Books
Book review: All That Is by James Salter
IF AN aged, once-eminent author, close to the end, ekes out one almost-certainly-last novel, and it’s of an indifferent standard, or worse, should it be published out of respect for his or her more glorious past?
Book review: Inferno by Dan Brown
ONE of the first characters to appear in Inferno is a spiky-haired, malevolent biker chick dressed in black leather.
Book review: The Devonshires by Roy Hattersley
A PUNCH cartoon, two dukes at a party, one whispering into the other’s ear: “Don’t you think it must be just terrible being an earl?”
Book review: Grace And Mary by Melvyn Bragg
OVER the years, Melvyn Bragg’s writing has attracted a degree of (jealous?) teasing, but the dissenting voices compete with a louder chorus of praise in which he is favourably compared with DH Lawrence and Thomas Hardy.
Claire Black: Reading time is precious and I don’t want to waste it on Dan Brown
DAN Brown has a new book out this week. I confess I am underwhelmed.
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Book review: The Society Of Timid Souls: Or How To Be Brave, Polly Morland
IN THIS fascinating rumination on the nature of courage and cowardice, there’s a chapter titled “Crime And Punishment” in which, among other things, Polly Morland has frank conversations with two armed robbers, now reformed.
Book review: Dear Lumpy, Roger Mortimer and Louise Mortimer
A DEFTLY witty collection of letters from exasperated father Roger Mortimer to his wastrel son Charlie, Dear Lupin was one of the surprise hits of last year.
Book review: The Round House, Louise Erdrich
LOUISE Erdrich takes us back to the North Dakota Ojibwe reservation that she has conjured and mapped in so many of her novels and made as indelibly real as Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County or Joyce’s Dublin.
Book review: Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Vol 1, Charles Moore
Sir Malcolm Rifkind hails a biography of Thatcher that finally offers an authoritative voice on the woman behind the legacy
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Book review: The Bonobo And The Atheist, Frans de Waal
IN THE opening scene of Pierre Boulle’s novel La Planete Des Singes, two pampered space travellers, coasting the interstellar tides in a space-skiff, discover an interplanetary message in a bottle.
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Book review: Cities Are Good For You, Leo Hollis
LEO Hollis opens his latest book by asking readers to close their eyes and imagine a place where they feel most happy. The chances are, he points out, this won’t be an urban scene but beaches, meadows, mountains, villages.
Book review: The Humans, Matt Haig
IN THE acknowledgments at the end of his latest novel, Matt Haig reveals that he first had the idea for this story in 2000 while he was in the middle of a breakdown.
Book review: A Place In The Country, WG Sebald
When WG Sebald pays his dues to the ghosts of his literary past he reveals why his own legacy will endure, writes Stuart Kelly
The Great Gatsby kicks off Cannes Film Festival
There’s a delicious irony in Baz Luhrmann’s Gatsby kicking off the star-studded celebrations at the world’s most glamorous film festival, writes Hannah McGill
Book review: Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris
I’VE always found honesty, like Kate Bush, to be over-rated, but David Sedaris clothes his candour with such delicious style, wit and self-deprecation that every little story is a treat that leaves you craving more.
Book review: Strictly Bipolar by Darian Leader
‘I REMEMBER when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind.” Gnarls Barkley’s hit Crazy was the soundtrack to early 2006, a sinuous, insistent, ironic paean to the pains and pleasures of mental illness. Its hook line, “it wasn’t because I didn’t know enough.
Book review: Falling Upwards: How We Took To The Air by Richard Holmes
THERE must be something in the air, something lonely as a cloud.
Book review: Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
Lionel Shriver spoils her deeply personal tale of sibling struggle with fake accents and make-believe, writes Hannah McGill
Book review: Ziggyology: A Brief History Of Ziggy Stardust by Simon Goddard
THE pop story of this or any other year is David Bowie’s comeback. But it would have been oh so different – actually the story, the star, probably wouldn’t have existed – if he had followed through with his dabblings in Buddhism.
Book review: A Delicate Truth by John Le Carré
IN A recent article marking the 50th anniversary of the publication of his famed novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, John le Carré identified that book’s central question as, “How far can we go in rightful defence of our Western values without abandoning them along the way?”
Book review: Into The Woods: A Five Act Journey Into Story by John Yorke
ANALYSING a joke is like dissecting a frog: it’s not that much fun for anyone, and the frog dies.
Book review: The Quality Of Mercy: Reflections On Shakespeare by Peter Brook
FOR such a slender book (barely reaching 120 pages) this volume positively seethes and sparkles with ideas.
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Sunday 19 May 2013
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