Day 3 Books, Illness & Lockdown
Remain Silent by Susie Steiner
There are some writers of detective stories, Margery Allingham and Dorothy Sayers come to mind, whose works outshine their genre and emerge as novels in their own right. I would put Susie Steiner’s books in this rather elite group. Her first was good but, bucking the trend in these days of multi-book deals, her books have got better and better. I would suggest that to get full enjoyment of Remain Silent, you read Missing Presumed and Persons Unknown first.
This book starts four years on from the last. Manon and Mark are together, living with four year old Ted and sixteen year old Fly and suffering the total exhaustion of juggling the needs of careers, toddlers and teenagers. Manon’s new boss (all cyberspeak and no substance) drags her away from her part time cold case job to lead up the apparent suicide of an immigrant worker, and she soon gets involved in the shadowy world of debt-bonded immigrants, gangmasters and the hard right. There have been other deaths. Are they connected? Nobody is talking – or not to any purpose.
Meanwhile Mark becomes increasingly passive, irritating Manon and making her question their relationship. Then, shockingly, it emerges that Mark has cancer.
The book is dominated by the two threads:
· the influx of immigrant workers who are little more than slaves and the effect it has on the local community
· the impact of Mark’s illness on Manon
Ms Steiner manages to communicate the dreadful conditions under which the immigrants live, the resentment real and imagined of the local community, alongside Manon’s fear, anger and guilt as she tries to cope with Mark’s illness, the needs of the boys and the complex situation at work. She achieves this feat without ever losing sight of the plot. That is a major achievement. I read the book at one sitting and I shall go back and reread it. It is that good.
By a shocking coincidence I have just discovered that while writing the book Ms Steiner became gravely ill. She has my thoughts and best wishes.
I discovered that Ms Steiner was ill when I Googled her immediately after finishing the book and the first posting that came up was a Tweet posted by her 43 seconds previously:
Two days shy of my 49th birthday and I am dying. This astounds me.
I was shocked and investigated further. There was an article in the Guardian at the beginning of the month which I missed.
This made me feel very sad. I know what my feelings about Lockdown are – lack of control, fear, loneliness and isolation (not the same thing I have found) – but I have a reasonable chance of surviving it and emerging into the new world, whatever that will be. What must it be like for her knowing that Lockdown is it as far as she is concerned? Yet she says that Lockdown has made living with the cancer easier, because to a lesser extent, we are all in the same boat.
I was interested in what she said about books and the sort of books she has been reading and how her needs have changed. She talks about :
people who are lonely, sick and bereaved – need the solace that stories provide, to see their suffering reflected in the suffering of characters
When I was in an extreme state of suffering (albeit second hand) my reaction (when I was in any state to read) was to look for books that took me right away from the situation and now in Lockdown I shy away from anything to do with unresolvable tragedy, cruelty or dystopian situations – I can’t cope with Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads at the moment, for instance. Instead I am deep into makeover programmes – nice, safe and positive. I am even watching Escape to the Chateau with pleasure, a programme I had previously rejected out of hand because I was extremely irritated by Angel. The Repair Shop could have been designed for Lockdown!
Food for Today
It's not very warm, there's a howling wind and lots of short, vicious showers. So comfort food today!
MEATBALLS & TOMATO SAUCE
Ingredients
(for 4-6)
Sauce
· 2 tins of tomatoes
· 125gm butter
· 1 onion cut in 4
· Crushed garlic (to taste)
· Herbs, salt & pepper
1. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan & bring to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Stir from time to time to check it’s not sticking.
2. Taste and adjust seasoning as required.
3. At the end of the cooking time the tomatoes and onion should have reduced to a coarse sauce consistency. If you want a finer sauce, give it a blitz in the blender.
The Meatballs
Oven heat 180/160 (fan)
· A slice of bread
· 2 tablespoons of milk
· 400gm mince (Beef, pork or a mixture of both. If you have an choice of fat content choose the fattiest. The meatballs will be juicier and have a far better flavour)
· 1 onion fine chopped
· 1 beaten egg
· Crushed garlic (to taste)
· Ground chilli (optional)
· Herbs, salt & pepper to taste
1. Crumble the bread into the milk and leave for 20 minutes. (If you like your meatballs fine textured, remove the crusts)
2. Place the onion, herbs, seasonings and beaten egg into a bowl and mix thoroughly.
3. Add the mince a handful at a time and knead into the mixture until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. (You can use a mixer or a spoon, but you get the best results if you use your hand – the ingredients are combined well and the texture stays interesting – a mixer can reduce it to a paste.)
4. Place the bowl in the fridge for at least half an hour. (It makes the mixture easier to handle)
5. Shape the mixture into balls – small if you want them to cook quickly, but they will be less juicy, larger ones will need longer to cook.
6. Heat some oil in a pan until hot.
7. Brown the meat balls on all sides then place in an oven proof dish.
8. Cover with the sauce and place in heated oven.
Cooking time 25 – 45 minutes depending on the size of the meatballs.
(marble – tennis ball)
Serve with crusty bread, pasta or rice.
This is a just basic recipe. Here are some variations:
Sauce
- · Add wine
- · Add spices (Ras al Hanout is excellent)
- · Add chick peas
Meatballs
- · Add pine nuts
- · Add spices
- · Use mash potato or cooked rice instead of the bread
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