Salman Rushdie’s exuberant but uneven new novel was completed before the horrific attack on him last year. I’ve reviewed it for the Literary Review here
Tag: Literary Review
Lily by Rose Tremain
I’ve greatly enjoyed Rose Tremain’s novels and her latest was no exception. Here’s my review of Lily in this month’s Literary Review: https://literaryreview.co.uk/capital-murder
Making Nice
This, then, is a state-of-the-nation novel, mainly in the sense of ‘look at the state of this nation’
From my review of Making Nice
Over at the Literary Review I’ve reviewed Ferdinand Mount’s retelling of the Pied Piper story, which I very much enjoyed: https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spads-tale
The Magician
This month I have mainly been reviewing Colm Tóibín’s new novel The Magician, which follows the life and times of Thomas Mann. You can read the review in the Literary Review‘s 500th issue: https://literaryreview.co.uk/thomas-his-brothers
Louis de Bernières’ new book
Back in the 90s, when I was just starting out as a reviewer, the Sunday Times sent me a book called Captain Correlli’s Mandolin, which had just come out in paperback. At that time, Louis de Bernières was known for three magic realist novels set in South America, and Captain Correlli’s Mandolin had yet to become a bestseller. I no longer have my review of it, but I remember being bowled over. I like to think my enthusiastic review contributed in some small way to its massive success (spoiler: it probably didn’t).
This is a rather roundabout way of getting to his new novel, So Much Life Left Over. Having enjoyed his other books, I was very much looking forward to reading his new one, the second in a planned trilogy. You can read my review in the Literary Review here
A Couple of Reviews
D. J. Taylor’s new novel follows the fortunes and misfortunes of fictional band the Helium Kids, who in the 60s were ‘only marginally less successful than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones’. It’s a funny, vibrant novel and you can read my review in the Literary Review here.
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now: Jaron Lanier was one of the pioneers of virtual reality technology, but now he spends much of his time railing against the dangers of the internet and, in this book, social media. I have a lot of sympathy for his viewpoint, as I have always been ambivalent about social media: I have no Facebook or Instagram account and came to Twitter very late. However, his book has not quite convinced me to delete my Twitter account. You can read my Sunday Times review here.
Reviews round-up
It occasionally happens that my reading for work pushes my reading for pleasure into the background. Recently I realised that I had inadvertently abandoned The Evenings by Gerard Reve. It had been moved some months ago from my to-be-read pile and shoved in a cupboard while other books took precedence. It was only when I saw a review of it in the Guardian the other day that I remembered I was halfway through it. Having picked it up again, I’m now trying to figure out who all the characters are and what on earth is going on in the plot.
Anyway, in between times I’ve reviewed the following books:
Affluence Without Abundance by James Suzman – a study of the San or Bushman tribes of Namibia, in which I learned that the San believe that white people’s hair makes them look like goats and that warthogs are ‘clever, sociable, and vengeful’. Review here
Guernica: Painting the End of the World – James Attlee’s account of Picasso’s monumental painting. Apparently, Jackson Pollock was so impressed by the painting that when he overheard a fellow artist criticising it he suggested they ‘step outside and fight it out’. Review here
Ascent: A Life Spent Climbing on the Edge by Chris Bonington, in which the great British mountaineer recounts peaks climbed and comrades lost. Review here
Fifty years after publishing his first novel, Paul Theroux has just published his 31st. Mother Land is a very funny book about a feuding Cape Cod family ruled by a monstrous matriarch. This review appears in the latest edition of the Literary Review here
Right, now back to The Evenings …
Reviews round-up
OK, so I’ve been a bit slack in updating this these past few weeks, but I’ve done a number of reviews recently, as follows:
Andrew O’Hagan’s book of essays (previously published in the London Review of Books) includes a brilliant account of his abortive attempt to ghostwrite a memoir by Julian Assange. Here’s my Sunday Times review
I’ve spent a lot of time on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, but have never found a dinosaur skeleton, as Mary Anning did in 1811. Brenda Maddox’s book is about the Victorian geologists like Anning who changed the way we looked at the world – proving for example that it is much older than anyone thought and thus challenging Christian orthodoxy. My Sunday Times review is here
And finally, I very much enjoyed Amanda Craig’s latest novel and reviewed it here for the Literary Review.
The Dark Circle
Here’s my review of Linda Grant’s excellent new novel, The Dark Circle – a tale of TB in the early days of the NHS – from the Literary Review
Ian Critchley 