Philip Spires commonplace book

I have kept a commonplace book for many years. It's a place where scraps of impressions are filed for future reflection. It's not a diary, it's just a mental scrapbook, concentrating on book reviews, concert reviews, visual arts and some occasional pieces on travel. It is also a place where I occasionally reflect on what I write. Details of my books can be found at http://www.philipspires.co.uk

Showing posts with label fiction usa. Show all posts

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Vietnam – A History by Stanley Karnow

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At around 270,000 words, Stanley Karnow’s Vietnam – A History is something of a monster, as is its subject. Even those who did not live thro...

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

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Initially, the form of The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid seems forced. Surely it will restrict what the author can achieve. By th...

Sunday, October 31, 2010

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

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On the face of things the two families featured in Zadie Smith’s On Beauty are fairly functional. The Belsey family lives in New England, ne...

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Deterring Democracy by Noam Chomsky

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It is almost twenty years since Noam Chomsky published Deterring Democracy. Its contemporary context is an important starting point in the u...

Monday, January 21, 2008

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

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This is a book that will live for ever. In it Khaled Hosseini has accomplished what many writers, most unsuccessfully, try to achieve. It’s ...

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About Me

philipspires: I was born in Wakefield and was brought up in Sharslton, a mining Village. I went to London University and then became a maths teacher, working initially as a volunteer teacher in Kenya. I spent sixteen years in London, in Balham and Islington. In 1992, I left Britain for Brunei and then Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. I currently live in La Nucia, near Benidorm in Spain. I am interested in the relationship between nature and nurture, birthright and experience. Themes of culture and identity and their relation to economic and social roles underpin my writing. What we are born into relates to what we become, but we are rarely in control. What others do, our interests and intellects and the way we choose to earn a living, all of these shape us into what we become. It may be that culture is the sum of all assumptions that others make on our behalf, whereas identity represents our reactions to them. I did a PhD on the effects of education in economic development in the Philippines. I was President of Alfas del Pi Music Society for twelve years.

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