I’m sorry to have to tell you that there isn’t going to be a full post today, as there should have been. I had intended to write about Rachel Kushner’s Booker-shortlisted novel Creation Lake (2024) but I haven’t yet written anything substantial about it. I was halfway through my reread, which I finished on Thursday night, when I realized that my grasp on the novel wasn’t nearly as firm as I had thought after my first reading, a few months ago. I was going to have to read for a third time certain extensive passages before I’d be able to write about the book. And at that rate I thought I might as well undertake a second reread of the whole book. So, my apologies, I have nothing of substance for you today.

The newsletter has been running for 5½ years now and there have been more than 140 posts of variable quality, some of which you may have missed or forgotten. There’s a list of authors whose work I’ve discussed (sorted alphabetically by first name) and another list of the top 12 authors, the ones I have retuned to most frequently. You might find something there to make up for today’s disappointment.

I intend to write about Creation Lake once I’ve read it again and thought about it a bit more but probably not until November. In two weeks’ time, I’ll be returning to Dead as Doornails. Anthony Cronin’s memoir of literary Dublin in the 1950s. I already wrote, back in May, about Cronin’s treatment of Brendan Behan and Patrick Kavanagh and now I want to look at what he has to say about Flann O’Brien (Brian Ó Nualláin). Till then