In this powerful memoir, Kevin Toolis contends that the Anglo-Saxon world has lost the art of mourning the dead, and that we should look to the way the Irish do it. Open caskets, touching the dead body, sitting in vigil by the coffin, playing sexually charged ‘wake games’ – all would help us come to terms with our mortality. You can read my Sunday Times review here
Philip Hoare writes about the sea. A lot. He won the Samuel Johnson prize for his book Leviathan, about his fascination with whales and Moby-Dick, and followed it up with The Sea Inside, which I reviewed here. His latest book ranges from memories of childhood trips to the seaside to accounts of how various cultural figures, from Shelley and Byron to Wilfred Owen and David Bowie, have loved and loathed water. It’s a really terrific book, full of great stories and a tremendous feel for the power and thrill of the sea. Here’s my Sunday Times review
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.
I’m not much of a fan of the seaside (too windy, too cold, too exposed) and one of my few interactions with seabirds was when a seagull swooped to steal my sandwich, but Adam Nicolson’s new book is a great read, full of interesting details about things such as fratricidal kittiwakes and cannibalistic gulls. You can read my Sunday Times review here
Book reviewing might seem like a gentle occupation, but occasionally it can tip over into viciousness. After I wrote my review of Richard Ford’s new book, I read that he spat at Colson Whitehead because of a negative review Whitehead had written of a Ford book – in fact, Ford had waited many years to take his revenge. You can make your own minds up about whether I am likely to be on the receiving end of a Ford attack: my Sunday Times review is here
Another week, another Chinese memoir. But Yiyun Li’s Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life is very different to the Xiaolu Guo book I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. It’s more of a collection of essays than a memoir, and although we actually learn very little about Li’s life, it’s quite a compelling book. You can read my Sunday Times review here
I don’t often gush about a book, but this memoir by Xiaolu Guo – one of Granta’s 2013 Best of Young British Novelists – is terrific. If I ever do choose a book of the year here on this blog, this would be a definite contender. You can read my Sunday Times review here
Ian Critchley 