Six Degrees lets me find links between the various books I read – sometimes a theme, sometimes an odd detail, sometimes it’s something totally random. But there’s also book serendipity (as described by Bookish Beck) – I don’t keep track of it, but I notice it. When I began A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne, I was aware of the serendipitous links to other books I was reading or had just finished. Indulge me a moment –

• first, Heather Rose and her cultural appropriation (which all starts with a visit to a sweat lodge)
• next I read Yellowface, also about cultural appropriation but with a plagarism plot line.
• which brings me to A Ladder to the Sky, a novel about stealing ‘other people’s stories’.
• and then I came across this passage in the book I’m currently reading (What I’d Rather Not Talk About by Jente Posthuma) –

Weird, huh?

So, to the novel. The central character, Maurice Swift, is a would-be writer. He meets celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann in a Berlin hotel, and lonely Ackermann becomes infactuated with the young and handsome Maurice, and employs him as his assistant. The pair travel the world literary circuit, with Maurice ingratiating himself on other authors along the way. Essentially, always on the make.

The story is beautifully structured, with distinct sections told from the perspective of the different characters who are impacted by Maurice’s rise to literary fame. It begins with Ackermann, whose time in Nazi Germany provides Maurice with the basis for his first novel; next comes Gore Vidal, whose home on the Amalfi Coast Maurice vacations at with a famous author that Vidal has long been friends with. The third section provides the only female voice – Edith, Maurice’s wife, also a successful author. By this point, you have a clear idea of the type of person Maurice is, which makes the last section, told from his perspective, all the more engrossing.

Boyne is a solid writer but rarely do I find myself rereading striking passages. Instead, it’s his characters that stay with me – years after reading it, I still think fondly about Cyril in The Heart’s Invisible Furies, and laugh about George in The Echo Chamber. Maurice will stay with me for different reasons because he is undoubtedly one of the most horrid characters I’ve ever come across.

The premise – stealing other people’s work – is simple, however, Boyne has created something more complex, particularly in the characters of Maurice and Ackermann, who both lead the reader to weighing up to what extent bad behaviour is ‘justifiable’.

If you’re planning on reading this book, do all that you can to avoid spoilers. And be content in the knowledge that it’s an absolute page-turner.

I received my copy of A Ladder to the Sky from the publisher, Random House UK, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4/5

Very few mentions of food in this novel, save for Maurice’s large intake of whiskey, and given his time in New York, I’ve picked a whiskey cocktail – New York Sour.

As part of the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge, I’m comparing the Belfast summer and Melburnian winter. The results for the day I finished this book (June 21): Belfast 13°-23° and Melbourne 4°-12°.