I bought this book on a whim. It subsequently languished untouched on a bookshelf for years. I finally picked it up about two years ago and read almost to the end. But, for reasons I can’t recall, I abandoned that attempt, even though I remember enjoying it.

This time I read it from start to finish in four days. It’s very good indeed. The language is wonderful and, in contrast to When God Was a Rabbit, a great pleasure to read. It does contain many lesser known and old words so I was constantly looking things up. This did slightly detract from the pleasure, because it disrupted the flow but I was still glad of the opportunity to increase my vocabulary.

The book is set in 1666. ‘Balthasar Embriaco, a Levantine merchant, sets out on an adventure that will take him across the breadth of the civilised world..’ It is written in diary form. This gives the book a very human perspective but plenty of history is included, though not in an overt fashion. For a person such as myself, who knows very little history, it’s a fine way to be educated. There are lessons to be learnt about religion, fear, wars, racism and more which are relevant today. But it’s not all heavy; there are hilarious moments which made me laugh out loud such as when the protagonist scorns numerical values (p76) and when he says ‘I’ve been in business all these years and I still can’t tell a pimp from an outrages father!’ on p82.

Balthasar’s Odyssey is rather unique amongst the books I have read. It is erudite but not inaccessibly so. I would thoroughly recommend it.

(3rd in 2012)

This book hadn’t exactly been recommended to me, rather I was present when it was debated heatedly between two members of my family. Intrigued, I acquired it.

I didn’t get it at all. It seems so disjointed, in many ways.

The plot flits from one sensational event to another, never settling on anything for very long and leaving the reader wondering if they’ve missed something. There is much ‘and this happened then this happened then this happened’ but very little to emotionally engage the reader. I would also have to sometimes re-read a paragraph or even a page as it was unclear which character it referred to. I was irritated at the double spacing in conversations, which served to make every response seem more significant than it actually was. I continued to read through to the end, hoping for a few explanations or a conclusion to tie the book together somehow. None came.

Some aspects of the book I did enjoy. The nativity play deserves a special mention for dark humour. There are beautiful descriptions of nature. Elly’s outburst when she loses patience with Joe is very human and real. But these raw, real moments are few and far between. Most of the interactions feel wooden and stilted.

Ultimately I cannot recommend this book and don’t understand why it received so many rave reviews.

(2nd in 2012)

Just finished reading this. A friend had told me it was good and so when I later saw a pristine copy in a charity shop for £1.25 I felt that there was not much to lose by trying it out. Unfortunately I took it with me into the pub with me one night to read while I had a nightcap and didn’t notice that the back cover and last six pages became soaked in beer when I left it on the bar. But, given MR’s affection for ale, I feel he would be proud if he knew.

So, the book. I could hear Mark Radcliffe’s voice as I read and that itself brought back many memories of when I was an avid listener of the Mark n Lard shows on Radio 1 (I don’t listen to his current Radio 2 show with Stuart Maconie, although I really should.) The Shireshorses, to me at the time, were the pinnacle of radio comedy. I would cry with laughter every time they unveiled one of their spoof ditties. And I have fond memories of sniggering at Bird Or Bloke and the other silly quizzes. He was covering familiar ground there. But there was new (to me) ground too, for example I hadn’t realised he loved walking so much. I enjoyed the chapter about his coast to coast walk from St Bees Head to Robin Hood Bay. I was a bit disappointed at his view on food though. In one of the earlier chapters he talks about having a horrible meal at Sharrow Bay in Ullswater, he gently berates the small portions in nouvelle cuisine and concludes ‘I’d finally learned the lesson Doris inadvertently taught me all those years ago. If you don’t want to try it, then don’t. Have what you know you will like and you will not be disappointed.’ If John Peel, one of his biggest heroes, had applied this attitude to music then where would be now, hmm?

But that’s a minor and subjective criticism really. The rest of the book is filled with great anecdotes about meeting famous pop stars or simply growing up. The funniest bit is when he talks about games at school, in particular the ‘horse’ which had to be vaulted over. That had me belly laughing. But the entire book is written with an endearing warmth and honesty, pretty much like his radio persona. It’s difficult not to like.

(1st in 2012)