Started Early, Took My Dog (2010)

"When she was murdered his sister was just three years older than his daughter was now. Marlee was fourteen. A dangerous age, although, let's face it, Jackson thought, every age was a dangerous age for a woman."

With Started Early, Took My Dog Kate Atkinson continues the adventures of private investigator Jackson Brodie, first introduced in Case Histories. Here Jackson has been charged with finding the origins of a woman who was adopted as a child, an adoption which it appears was performed illegally. Per usual in the Brodie stories, this is just one of several interlacing threads which will dovetail as the story nears its conclusion. Also per usual, Jackson isn't the "star," exactly; he's the figure who connects this novel to the previous novels but within the context of the novel itself, he's not necessarily any more important than any of the other point-of-view characters.

The novel is divided into three plot threads: one following Jackson, another following Tracy Waterhouse, a former Detective Superintendent now working mall security, and the third following Tilly Squires, an actress losing the battle against dementia. As the story gets started, all three come into possession of things that don't belong to them: Tilly is always wandering off with things that don't belong to her and is later baffled as to why she has them; Jackson takes a dog from an abusive owner; Tracy buys a child from a parent she deems unfit. The three plots weave in and out of each other (and touch on a long dormant murder mystery) until finally coming together in the story's climax. Although the mystery element is well-conceived and executed, Atkinson uses it less as an end of itself and more as a means of exploring the relationship between society and women, including the limitations imposed on women by society and the dangers posed to women by society (the root story of the mystery is set against the backdrop of the days of the Yorkshire Ripper).

Atkinson's novels are never anything less than delightful, though her Brodie novels are not as resonant as her earlier, magic realist works. Her prose style is deeply engaging and she draws us into the lives of her characters in a way that makes it look astonishingly easy. Started Early, Took My Dog is a very enjoyable book, albeit flawed. The Tilly plot, for example, feels uncomfortably shoehorned in and there are a few loose (although ultimately minor) threads left dangling at the end. Nevertheless, it's a great read, the kind of book you'll find you hard to put down.

Dahanu Road (2010)

"It always started with the rubbing of knees. Then Shapur Irani would shut his eyes tight, as he was doing now, as though by sheer willpower he would be able to transport his grandson into the past. Slowly the tightness in Shapur Irani's eyelids increased, until they fluttered like the wings of an injured bird, and he took Zairos with him to an older, more promising time."

With The Cripple and His Talismans, The Song of Kahunsha and now Dahanu Road to his credit, Anosh Irani is swiftly becoming one of the most reliably excellent novelists working in Canada. His latest novel combines elements of the immigrant story, the disenfranchised minority story, the family saga, and the star-crossed love story to form a richly layered and deeply moving tale.

The story centres of Zairos, a young man with no cares save for his father's war on household mosquitoes and his grandfather's lonely life on his grand estate. His grandfather lives behind the veil of his memories, of the time before the death of his beloved wife, a time of pride and happiness after having endured being driven out of Iran. Visiting the estate one day, Zairos finds the body of one of the Warli workers hanging from a tree. The suicide brings Zairos into contact with the man's daughter, Kusum, but it also hints at events of the past, at threads which have long tied Zairos' family to Kusum's despite the seemingly insurmountable class differences between them.

Irani draws stark divisions between his characters, showing the chasm that exists between Zairos and Kusum as existing not only due to custom but also due to Zairos' own psychology. He longs for Kusum but for every step he takes towards her, he takes two steps back. He's brave enough to take Kusum out in public for the local gossip to see, but he's too cowardly to correct his mother when she mistakes Kusum for a new house servant. The relationship between the two is complex and carefully explored, though it is far from the only compelling plot in the novel. Though I don't think Dahanu Road is quite as good as The Song of Kahunsha (though, to be fair, I think Kahunsha is a masterpiece), it's a great novel nevertheless, the kind you find yourself reading slowly so that you can savour each and every development and because you don't want to be done with it.