Satire Archives - A life in books

Cover image for The Proof of My Innocence

The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe: More than one way of telling a story

15 November 2024 / 14 Comments

Despite a slightly patchy experience with Jonathan Coe’s novels over past few years, I couldn’t resist The Proof of My Innocence when it was pitched to me, particularly as I’d very much enjoyed Bournville, his last novel. There’s always a thread of state-of-the-nation running through his fiction, sometimes more overt than others. This one opens […]

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Cover image for James by Percival Everett

James by Percival Everett: ‘I am a sign. I am your future. I am James.’

12 April 2024 / 30 Comments

I jumped at the chance to read James, Percival Everett’s reimagining of Mark Twain’s American classic, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I read as a child, oblivious to the fact that Twain meant it as a satire. Everett’s novel turns the narrative around, unfolding the story from the point of view of Jim, the slave

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Cover image for How I Won the Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto

How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto: Cancelling the cancelled

16 February 2024 / 16 Comments

I’m always up for a bit of academic satire which is why I said yes to a proof of Julius Taranto’s How I Won a Nobel Prize, much lauded in the US. Its central theme is cancel culture which, as my very own academic tells me, is a much bigger deal in American academia than

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Cover image for Sour Grapes by Dan Rhodes

Sour Grapes by Dan Rhodes: Getting things off your chest

3 November 2021 / 24 Comments

I suspect many of you will have heard of Dan Rhodes’ new novel by now thanks to David Sexton’s review in the Sunday Times a few weeks ago. Set at a literary festival held in the village of Green Bottom, Sour Grapes takes a hefty swipe at the publishing world in ways which might sound

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Cover image for The Echo Chamber by John Boyne

The Echo Chamber by John Boyne; ‘Cancelling the Cleverleys’

1 September 2021 / 25 Comments

It took me some time to get around to reading a John Boyne novel probably because they tend to be chunksters rather than the pared-back novellas I favour. I took A Ladder to the Sky on holiday to Portugal then read and thoroughly enjoyed The Heart’s Invisible Furies. The Echo Chamber follows the Cleverleys, made

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Cover image for Potterism by Rose Macauley

Potterism by Rose Macaulay: Plus ça change…

11 September 2020 / 20 Comments

Earlier in the year I reviewed Business as Usual, published by Handheld Press based just a few miles from where I live. It was a little outside my usual reading territory – Handheld specialise in reissuing largely forgotten books by women – but I loved it: a welcome piece of escapism during the height of

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Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony: A winning combination of taxidermy and politics

29 April 2020 / 8 Comments

Several times recently I’ve enjoyed novels I might have otherwise dismissed thanks to a puff from authors whose own work I particularly enjoy. In the case of Jessica Anthony’s Enter the Aardvark it was the ‘fresh, witty and smart’ comment from one of my all time favourites, Kate Atkinson, that sealed the deal. Without it,

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The Hungry and the Fat by Timur Vermes (transl. Jamie Bulloch): Marching to Fortress Europe

24 January 2020 / 14 Comments

Timur Vermes is clearly not a man to shy away from controversy. His sharp, very funny satire, Look Who’s Back, nailed the internet’s potential for political manipulation with admirable, if unsettling, prescience when Hitler wakes up with a bad headache in 2011 and quickly becomes a YouTube star. The Hungry and the Fat takes on

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Oligarchy by Scarlett Thomas: Sharp, funny and very, very dark

15 November 2019 / 16 Comments

It’s been well over four years since Scarlett Thomas’ The Seed Collectors was published. Since then she’s produced three children’s books. I’d been eyeing the schedules hoping for another adult novel, wondering if her writing career had taken a permanent turn when Oligarchy turned up. This short, biting novel should please Thomas fans with its

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The Capital by Robert Menasse (transl. Jamie Bulloch): Better in than out

22 February 2019 / 7 Comments

I’m sharing the last stop on The Capital‘s blog tour with Reader Dad. I’m not one for blog tours – this may well be both my first and last – but I couldn’t say no to this one. If you’ve been reading this blog for the last couple of years, you’ll be in no doubt

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French Exit by Patrick deWitt: Squewering the rich

3 October 2018 / 23 Comments

I’ve been a keen fan of Patrick deWitt’s fiction since reading his darkly comic ripping yarn, The Sisters Brothers. His last novel, Undermajordomo Minor, was entirely different having more than a touch of the Gothic fairy tale about it. French Exit takes yet another turn with its caustic caricature of the wealthy upper classes, taking

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