Tag: book-reviews

Racism, Sexism, and British writing at the end of the colonial period and the knotty problem of point of view.

March 21, 2025

We sometimes think racism was inevitable in post-colonial Britain, but looking for evidence of it in writing is sometimes an issue that needs thought. I have a good, if incomplete collection of Robin Jenkins’ novels amongst my library which I once read avidly and all the time. I still prize above above many other novels … More Racism, Sexism, and British writing at the end of the colonial period and the knotty problem of point of view.

Each day is a chance to learn how to rely neither on what I possess, or wish to possess, and hence no longer, perhaps, to be possessed.

March 12, 2025

In her mid-career (in 1990), the mow deceased novelist A.S. Byatt wrote a novel called Possession. This novel attempted to bring together people whose actions running in parallel between two centuries learn about the values that gather around the term posession. to do so Byatt called on most of the meanings that the word ‘posession’ … More Each day is a chance to learn how to rely neither on what I possess, or wish to possess, and hence no longer, perhaps, to be possessed.

‘I’ve done worse things, things I am not proud of including standing here in the dark with David, I know there’s a little bit of hypocrisy there, there are shades of hypocrisy in everything. Our principles stretch like elastic bands’. This is a blog on Nicola Dinan (2025) ‘Disappoint Me’.

February 23, 2025

‘I’ve done worse things, things I am not proud of including standing here in the dark with David, I know there’s a little bit of hypocrisy there, there are shades of hypocrisy in everything. Our principles stretch like elastic bands’.[1] When certainties fail us, as they must in time, there may be no alternative to … More ‘I’ve done worse things, things I am not proud of including standing here in the dark with David, I know there’s a little bit of hypocrisy there, there are shades of hypocrisy in everything. Our principles stretch like elastic bands’. This is a blog on Nicola Dinan (2025) ‘Disappoint Me’.

The ‘gnomic aperçu’ seemed once to be the quest of the literary academy. John Banville tells us that apparent words of arcane wisdom often turn out to be ‘academic writing at its most convoluted, most resistant and most sterile, the deathless products of the publish-or-perish academic treadmill’. [1]

February 8, 2025

It seems odd to take as the text behind a blog not a great work reviewed but the review itself. Nevertheless today I do just this. John Banville is a great reviewer – the grim and rather schoolmasterly distaste for orthodoxy in which he specialises makes him a resistible public speaker but a novelist of … More The ‘gnomic aperçu’ seemed once to be the quest of the literary academy. John Banville tells us that apparent words of arcane wisdom often turn out to be ‘academic writing at its most convoluted, most resistant and most sterile, the deathless products of the publish-or-perish academic treadmill’. [1]

A reader falls into Joelle Taylor’s fabulous ‘The Night Alphabet’.

February 3, 2025

‘Everything moves. Everything passes.  Threads tangle so easily, so completely. It is their nature to knot. …/…/ The truth is you must be everyone in a story to understand the story. …’.[1]  A reader who comes to The Night Alphabet looking for a linear story and quickly understood connections between the novel’s sub-narratives  (or some … More A reader falls into Joelle Taylor’s fabulous ‘The Night Alphabet’.

Fables for the age: The ambition of Tim Winton’s (2018) The Shepherd’s Hut London, Picador.

January 16, 2025

First published in Open university blog Tuesday, 10 July 2018, 15:06 Visible to anyone in the world Edited by Steve Bamlett, Wednesday, 11 July 2018, 07:42 Fables for the age: The ambition of Tim Winton’s (2018) The Shepherd’s Hut London, Picador. I read every word of Tim Winton as it falls (in the UK) from the press. … More Fables for the age: The ambition of Tim Winton’s (2018) The Shepherd’s Hut London, Picador.

Of a ‘chert the size of an olive pit’, that travels with the narrator through the spaces and times of the novel ‘Juice’ [2024] by Tim Winton, the narrator says that ‘… a stone is an expression of the earth, a signal of time. … but its journey isn’t over, and neither is its destiny fixed’. In the dystopia imagined by Tim Winton whether destiny is fixed or not at any point in the globe’s political and environmental history is the central ethical problem of the novel.

