Through The Keyhole. (Life: A User’s Manual by Georges Perec ,Vintage, 579pp, RRP £9.99) Ever looked at a building and wondered what goes on in there? Ever looked at a lit window across the street and wanted to know what the person inside was thinking or reading? Ever seen an old lady, dressed in vintage [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Future Fantasy Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (Women’s Press Ltd, RRP£6.99, pp 384) Imagine if a visitor from the future came to you and told you that everything in the future would be better: that humanity would live in harmony with nature, society would have fixed many of the injustices and [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Penguin Modern Classics, 2007, RRP £7.99) WARNING- This book will make you want to travel. It will make you want to get in the car and drive dizzyingly fast, not stopping until the wheels fall off, night and day, through sleepy towns to bustling cities. It will make you [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Through a glass strangely The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon, RRP £12.50, 319pp) There is a vibrant and wonderful form of fantasy literature which is growing ever more popular. Some would argue that it has always been a staple part of fantasy writing, and they have a point. Quite simply, Jeffrey [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Therefore I lie with her The Exception by Christian Jungersen (Nan A. Talese, 2007, £ 6.99, 512 pages) There’s more than just your average reading pleasure in spying on the inner lives of those who so obviously lie to themselves without fooling anyone else. Psychological thriller The Exception has at least four such people, and [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A masterpiece of the transience of love and life. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (trans. Jay Rubin) (Vintage, RRP£7.99, 400pp) It can be a fallacy to attempt to find a hidden, subconscious meaning in all works of art. Sometimes they are as they are: there is no hidden depth and the surface representation is all [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Vietnam… In space! The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (Gollancz, RRP£7.99, 256pp) For several years now there has been a rumour that this seminal piece of allegorical sci-fi is to be turned into a film. This is probably based on the idea that the rights have been sold, but Haldeman did that years ago, shortly [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
As it is now December and thus typically time for reflection on the year just past, I thought I would take this opportunity to consider some of the books I have particularly enjoyed reading this year. They are, I should mention, in no particular order. Another Country by James Baldwin (Penguin Classics, UK £9.99, 426pp) I read [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
(The Lottery and Other Stories, Shirley Jackson, Penguin Modern Classics, 1949, RRP 9.99, Gothic Tales, Elizabeth Gaskell, Penguin Classics 2004, RRP 10.99 & The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter, Vintage Classics 2006, RRP 7.99) If, like me, you dragged yourself out of bed this morning and were greeted by a scene not entirely un-reminiscent of the [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
(Faber & Faber, March 2005) The Unconsoled is like a glimmering mirage that sucks you in as you try to look away. Think the glistening red apple proffered in fairytales or the White Witch’s shimmering, crystalline Turkish delight; the novel is irresistible yet its consumption is overwhelming. The novel produces a kind of delirium in [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
