Review: Ian McEwan’s The Children Act
When picking my holiday reading this year, one book that was front and centre on my list was Ian McEwan’s latest, The Children Act. I was intrigued by the premise, had seen some positive reviews...
Category: Books
Review: Hasidism Incarnate by Shaul Magid
What’s the difference between Christianity and Judaism? When one considers the shared cultural heritage of the Hebrew Bible (what Christians call “the Old Testament”), it seems in the end an...
Review: Ali Smith’s How to Be Both
Ali Smith’s latest novel was being tipped for the Man Booker longlist 12 months before it came out on some book blogs, and within days of its release, the zeitgeist had it that this was definitely...
Man Booker Prize Shortlist 2014
And so, the day has arrived, when 13 becomes 6. The Man Booker shortlist was announced last week, with the following titles making the cut: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, Joshua Ferris (Viking) The...
From the Booker Longlist: Richard Powers’ Orfeo
“Someone hums a muted tune, a lullaby from another planet. Then the line goes dead.” Insofar as this year’s Booker longlist has a theme or themes (other than “Life! What does it all MEAN!”...
The Man Booker Prize Longlist 2014
This year’s Man Booker Prize, in its first outing since the controversial rule change, was widely tipped to be The Coming of the Americans writ large. Previously open only to novels by Commonwealth...
Review: Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch
It’s been a fair while between drinks for Donna Tartt. Her previous novel, The Little Friend, came out in 2002; The Goldfinch, her latest (and, as I will argue below, certainly her greatest to...
Review: Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book
“Even true stories have to be invented sometimes to be remembered…” The winner of Australia’s premier literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, was announced last week – it went to Evie...
In Favour of YA: Why Adults Shouldn’t Feel Embarrassed to Read Children’s Literature
Oh look, yet another article trashing YA, its authors, and its readers. It must be a day ending in Y. This time, it’s on Slate, where writer Ruth Graham smugly insists that adults who read young...
Review: Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.” (Albert Camus) Karen Joy Fowler is a writer that I thought I had not encountered before reading her most recent novel, We Are All...