Book Reviews

Our reviews of the latest in literature

Saturday

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour by Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis’s first book on the current financial crisis, The Big Short (2010), was both a bestseller and a hit with most reviewers — but not with me. I felt Lewis had strained but failed to recapture the voice of Liar’s Poker (1989), the wonderfully entertaining account of his own career as a Salomon Brothers bond salesman that broke the mould for writing about the follies of the money world. The problem, I felt, was that the people he chose to write about — a selection of sociopathic hedge-fund geeks who bet that the tottering trillion-dollar edifice of US mortgage-related paper would collapse, as it duly did — just weren’t

Masha Karp

Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia by Luke Harding

‘For you Russia is closed’. One can imagine the satisfaction with which a border control official pronounced these words to the Guardian correspondent, Luke Harding,  who had just flown back to Moscow after a visit to London last February. Harding, who had been covering Russia for nearly four years, became the first foreign journalist to be expelled from the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Later, after an international row at governmental level, he was allowed back, but soon felt it was best to leave for good. His new book Mafia State deals with many aspects of Russian life, from the Russian-Georgian war to the rise of the

Richard Davenporthines

The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Volume I, 1907-1922 by Sandra Spanier and Robert W. Trogdon

There was a time when every alpha-male tyro author had to read Hemingway. He was an amalgam of Stephen Crane, François Mauriac and Errol Flynn, roistering war reporter, existential swaggerer and sexual aggressor, and a superb prose stylist to boot. When in 1978 Bruce Chatwin identified the literary masters whom an aspirant novelist should emulate, he recommended Chekhov, Maupassant, Flaubert and Turgenev for their piercing concision and stylistic richness, ‘and among the Americans, early Sherwood Anderson, early Hemingway and Carson McCullers’. It is a good list for non-fiction writers as well as novelists. The Sun Also Rises (1926) and A Farewell to Arms (1929) — both drawing on experiences that

William Leith

Just One Catch by Tracy Daugherty

In the second world war, Joseph Heller was an American airman based in Corsica. He flew 60 missions over Italy and the south of France. He was the guy who pressed the button to release the bombs. Sometimes, he was terrified; at one point, he had a kind of existential crisis at the thought that the Germans were trying to kill him. Many years later, he wrote Catch-22, a brilliant novel about Yossarian, a terrified American airman in the throes of an existential crisis. Catch-22 was published 50 years ago, and here are two books to commemorate the anniversary — a long one by a Texan biographer, and a short

Andro Linklater

To the Ends of the Earth by T.M. Devine

When Scotland’s rugby team landed in Invercargill for the World Cup, they were greeted by a piper in full Highland fig and a cheering crowd of more than 500 New Zealanders, bedecked in tartan and waving St Andrew flags. The significance of both welcome and dress went beyond sport or nationality. Two important currents of modern life were at work, the ancient ability of the British empire to create societies in its own image, and the new power of the heritage industry to invent the past. Together they have made it necessary to update the old formula, ‘history is written by the winners,’ with the qualification, ‘but heritage is created

Anne Chisholm

Irrepressible: The Life and Times of Jessica Mitford by Leslie Brody

Has the Mitford saga delighted us long enough? Some 17 non-fiction books about the family, mostly by its own members, have now been published; the first, in 1960, was Jessica Mitford’s memoir Hons and Rebels,  and the latest is this biography. In between there have been four fat books of letters, five individual biographies (the first of Unity, the fascist one, in 1977, then two each of Nancy, the writer and Diana Mosley, the other fascist one), two group biographies and five more autobiographies: a sequel from Jessica, and two each from Diana and Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the youngest of the sisters and the only one still

Mark Mason

Bookends: Circling the Square Mile

You want the two-word review of this new book about the City? ‘London porn.’ For those of you with more time, The City of London by Nicholas Kenyon (Thames & Hudson, £40) is as comprehensive a photographic record of London’s financial centre as you could wish for. If a building is impressive or important, or has been either of those things in the last 2,000 years, it’s here, together with details of its design, construction and role in the capital’s history. There are also maps and illustrations, working together to tell the story of how this small plot of land became a magnet for the world’s bean-counters. It’s not just

