Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate ****

A return to fine form for Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin after the uncharacteristically weak Fortune of War. Our intrepid pair travel home from Nova Scotia, but barely have time to put their affairs in order before they're off to the Baltic for a series of adventures that nicely balance war strategy and sailing challenges. As with Desolation Island, the meaning of the title doesn't become clear until near the end of the book.

Roy Parvin, In the snow forest ****

A fortuitous selection from the used book store, judged by its cover. In the snow forest is a collection of three novellas, all of which follow their protagonists as they ponder their lives in mountainous regions of the United States (Montana, the Trinity Alps, and Wyoming respectively).

All three stories take place in October, which fits with their elegiac tone. It's cold with the threat of a hard season ahead. The hero of the first story, "Betty Hutton," is an ex-con headed west for a new start while wondering whether he has really changed. The title story concerns an injured logger who stays behind with the women when the rest of the men head out of town for work. The final story, "Menno's Granddaughter," takes a train journey to the small Wyoming town where a woman's ex-husband lived out the rest of his days.

I'm a sucker for remote Western towns and for characters struggling against regret. Parvin is able to communicate his characters' longings without making them too introspective, and there's a surprising hopefulness to the stories. 

James Kelman, Mo said she was quirky ***

A quick return to James Kelman, for his latest one this time. Like Kelman's other books, Mo said she was quirky features a Glaswegian character's stream of consciousness, but this time it's a woman and she is living in London. Helen lives with her six-year-old daughter and her Pakistani boyfriend in a tiny run-down apartment. The book takes place over a single day.

Mo said she was quirky falls short of other Kelman books in two related ways. First, it lacks the colorful Scottish dialect that makes his sentences fun to read. Secondly, Helen's observations don't have the specificity to make them really come alive. Some of the place descriptions are vivid, but Helen's thoughts tend to be rather vague.

Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident **

I picked up a Kindle copy of The Teleportation Accident based on a very positive review in PopMatters, a site from which I've gotten good recommendations before. ("It’s a stylish, weird, witty, innovative, head-shaking kind of book") However, this recommendation was a bust.

Beauman attempts a tone that falls somewhere between witty social farce and 1940s deadpan noir. Despite the occasional clever turn of phrase, the prose has the awkward quality that comedy has when it's not landing. The story is too zany by half and is populated by characters with silly back stories and cardboard motivations.

Very disappointing.

James Kelman, Busted Scotch ****

When Evelyn and I visited Portland a few years ago on our 25th anniversary, one of the hidden gems I found at Powell's Books was How late it was, how late, the controversial Booker Prize winner from James Kelman. I really enjoyed the narrator's working-class Glasgow voice and appreciated his resiliency in the face of his troubles. 

When we were back in Powell's earlier this year, I picked up this collection of stories from Kelman. I enjoyed them for the same reasons as How late it was, how late: wonderful language, good characters struggling with difficult circumstances, and settings not usually found in literary fiction. I especially liked the stories where skint punters set out to perambulate to a distant broo, but aye nip into the corner for a bevy and worry about their weans.