19/02/19: Karl Pilkington – An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington (2010)

The tie-in book of the first Sky TV series of the same name. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant send their friend Karl to witness the Wonders of the World, and Karl – a man who dislikes travel and is well out of his “comfort zone” – responds to these alien experiences in his usual deadpan manner.

Written down, it’s considerably less funny. You can still enjoy Karl’s unique slant on things, but it seems one-dimensional without hearing his voice (so familiar from podcasts and radio shows) and seeing his face. Another disappointment is that the little drawings are not by Karl, but by an illustrator and made to look as if they are Pilkington doodles. Despite some funny sentences, the whole book has a child-like quality that makes it oddly unsatisfying.

It’s undoubtedly lightweight, but there’s still a certain pleasure to be had in reading about these adventures – however flimsy. Despite his many prejudices, Karl mostly emerges as a kind and likeable character. You wouldn’t necessarily want to travel with him, though.

06/04/18: Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty – A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs and Dangerous Days at Sea (2010)

“My head was hurting. What seemed so simple—a kidnapping for money—had turned weird. Yemen, suicide attacks, fatwas, Fatah, souls exchanging places. I had to fight to keep my mind right. The real obstacle wasn’t the Somalis, I told myself. It was fear. Every time I pushed through it, I found that I could persevere.”

This is the true story that was made into Paul Greengrass’s terrifying 2013 film Captain Phillips. That film attracted controversy, with some members of the ship’s crew disputing its accuracy, but having now read the book I can fully believe this account of what happened.

Richard Phillips was captain of the Maersk Alabama, a US cargo ship travelling off the Horn of Africa. The ship was boarded by Somali pirates hoping for a huge ransom pay-out. After a few desperate hours, during which he played for time and helped his crew to escape, Phillips managed to get the pirates off his ship and onto a lifeboat. While his crew were saved, he was forced to join them as a hostage. What followed was a five-day siege at sea.

Like the film, this survivor diary is tense and gripping. Phillips lives with fear around the clock. His captors practise fake executions, observe baffling religious rituals involving the ropes that he’s tied up with, and attempt various kinds of psychological torture.

“We all set our endurance levels low, out of fear we will fail,” he writes at one point. “We think, So long as I have this job, or this house, or this partner, or this amount of money, I’ll be okay. But what happens when those things are taken away from you? And more—your freedom, your dignity, even things we take for granted, like your ability to use a bathroom? What happens when people try to take away even your life? You find that you are a larger and a stronger personality than you ever imagined you were. That your strength and your faith don’t depend on how secure you are. They’re independent of those things.”

Riveting stuff.

21/07/16: Emma Donoghue – Room (2010)

Jack, aged five, is imprisoned in a single room with his mother, who was kidnapped seven years ago. This room is Jack's entire world, and it has become a sealed universe of play and learning. His mother protects him from the true horror of their situation. The things and places he sees on TV he believes are all unreal. Reality is the room alone. The book is narrated by Jack and through his impressions we learn how abusively they are being treated by “Old Nick”, their captor. It's overwhelmingly sad – especially since Jack demands so little beyond the love of his mother. You find yourself desperately hoping they will be rescued or escape, but wondering what sort of life Jack might have in a world he cannot believe or understand. Without wanting to spoil the ending, there’s a lot more to it than just getting out of Room… There are many negative reviews of this book on Amazon (partly because it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, which always attracts a backlash), so I thought it was worth addressing some of the criticisms raised:

“Nothing happens.”/“It’s dull.”: This is untrue. Plenty happens. During this novel, Jack and his mother live through the pivotal moments of their life, then have their world turned upside down again and again. The book is centred in Jack's interior consciousness, yes, but that world is going through daily transformation. This is hardly uneventful. I found it riveting – almost painfully so, as I was rooting for the characters so much and so touched by their love for each other.

“It’s depressing and/or upsetting.”: Books about imprisonment and child cruelty are likely to be disturbing. But the true theme of this novel is compassion. The author wisely keeps the love of mother and son at the centre of the story, rather than merely turning it into a thriller. The disturbing elements are integral and necessary, hardly gratuitous.

“Jack’s voice is unrealistic.”: Unrealistic compared to what? He’s not meant to be a typical five-year-old. He's a child whose very existence has been entirely shaped by his situation. He is highly advanced in some ways and extremely limited in others. I found this a heartbreakingly believable expression of his confinement, his insular life and his uniquely intense relationship with his mother – the only human he had ever known. This material makes for one of the most powerful novels I have read. Don't be put off by the horrible cover.

In 2015, Room was made into an excellent film.

13/12/15: Jacques Bonnet – Phantoms on the Bookshelves (2010)

Fascinating reflection on the joys – and challenges – of owning a huge collection of books. The minutiae of how to file them is examined with joyous detail. If you love your books (rather than soulless electronic "files"), and find it hard to part with them, this is a stimulating and inspiring read. The only gripe is that there's not more of it. After 123 pages, you wish for additional collector-obsessive detail.