The Rain

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Imagine this: It’s a warm, sunny Bank Holiday (rather unusual for the UK), you’re in a hot tub with the boy of your dreams, and it starts to rain. It’s not, however, normal rain. One drop can, and will, kill you. It also reflects on colonialism, its dehumanizing tendencies, and prejudices which sometimes have a dangerous effect. The image of himself with which Mr. Davidson is confronted in the end is not flattering at all. He can hardly bring himself to look in the metaphoric mirror. Descending into sin may be much easier than starting a more decent life. However, the denouement is impressive and unexpected. It's reputedly the author's best short story and I certainly agree that it is a well-realised piece that builds tension throughout as the humidity of the wet season in the tropics aggravates everyone's emotions, adding to the claustrophobic environment of containment and isolation.

You might have noticed I’m not Ruby’s number one fan. Yeah, I might have gotten pretty riled up with the snarkiness but I have been waiting to rant this review since I started this book. (Mission complete!) I’m sure that others will have different feelings, but for me, after finishing, I just didn’t think it was that great. Eh. I feel that the writing style would appeal more to middle grade, but with the mention of drugs, alcohol, and sex, there’s material not for that crowd. The idea was so fresh and unique so I’m disappointed it wasn’t carried out to its full potential! Ruby’s development was more in terms of surviving better than it was in, you know, becoming a respectable human. The last line was something about her cell phone. She’s just so superficial, ugh. Nevertheless, the idea for this story was a good one that I found intriguing and I’m sure someone who relates better to Ruby may have a better time with the book.Two couples - Macphails and Davidsons - arrive at Pago-Pago, an island in the Pacific Ocean. Due to quarantine, they have to spend some time here before going to another island. The travelers are not happy with this delay. To make matters worse, the rain continues without stopping in Pago-Pago. Also, because it was told in an autobiographical way, I think I would have enjoyed it far more if I was a bit younger. The ending was a bit meh for me too. H20 or The Rain (if you're from Britain) is a book that I've been really looking forward to reading for quite some time. We all need water to survive so the concept was equally terrifying and ingenious. Now take that idea of tainted water and add in a pathogen of some sort that eats you from within and replicates in said water and you have yourself a pretty damn interesting story. Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way.

I feel like I was bamboozled! Led astray! Hoodwinked! This book was supposed to be spectacular! It's an apocalyptic world with killer rain! How could you go wrong with that! Obviously a lot because I seriously had to force myself to finish the book, and even then I was really only skimming the last half. What a waste of a perfectly good book cover... Sailing to Samoa, after the trials of the WW1 battlefield, a Scots physician, Dr MacPhail and his wife, befriend a missionary couple returning after a period of leave to the outlying islands. They're prevented from leaving Pago-Pago in American Samoa because of a case of measles in the crew, and are required to disembark. We son't like to go outside when it's raining; we don't like drinking water (it's boring); we don't like eating fresh fruit and vegetables (because THEY are always going on about how we should)". <- explain this bs, please. Umm water is boring? Yeah okay sweetie, you're boring.Zuerst dachte ich: Das ist ungewöhnlich und interessant, aber vielleicht gewöhne ich mich ja daran. Dann wollte ich irgendwann nur noch, dass die Protagonistin endlich den Mund hält, weil ich es nicht mehr ausgehalten habe. Ihre verdrehten Gedankengänge plus dieser grausame, Leser unfreundliche Schreibstil. Not a bad book but nothing spectacular. I chose to start this book because I was really in the mood for something apocalyptic and I definitely got that, but from a very interesting premise comes a very just-okay book.

Opening Sentence: If this was a really good story, like the kind you read for fun, it would have such a great beginning. His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays. Personally I think this is the best book I have read this summer, beating the trilogy "the hunger games" which I would describe as similar in the style of writing, e.g strong female character leading it, with a few traumas thrown in. There are people slating what ruby does in the book, such as her own mini riot, but as a teenager I can safely say this book is extremely relatable. I may not smear myself in make-up but would steal and go crazy if people are dying all around me, and although there are traumas for ruby, there are many bits of good humour in the book. As if this darn book wasn’t bad enough, just when I was thinking I might be generous and give this book 2.5 stars, we got to the ending. So, did this end with a happily ever after? Did we get some idea that Ruby might be safe? Might go on to live a long and happy life?

Hotel accommodation is unavailable so they're required to seek lodgings with a local trader and his native wife. However, a 2nd class passenger, a lone woman, also acquires accommodation there and proceeds to ply her trade on the premises to the consternation of the missionaries who proceed to make her life intolerable and seek her expulsion, whilst attempting a religious conversion. Not only did this book have a really stupid and annoying main character, it had a really rubbish ending! The book is set in South West England and it was obvious that Bergin knew every single detail about the places she was writing about. I loved spotting locations I knew about!