January 16, 2025

Of a ‘chert the size of an olive pit’, that travels with the narrator through the spaces and times of the novel Juice [2024] by Tim Winton, the narrator says that ‘… a stone is an expression of the earth, a signal of time. But it’s also a relic of experience. A thing propelled into the world. … More Of a ‘chert the size of an olive pit’, that travels with the narrator through the spaces and times of the novel ‘Juice’ [2024] by Tim Winton, the narrator says that ‘… a stone is an expression of the earth, a signal of time. … but its journey isn’t over, and neither is its destiny fixed’. In the dystopia imagined by Tim Winton whether destiny is fixed or not at any point in the globe’s political and environmental history is the central ethical problem of the novel.

Many of Iris Murdoch’s characters feel they are in a drama not of their own scripting (which, of course they are) that can only be changed by getting out from ‘under the net’ of a web of false relationships. This blog contains some thoughts on reading a play I had neglected by the great novelist.

January 8, 2025

Many of Iris Murdoch’s characters feel they are in a drama not of their own scripting (which, of course they are – as Bradley Pearson and Hamlet are in The Black Prince and Hamlet respectively and both together in the first) that can only be changed by getting out from under the net of a … More Many of Iris Murdoch’s characters feel they are in a drama not of their own scripting (which, of course they are) that can only be changed by getting out from ‘under the net’ of a web of false relationships. This blog contains some thoughts on reading a play I had neglected by the great novelist.

This blog ponders on the latest John Banville crime novel:  John Banville (2024) ‘The Drowned’ London, Faber.

November 1, 2024

Do we guess when Detective St. John Strafford’s consciousness notices that there ‘was something odd about him today’  with regard a long standing character in the Quirke stories by Benjamin Black and the Quirke and Strafford stories of John Banville, Chief Inspector John Hackett,  that Hackett is about to depart his place in the series … More This blog ponders on the latest John Banville crime novel:  John Banville (2024) ‘The Drowned’ London, Faber.

Regions, towns, cities, identities and village people: Determining the nature of Community. This is a blog about seeing Andrew McMillan & Tawseef Khan.

October 15, 2024

“Do your parents know you are gay?” “They’re village people.” “People can surprise you. …”.[1] My name for this blog is Regions, towns, cities, identities and village people: Determining the nature of Community. In this blog I interrogate the decision of the Durham Book Festival to entitle a session on new novels by Andrew McMillan … More Regions, towns, cities, identities and village people: Determining the nature of Community. This is a blog about seeing Andrew McMillan & Tawseef Khan.

A performance of Pat Barker’s art in ‘The Voyage Home’ merges the voice of the Durham working class and rich music.

October 12, 2024

A performance of Pat Barker’s art in ‘The Voyage Home’ merges the voice of the Durham working class and rich music. I have blogged on The Voyage Home in preparation for this event (see the blog at this link) and had it been for the fairly run-of-the mill interview with Barker conducted by Adelle Stripe … More A performance of Pat Barker’s art in ‘The Voyage Home’ merges the voice of the Durham working class and rich music.

Alan Hollinghurst says that even if the first person narrator has a ‘testifying force’, it ‘is also filled with the omission of not knowing everything’. This is a blog on Alan Hollinghurst (2024) ‘Our Evenings’.

October 9, 2024

Alim Kheraj of GQ magazine starts his interview regarding Our Evenings (2024) with novelist Alan Hollinghurst with a question about  the ‘distinct first-person narrator’, asking: ‘How did that voice develop?’ Hollinghurst’s answer gives the reason why he thought a first person narrator was ‘inevitable’ because the events must be seen by someone ‘racially distinct from … More Alan Hollinghurst says that even if the first person narrator has a ‘testifying force’, it ‘is also filled with the omission of not knowing everything’. This is a blog on Alan Hollinghurst (2024) ‘Our Evenings’.