John Preston

What Am I Still Doing Here? by Roger Lewis

The start of What Am I Still Doing Here? finds Roger Lewis in a state of deep gloom. But then so does the middle of the book — and indeed the end. This, of course, is just as it should be. The last thing one wants from a professional curmudgeon is brimming red-cheeked jollity, and I’m delighted to be able to report there’s nothing like that here. There are, however, all kinds of other pleasures. In some respects, this comes as a surprise. If happiness writes white — as every creative writing student is told — you might think that churning discontent should come in a similarly unvarying shade of

Friday

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

The quotable Flann O’Brien

It’s hard to stop quoting Flann O’Brien, once you start. The Irish man of letters was born a hundred years ago and to celebrate the centenary there are at least three conferences in his honour, the latest of which takes place this weekend at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, with another in the Irish club in Birmingham. For those of us who are obsessed by Flann O’Brien — otherwise known as Myles na Gcopaleen, or by his own name of Brian O’Nolan or assorted other pseudonyms — this is not an entirely welcome phenomenon. You know what happens when the lit-crit community get hold of an author, don’t you?

David Blackburn

Designing the art of writing

Here is A.D. Miller, whose book Snowdrops was shortlisted for this year’s Booker prize, talking about the art of writing fiction. Snowdrops, if you haven’t read it, is very definitely worth reading and not just because it’s “readable”. Charlotte Hobson wrote in her Spectator review that Miller’s book was “a heady noseful of Moscow, an intoxicating perfume that will whirl you off your feet and set your moral compass spinning.”  On a related point, it’s notable that the book has one of the most arresting covers I can remember. It suggests a foreign and perhaps superficially beguiling atmosphere and place; themes with which the book is deeply concerned. The snazzy website for the

Fleur Macdonald

Mad world

A certain literary prize announced earlier this week received a lot of flak because the shortlist was deemed too readable. I want to know what books they were reading. The Barnes was as cold as a washed up kipper; the Kelman featured a pigeon as a narrator and most of the praise heaped on deWitt said it would make a good Coen brothers film. I’d rather just wait for the film.  Speaking of which, the film adaptation of We Need to Talk About Kevin is belatedly out today; its original release date delayed after events in Norway. The 2005 Orange Prize winner is perfect example of a page-turner by a

Thursday

David Blackburn

Your Gaddafi reader

The news from Libya is bound to spark a flood of literature about Gaddafi, Libya and the Arab Spring in general. Here is a selection of published books and forthcoming releases on the subject: Gaddafi’s most famous work is The Green Book, which details his political philosophy. Its subjects range from breastfeeding to racial supremacy, and it has been variously described as “insane” and “surreal gibberish”. It may appear to be a psychotic symphony, but, as Andrew Roberts has noted in the Daily Beast, irrationality was Gaddafi’s leitmotif and it became an agency of his power. Christopher Hitchens touches on this theme when discussing the unstable nature of tyranny in his autobiography Hitch-22. 

David Blackburn

Interview: A lesson with Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo became a story-teller when teaching London primary school children in his late twenties. “There were 35 children in the class. I found that using a book [to teach] came between them and me.” He felt he needed to speak to them directly, with tales that grew from the “common ground” of experience between teacher and pupils. This, Morpurgo says, is why he writes as he does. We meet at the National Army Museum for the launch of an exhibition timed to coincide with the release of Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Morpurgo’s War Horse in the New Year. The exhibition is titled ‘War Horse: Fact & Fiction’ and the

Wednesday

David Blackburn

Cheeky Julian

Fleet Street’s reaction to Julian Barnes’ Booker win appears to be one of relief and no small amount of applause: The Times’ literary editor Erica Wagner and the Guardian’s Mark Brown both sound an enormous “phew” in their columns this morning. The dissent about the Booker Prize in general and “readability” seem to have subsided for the moment as Barnes soaks up the praise, which you can see in the video clip above. Mischievously, he said that The Sense of an Ending is the best book he’s written in the last five years. He even declared it to be “readable”. Barnes deserves to have won just for that irresistible cheek. Meanwhile, Random House, Barnes’ publisher, is preparing a new run of 75,000 copies of

