James Plunkett, The Trusting and the Maimed
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James Plunkett, The Trusting and the Maimed
Highly entertaining but very contrived plot. The identity of the murder victim is revealed only near the end of the story — but comes as absolutely no surprise. Some great female characters: I particularly like Hannah and Aoife. The writing’s a bit careless in places but I soon stopped noticing.
I’ve written about Transcription in my newsletter on 16 June 2022. I really like the book’s lying, thieving and yet in some respects oddly innocent central character.
Most of these stories have elements that I like very much — for example, the title story is in part a brilliant analogy to the 2nd law of thermodynamics — but in other respects they often seem more like fables or parables than what I think of as stories. Entertaining and stimulating but sometimes a bit (gently, unobtrusively) preachy.
I read all but one of these stories in a library ebook. The exception is “Who’s-Dead McCarthy”, which I read in a (printed) anthology, Being Various. I felt that I grasped/appreciated the printed story better. I don’t believe the difference is just that it’s a better story.
I’ve written about The Secret Place and The Trespasser in my newsletter on 6-Jun-2022.
I bought it because it seemed the most interesting book that didn’t make it from the Booker longlist for 2021 to the shortlist. It’s a powerful, moving story but some of the storytelling is inert. I’m on the fence: I’m likely to reread it but not soon.
Rosemary Jenkinson, Lifestyle Choice 10mg
The title of this collection should have given me a clue, but I was surprised by the amount of drug-taking in these stories. So, not what I was expecting, but some very good stories that I’ll go back to.
I’ll need to read this a second time before I have anything to say about it other than that I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to.
When Germany invades Czechoslovakia in 1939, a 13-year-old English boy is left behind in Prague. He spends the whole war there, first with Communist partisans and afterwards labouring in the gardens of a Nazi colonel, leading him into a maze of conflicting loyalties and opportunities for betrayal.
I first read When We Were Orphans in 2019. I enjoyed it more this time, knowing what to expect (at least those bits I could remember!) I’ve mentioned it in my newsletter of 4-May-2022 which is mainly about The Buried Giant.
Nealon writes about depression and other mental illness, isolation and loneliness, sudden and brutal death by farm machinery, attempted suicide, guilt, grief and out-of-control drinking in a lighthearted, comic, sometimes almost whimsical tone. Extraordinary.
This is described by the publisher and author as a novel but we may need another term. It seems too episodic and disunited to be a novel, yet the episodes are too connected and intertwined for a collection of short stories. It has made me think again (for the first time in years) about structure, on which I may have more to say soon.
John le Carré, Smiley’s People
I’ve written about Smiley’s People (and Graham Greene’s The Human Factor) in my newsletter on 6-Apr-2022.
I’ve written about The Human Factor (and John le Carré’s Smiley’s People) in my newsletter on 6-Apr-2022.
Some of these stories are extremely bleak, even despairing. They’re likely to stay with the reader — whether s|he wants them to or not. I expect to return to this collection.
I didn’t enjoy the early chapters of 56 Days, where boy (29) meets girl (25) just before pandemic restrictions are imposed: too much of the writing here has the tone and style of social media posts. Once the plot developments get going, though, it’s a blast.
Mission: Impossible meets Smiley’s People. Who said the Cold War is over? Reviewing Box 88, I said it was “a secret, rogue intelligence-and-assassination outfit”. I was wrong: we learn here that they stop short of assassination. Highly enjoyable.
Though I mentioned Limitations in my newsletter post about some of Scott Turow’s novels, I hadn’t reread it till now. While it’s much shorter than the typical Turow novel, and I think has been seen as a secondary work, I found it substantial and satisfying. Interesting on the mechanics of deciding appellate cases.
I’ve written about Broken Harbour and Faithful Place in my newsletter on 9-Mar-2022.
I read this because it was recommended by Andrew Taylor on Twitter. It’s very enjoyable, with credibly interesting characters in unusual and often dangerous situations. I’d like to read the same author’s The Girl on the Stairs (2012) soon.
I’ve written about this collection of short stories in my newsletter on 23-Mar-2022.
I’m unexpectedly impressed though surely Christoph’s and Karen’s legal action would be statute-barred? We find out what Smiley had on Mundt, and how both Mundt and Karla ended up. One sentence in the last paragraph, not plot-related, hit me like a punch.
I’ve written about Enduring Love in my newsletter on 9-Feb-2022.
Fairly compelling but I think I’d have liked it better if Ryan Howard hadn’t already done the serial killer plot in The Liar’s Girl. Maybe this is best seen as a second, more effective bite at that particular cherry.
I loved this book and may eventually write about it; even if I don’t, I intend read it again. LeAnne Hogan is certainly one of Peter Abrahams’s “impaired heroes” — the ones I wrote about in my newsletter. A couple of mysteries are solved, but they’re not very mysterious ones: the book is much more concerned with how LeAnne comes to terms with what has happened to her and with the people (and dog!) around her.
This surprised me: the reviews had led me to expect something rather different and much less enjoyable to read, so I put it off for far too long. I’ll be returning to it — soon, I hope.
A book like this, about intrigue, betrayals and bad behaviour, needs a compelling plot, which this doesn’t have. Characters who aren’t as smart, cool or transgressive as they think they are show exactly the combination of stupidity and selfishness you’d expect. Pointless.
I’ve written about Dark Spectre in my newsletter on 19-Jan-2022.
I read this twice, with more than a 20-year gap between the readings, and found it quite a different experience the second time. I hope to write something about it eventually, after I’ve read it a third time.
Peter Abrahams, Oblivion
I’ve written about Oblivion and the other titles by Peter Abrahams in my newsletter on 22-Dec-2021.
The first-person narrative of a long-term homeless man whose memory is damaged and who is sure he witnessed a murder that can’t have happened when he says it did. The brilliance of the start isn’t maintained.
I’ve written about Fury in my newsletter on 5-Jan-2022.
I enjoyed this book though maybe not as much as the first two in the series. There’s a hackneyed trope early on, and the resolution relies on a coincidence that some readers (not me) might think of as “cheating” in a work of crime fiction.
I liked this better than anything else I’ve read by Ishiguro, including both Never Let Me Go and Klara and the Sun. I’ve just reread it and written about it in my newsletter on 4-May-2022.
The third in a series set in Restoration London but the first I’ve read. I’m not going to write about it till I’ve read the others. Contemporary with last decade of Marvell’s life, though he isn’t mentioned in this one.
Tana French, The Trespasser
Tana French, Faithful Place
Emilie Pine, Notes to Self
Ian McEwan, The Children Act
Peter Abrahams, Delusion
Peter Abrahams, Nerve Damage
William Empson, Milton's God
Michael Dibdin, End Games
Michael Dibdin, Blood Rain
Louise Welsh, The Girl on the Stairs