First published 2024. Fairlight paperback, 2024, pp 251, c.37,000 words. If you are of the school of thought that all men are bastards then you may well love this book, if not, well that aspect becomes rather tedious. My notes include for p115 ‘another horrible man’, p117 ‘truly horrible’, p136 ‘another shit man’, p153 ‘another […]
Dancing in the Shallows — Clare Reddaway Read More »
First published 2019. SilverWood Books paperback, 2019, pp 340, c.115,000 words. This is a modern murder mystery story, somewhere between Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels and ITV’s Midsomer Murders. It features a police detective, John Lincoln; a disaffected loner with a lot in common with John Rebus. Both are middle aged and have a troubled relationships
Price of Silence, The — Nikki Copleston Read More »
First published 1962. Translated by Stephen Dodd 2022, Penguin paperback, 2023, pp 270, c.87,000 words. What an odd book this is. It isn’t science fiction – there is no science in it, and it is not even set in the future. It is a meditation on humanity. There is almost no plot, and very little
Beautiful Star — Yukio Mishima Read More »
First published 2003. Harper Perennial paperback, 2004, pp 294, c.88,000 words. This can be seen as a mash-up of previous Ballard books: The middle-class rebellion against the consumer/capitalist/rat-race society from High Rise, the charismatic but bonkers woman from Rushing to Paradise, and with a touch of the psycho-sexual energy linked to violence from Crash. These
Millennium People — J G Ballard Read More »
First published 1814. Penguin paperback, 1982, pp 464 (pp 417 main text), c.178,000 words (main text). This is the greatest novel ever written, or at least one of the very highest peaks. In it, Austen shows her absolute command of character and choreography; her rich, subtle and sophisticated prose cuts through to the human soul,
Mansfield Park — Jane Austen Read More »
First published 1902. Penguin, paperback, 1980, pp 111, c.40,000 words. Is this the best novel ever written? At least a contender in my book. A small ship is anchored in the Thames estuary, stemming the flood, awaiting the ebb, so its journey can continue out to sea. As evening falls, the crew gather, and one,
Heart of Darkness — Joseph Conrad Read More »
First published 1991. Picador paperback, 1992, pp431, c.140,000 words. For once, a quote on the back cover of this edition, from a review in Time Out, is a rather good summary: ‘Imagine Neighbours being taken over by the writing team of John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and you’ll be close to the heart of
Cloudstreet — Tim Winton Read More »
First published 1940. Pan paperback, 1962, pp240, c.72,000 words. This book was written in the early days of the second world war, and its story is contemporary. The course and outcome of that war was unknown and there is a surprising air of confidence in British power and technical prowess. Nevertheless there is a great
Landfall — Nevil Shute Read More »
First published 1873. Macmillan paperback, 1976, pp429, c.152,000 words (main text). Apparently this was the book of his that Hardy was most concerned with – he continued to revise it, not just after its transition from magazine to book, but long after as each new edition was produced. It was closest of his novels to
Pair of Blue Eyes, A — Thomas Hardy Read More »
First published 1932. Pan paperback, 1962, pp 221, c.92,000 words. This was Shute’s third published novel, and it marks something of a transition in adventure and thriller writing between the world of John Buchan’s Thirty-Nine Steps and the more realistic post-WW2 everyman heroes of writers like Hammond Innes. It is also has something of an
Lonely Road — Nevil Shute Read More »