Grand Canal, Great River: The Travel Diary of a Twelfth-Century Chinese Poet, translated with a commentary by Philip Watson (Frances Lincoln Ltd, £20). A beautifully written and produced account of the journey down two of China’s great waterways by one of its main poets. Lu You saw and appreciated every place and every body. Watson’s commentary and photographs are perfect.
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £25). A gripping and convincing account of the web-toed monster from his earliest years. Lenin loved him because he was such a reliable and devoted killer.
Energy of Delusion: a Book on Plot by Viktor Shklovsky translated by Shushan Avagyan (Dalkey Archive Press, £9.99). One of Russia’s best writers and critics, Shklovsky (died 1984) was learned, relaxed, rambling and in love with Anna Karenina. He said this of critics: ‘Most mistakes in literary criticism, I think, occur when people approach so close to the poetic horse — Pegasus — and mount it so swiftly that they miss the saddle and end up on the other side of the horse. Then they get up, look around, the horse is still standing there, but the person is not in the saddle.’
The book I most enjoyed reading this year was Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
Piers Paul Read
Engleby by Sebastian Faulks (Hutchinson, £17.99), a risky but in my view wholly successful departure for this author of mellifluous, well-crafted novels — witty, intelligent, sinister, original, compelling.
The Last Mazurka: Passion, War and Loss in a Polish Family by Andrew Tarnowski (Aurum, £14.99), an intriguing account of the author’s aristocratic family who lived in mediaeval splendour on their vast estates in eastern Poland until they lost all in the second world war: a historical vignette but also an honest examination of the suffering caused over several generations by failures in love.
The Illumination of Merton Browne (Sceptre, £12.99), a vivid, sometimes shocking first novel by J. M. Shaw set on a sink estate which combines a fast-moving narrative with intelligent digressions on politics and history, and an incisive, satirical critique of ‘bog standard’ comprehensive education.
Comments
David Bowden
November 16th, 2007 5:40pmAs good as it was to see Jane Smiley's vastly underrated "Good Faith" on the list, it was first published back in 2003. Whereas the equally excellent "Ten Days in the Hills" was her latest. Perhaps Mr. Mount bought it in the same pound-shop as I did?
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Tim Grafton
November 15th, 2007 7:34pmRupert Christiansen refers to Lloyd Davies novel Mister Pip. The author is in fact Lloyd Jones. Mr Jones is a New Zealander and not a welshman should that have given rise to the confusion.
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