January 2024
Book 1: Patricia Highsmith - The Boy Who Followed Ripley
So-so addition to the Ripley series. Tom befriends a 16 year old boy with a murderous past in this fourth instalment, gets into European mischief and intrigue before a tragic end awaits them in America. It dragged a little bit in all honesty but, there were some typically suspenseful passages that made it a worthwhile read.
Book 2: John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
Whoah! What a book. I'll start by summarizing the terribly sad story behind the novel: written in 1961, it remained still unpublished in 1969 when, fraught with depression, Toole took his own life. Following a persistent campaign by his mother to get Walker Percy - a local writer and teacher to read the book, the Louisiana State University Press finally published it in 1980 for it to go on and win the Pulitzer Prize in 1981! And what a remarkable, funny book. Full of so many memorable and hilarious characters led by the work-shy, highly educated slob, Ignatius J. Reilly. It's a glorious love letter to New Orleans, too. I cannot recommend this one enough, anyone who loved Paul Beatty's
The Sellout, this reminded me of a '60s NOLA version to his 21st century L.A. set laughfest.
Book 3: Ali Smith - Winter
Second and another outstanding entry in Smith's seasonal quartet. Brexit and the turmoil it threatened and then provided continue to shape her characters. Art and artists remain a pivotal counterbalance to the ugly and mundane in this story. Fascinating reading despite what felt like a potentially slow and confusing start.
Book 4: Paul Auster - The New York Trilogy
There's a few writers I'm fond of that I'm keen to do full chronological read throughs of, including rereads like this one. I seem to remember enjoying it a bit more the first time around in all honesty. It's written well enough for sure, I just think 20 year old me must have enjoyed the experimental aspects of these mystery thriller novellas a little more than today's me did. That being said, it's a thinker and that's never a bad thing. 'Pretentious' appears to be a common adjective thrown at the novel. I don't quite see it that way. It's very, very clever but, I can see why it might be seen as trying a bit too hard to be so.
Book 5: Danya Kukafka - Girl in Snow
Another slightly atypical mystery thriller. A dead teenage girl is found in her schoolyard and the story unfolds through the voices of three people in the small Colorado town: a neighbour; an infatuated admirer; a policeman. Cleverly crafted and taut, the story delivers a trilogy of somewhat sad and uncomfortable lives from the eyes of these storytellers and gradually reveals the circumstances surrounding the girl's murder. Smartly developed characters and plenty of red herrings, this delivers a really readable thriller. Worth a try for fans of murder mysteries.
Book 6: Marlon James - The Book of Night Women
Sometimes you read a book that just blows you away and this has been one of them. Detailing the lives of slaves under the English colonisation of Jamaica, James makes matter-of-fact the brutality of slave life and educates as much as entertains for want of a better word. It doesn't have the myriad in-depth voices that made
Seven Killings such a masterpiece I don't think but, the breadth of the history that he unravels left me feeling shame-faced, while the power dynamics within the plantation and the violence, sexual violence and pain for sport just left me feeling both sad and enraged. It's a decent length book that I found myself flying through, desperate to pick up again whenever I could, despite the difficult subject matter.
Book 7: Carrie Fisher - Postcards from the Edge
Mrs Moore has raved about Fisher's books to me for years but, this is the first one I've picked up. I enjoyed it on the whole. I typically find other people's drug experiences to be dull as dishwater and this was in danger in the early pages of feeling like it was heading in that direction. Fortunately, Fisher's writing is witty enough to lift it out of that tedium and her characters can be a hoot despite their countless Hollywood issues.
