insurance broker and a donkey. But this was how it happened."

Instantly smitten, Shaw’s father buys the donkey who is called Caroline. He sends his family home in the car and takes two weeks to walk Caroline back home to live in their front garden. Soon he’s spending every spare minute with the donkey. When the neighbours complain about her braying when he’s at work, the solution is simple – he takes her to work with him. Then one day his son discovers his father playing chess with the donkey in her shed … and this is when the tale takes a more surreal aspect, and here I’ll stop to save spoiling things, save to say that there is plenty more to come.

The narrative is interspersed with extracts from Mr Shaw’s papers, his researches into donkeys, his opnions on R.L.Stevenson’s classic travelogue Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, together with rather amateurish and grainy photos. They all add to the charm of this strange friendship.

When you think of humans with animal best friends, at one extreme there are the very real close relationships between shepherds and their dogs, (and yes, even the X-Factor winners Ashleigh & Pudsey). At the other end of the scale is James Stewart and his invisible six foot rabbit friend Harvey (from the 1950 film, and 1944 play by Mary Chase). You are never quite sure how real Harvey is, whether he’s truly imaginary, or a fairy spirit, whereas Caroline is quite clearly a real donkey with winning eyes and a way of getting people to do what she wants – but how real is her chess-playing prowess?

Whatever her skills, the relationship between the donkey and Mr Shaw is lovely, platonic, but also obsessive on his part. He, however, had been wondering how to handle his retirement, and she is both the way to ease him into it, and able to give him a new lease of life at the same time. Full of humour, yet equally touching, this is a gentle but quirky novel that was a pleasure to read.
… (més)
½
 
Marcat
gaskella | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Aug 20, 2012 |
This was a fun little read, but with some intersting ideas/themes adding depth. The comparisons drawn between Thundermug's situation and those of poor, alien or any "other" people are incisive and thought-provoking satire, but infused with enough humor to keep the tone deceptively light. It's an enjoyable read that fools the reader into thinking about real world issues. I don't know about you, but sometimes I need that extra push.
½
 
Marcat
shaunas | Hi ha 2 ressenyes més | Mar 22, 2012 |
I found the author of this novel on the web site of his agency, Tavistock Wood. The writer in the photograph on their site has the air of a scientist about him...or of a chess player, actually. I read the book in one go on a flight — this is fine writing, considerate of its subject, or subjects, because hidden behind the tale of the man and his donkey, is a larger tale about fathers and sons, about family and even about the cities that surround us, through which we sleepwalk at times with surreal ideas on our minds not unlike the one that Medvei must've had before he penned this work, his second published novel.

I was thoroughly charmed by this book and I'm not easily charmed by other people's writing. It's also been a while since I read a novel from start to finish in one go - I think the last one was a stephen king, and this is as far from king as one can perhaps go, short of experimental fiction. Perhaps because of the special role that chess plays in this book, perhaps because of the calm, collected style of telling, I was reminded of Stefan Zweig's wonderful novella "The Royal Game". I also noticed some Russian sensibility between the pages and not only because Russia (via the subject of chess) makes a short appearance.

Here is an excerpt almost from the end of the book, which shows the fine story telling & which made me think of the last time I saw my own father before his sudden death:
«Even his dress, which to the insensitive observer might have suggested an old man letting himself go (sweater gone at the elbows, bedsocks stuffed into galoshes, haphazardly shaven chin), seemed to me like nothing so much as a demonstration of the sage's magnificent disregard for external appearances. And the last time I came home — the last time I saw him — he opened the door to me, gathering the flaps of his dressing gown round him like the robes of state, with an air that I can only describe as triumphant.»


I'm curious what my recent reading experience will morph into as time passes, but I recommend this novel to anyone looking for well-told literary fiction with a surreal sense of humor and a big heart, not just for animals.
… (més)
 
Marcat
marcus_speh | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Nov 5, 2011 |
AN entertaining quirky little book. Very short so you read this quickly. But I rather liked it as a first novel. Mr. Thundermug a Baboon can speak the English language. This gets him in a multitude of unusual situations. However, while he can speak he can't read which also causes many problems. I'm not sure really how to explain the story onther than it's unusually entertaining.
½
 
Marcat
realbigcat | Hi ha 2 ressenyes més | Aug 22, 2010 |

Estadístiques

Obres
3
Membres
122
Popularitat
#163,289
Valoració
½ 3.4
Ressenyes
5
ISBN
8
Llengües
1

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