Books and Me

by Lionel Shriver (2017) I have a low tolerance for boredom when it comes to fiction.  I need to read something that is either startlingly new or seeringly right within the first couple of sentences or the book is consigned to the darker recesses of my kindle library.  Shriver doesn't disappoint .  She had me within the first couple of sentences.  It's all skewer and no fluff.  She, for example, leaves the reader to flesh out extraneous things like the setting - which will most likely be the last tennis court you ever used, and gets on with the business of dissecting male/female and female/female interactions with an eviscerating accuracy.  The story borders on extremely painful not least because it is so believable, but thankfully, being a novella, one can get through it without becoming terminally depressed. As a final point - albeit a trivial one, I can't help envying Lionel her androgenous name.  Aside from the observant writing, I am sure it pr...

By Tom Sharpe (1971) For those with an exaggerated deference for the ruling classes, this satirical novel should prove the most powerful antidote - far more powerful than non-fiction works such as "The Establishment".   This because there are things you can say in fiction that are completely unsayable in factual books, but that really get to the nub of reality nonetheless.  You might be tempted to assume that most of the situations and characters in Riotous Assembly are hyperbolic, but actually humans are indeed awful.  Take, for example, the first few chapters of Matthew Syed's "Black Box Thinking" which demonstrate very clearly, albeit in far more measured tones, that humans, when given power and prestige, are indeed utterly ridiculous to the point of being stupid and pernicious to the nth degree.  Tom Sharpe actually isn't stretching a point very far. It is also riotous good fun and very funny in places. Rating 7/10