The problem with my local library is I go in for one book and then see ten others I’ve been intending to read, and then they let me have them for free. And so I finally got around to reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf. The actual plot is pretty well known, and it turns out I could have summarised it before reading the novel itself: Orlando is an Elizabethan nobleman who suffers disappointments as both a lover and a writer. He leaves England for […]
Disturbing parallels to modern-day society
I liked this one well enough, but I can’t say it wasn’t a little bit of a disappointment after liking Faye’s other books so much. The pacing was very uneven here and I wonder if cutting some of the material (the book is about 400 pages) would have helped. There’s a great book in here somewhere, surrounded by too much extra. One thing I really loved? The setting. I don’t think I’ve ever read pre-civil war historical fiction that isn’t pioneer-ish before. This takes place […]
It was a silly show, all capering women and monkey-faced men.
This is an early British spy thriller (1915) from the writer John Buchan, who would go to write a couple dozen other novels and apparently become Governor-General of Canada in the mid 1930s, which is odd. Even odder is that this is happening at the same time Alfred Hitchcock is making a film version of this novel starring Robert Donat, a big star at the time. Weird. Ok so the novel is an engineer who becomes embroiled in a German plot. To do what?! General […]
I’ve read this story before, and so have you (but it’s still pretty great)
For years, being a (now recovering) literary fiction snob with a preference for British Commonwealth authors, I’ve followed the Man Booker Prize long- and shortlists as a way to find new books, and since I still need a regular fix of literary fiction even as I explore new genres, I’ve started to look to other prizes to expand my library. With Sally Rooney’s Normal People appearing on the Booker longlist and winning the Costa Novel Award, it was an obvious choice, especially as I continue […]