Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 26, 2021

SPQR by Mary Beard

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  I have just finished Mary Beard’s SPQR. I have just started Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation. The connection? Susan Sontag’s essay de...
Thursday, July 2, 2020

The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond

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This proves to be a surprisingly good read. He contrasts hunter-gatherer societies, especially those in New Guinea, with WEIRD societies – ...
Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Girl At The Lion D’Or by Sebastian Faulks

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The Girl At The Lion D’Or, a novel by Sebastian Faulks, presents a love story which is both engaging and poignant. But because of the book’s...
Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru

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In his impressive and successful novel, Hari Kunzru explores the nature of identity. For some people a sense of belonging is very strong, wh...
Friday, September 30, 2011

Several characters in search of a plot – The Country Life by Rachel Cusk

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The Country Life by Rachel Cusk presents several promises, but eventually seems to break most of them. When Stella Benson, a twenty-nine-yea...
Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Between The Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

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Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger won the Booker Prize and was notable for its intriguing form. I thought it would be a hard act to follow. It wou...
Saturday, July 23, 2011

Bel Canto by Anna Patchett

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As a music lover, I wish I could sing the praises of Anna Patchett’s Bel Canto. I always look forward to reading books about musicians, espe...
Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Housekeeper and The Professor by Yoko Ogawa

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Yoko Ogawa has written a novel called The Housekeeper + The Professor. At least that’s what it says on the front. On the back it’s title rep...
Monday, June 13, 2011

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

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Like father, like son… This could be the motto that underpins Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. This might be a rather flippant way of summaris...
Friday, June 3, 2011

Ladder Of Years by Anne Tyler

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Delia, short for Cordelia, is the central character of Anne Tyler’s Ladder Of Years. As usual for Anne Tyler, Delia is a Baltimore resident,...

The Reader by Bernard Schlink

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In his novel The Reader Bernard Schlink provides us with a pair of strong characters. As we get to know them, we find a challenge for oursel...
Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Captain And The Enemy by Graham Greene

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The Captain And The Enemy is one of Graham Greene’s late works. Like most of his novels, it is quite short, deceptively intense and, despite...

The Enchantress Of Florence by Salman Rushdie

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The Enchantress Of Florence by Salman Rushdie is a thoroughly entertaining read. It’s a super-real experience, so vivid and sharp that the f...
Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A Grain Of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

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Returning to a masterpiece to re-examine its brilliance is always a risky business. There is always the threat of disappointment, a gradual ...
Monday, August 2, 2010

Coasting by Jonathan Raban

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Jonathan Raban’s Coasting is a book that defies labels. It’s not a novel. It might be a travel book. It might also be an autobiography, or e...
Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Road Home by Rose Tremain

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I approached Rose Tremain’s The Road Home expecting a vivid story drawn on a life of struggle, whose central character might grapple with li...

City Of Spades by Colin MacInnes

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Colin MacInnes wrote City Of Spades over fifty years ago. At the time its depiction of London from an African immigrant’s point of view both...

Hotel de Dream by Edmund White

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In Hotel de Dream, Edmund White presents a fellow writer, a fellow-countryman called Stephen Crane. Stephen is well connected, but ill-equip...
Saturday, December 12, 2009

The Book Of Illusions by Paul Auster

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Paul Auster’s The Book Of Illusions offers the reader pretty much what the title promises. It’s a book and there are illusions! By the time ...
Saturday, November 7, 2009

New York Days, New York Nights by Stephen Brook

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I have just done another tour of New York. It’s a city whose streets I have walked, whose life I have encountered, whose people I have known...