George Binning

Guildford diary: Trade secrets

If you’ve always loved audio books but never stopped to wonder how they are made, then give yourself a slap and continue reading. Maggie Ollerenshaw described her world to a modest audience at the Guildford book festival, revealing the production process with some of the anecdotal colouring-in that makes listening to veterans talking about their particular fields so enlightening. With over 50 audiobooks to her name, she cheerily played down quite what hard work this voice-acting really is. Recording at a rate of a 150 pages a day, each page-turn is meticulously planned to fall into an editable pause. Clunky jewellery is to be avoided and the highly sensitive microphones

Tuesday

David Blackburn

And the 2011 Booker goes to: Julian Barnes

It wasn’t a turn up for the books in the end: Julian Barnes, the odds-on favourite, has won this year’s Booker prize for his novel, The Sense of an Ending. The award has been marred by controversy this time round, with a rival prize now expected to be established, one that recognises outstanding literary achievement. The Booker’s self-defence has been supremely confident: Ion Trewin derided his critics as “lovies” and told them to quit bleating until judgment was passed, sure that the result would quell dissent. Apparently, it won’t be enough to call off the dogs because Barnes, in that great Booker fashion, is an overdue winner. Have a quick trawl of Twitter this evening and you’ll find

Anna Baddeley

Briefing note: The Price of Civilization by Jeffrey Sachs

Who’s Jeffrey Sachs? Leading American development economist and United Nations adviser, Sachs is broadly on the left of the political spectrum. His most famous book is The End of Poverty. What’s the book about? Another analysis of the current financial crisis, the book is a mixture of diagnosis and prescription, focusing on America. What are his big ideas? Sachs is no Keynesian, calling the idea to solve the crisis with more government borrowing “a magical argument without any empirical support”. He thinks the US urgently needs to stabilise its national debt, for reasons both economic and moral. In order to do this, he proposes raising taxes sharply, and not just

Nik Darlington

Readers’ review: Darling’s ripping memoir

When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, the Labour party was split into three camps: those who genuinely adored Brown, those who believed he could change (elected as New Gordon, govern as New Gordon?) and a deflated Blairite rump that had given up the ghost.  It is not immediately clear which of these camps is most reprehensible. But the most culpable were those who knew that a Brown premiership would be a disaster and still allowed it to happen, including Tony Blair, who, as Alistair Darling reveals in this brilliant autobiography, said at the beginning of his premiership that working with Gordon Brown was “like facing the dentist’s drill

Daisy Dunn

Guildford diary: When spies become authors

‘They were afraid. Brave men are always afraid. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the willingness to face fear. They faced their fears.’ The words are familiar. Euripides rehearsed them, Seneca upheld them, Mark Twain perpetuated them. But never have they seemed as relevant as when former SOE [Special Operations Executive] agent Noreen Riols spoke them of her former fellow agents in an auditorium of stunned Guildford Book Festival goers last Sunday afternoon. That’s the thing about spies, they’re practical, resourceful people, not idle dreamers. Compare Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, or the much bandied ‘keep calm and carry on’ of

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

This Year’s Booker Rumpus: Just As Ridiculous As Every Other Year’s Booker Rumpus

The annual tiff about the Man Booker Prize is a reassuringly perennial feature of the British autumn. It is also almost always ridiculous. This year, apparently, the prize has been “dumbed down” as the judges (including the Spectator’s Susan Hill) neglected a number of fashionable names in favour of a shortlist that, Julian Barnes excepted, features relatively little-known authors. Worst of all, it seems, the judges are said to have treated “readability” as an important factor when considering their favourites. Crivvens! This, it is further alleged, is part of longer-term trend favouring “accessible” novels above those of so-called genuine literary merit. Some familiar – even trendy – authors now say