Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’m not a laugh out loud kind of reader, shying away from novels whose blurbs suggest that kind of jollity although I do let fly the odd snigger now and again. I’m partial to a bit of smartarse humour but what most appeals is satire. If done well, ridicule is one of the most effective […]
Five Novels I’ve Read that Made Me Laugh Read More »
I’ve borrowed that subtitle from Courttia Newland’s introduction to Percival Everett’s novel, first published in the US in 2009. Newland stumbled upon Everett’s Graceland in a second-hand bookshop in London and went back for a copy of Erasure, the book that introduced me to this inventive, smart, very funny novelist. He’s prolific, too, but few
I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett: ‘An overlooked genius’ Read More »
When I first picked up Jim Powell’s new novel I was looking for a bit of light relief after finishing Olivia Laing’s excellent but often harrowing The Lonely City. I thought it might be a much slimmed down version of John Lanchester’s Capital or Justin Cartwright’s Other People’s Money, a post-financial crash novel, which to
Trading Futures by Jim Powell: The unravelling of a betting man Read More »
This one’s a little outside my usual literary purview. It’s a smart little black comedy all wrapped up in a thriller with a bit of a love story thrown in. The title puts you in the picture: Paddy Buckley is an undertaker who has landed himself in deep trouble with Dublin’s chief gangster and is
The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley: A nice slice of Irish black comedy Read More »