Sef Hughes
It's a familiar set-up (a guy in a bar offers to tell you a story in exchange for drinks). Nothing new here. But that's where anything resembling predictable ends. Trial Period is a story about genies, zombies, aliens and tax, the IRS to be specific. I'm not going to tell you anything else about the story because, you know, spoilers. But I can tell you the writing is fast-paced, engaging and very imaginative. It put me in mind of the short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, which is not a comparison I dole out lightly. Anyway, if you like your stories witty, imaginative and packed fun of insane ideas, you'll enjoy this. I did.
After reading Sayville Tales (which I loved), getting my hands on this short story was a must. And I wasn't disappointed. Death and the Devil on holiday somewhere in America – it's a very Switzer set-up. From here he submerges us in a cold bath that's brimming with regret, economic destruction, gambling addiction, and afterlife rock stardom. Funny, heartbreaking and delightfully bizarre all on a few pages. Short stories like this make me a very happy reader. Fully recommended!
I find it challenging to describe Beacon City Confidential – just as I did Switzer's Sayville Tales. But this isn't a bad thing – on the contrary. Reading this book is like finding an old chest behind a rocking chair in your grandparents' attic, opening it only to find it full to the brim with the most wonderful trinkets, objet d'art, ancient medals, and other curios, each one with its own fascinating story that is somehow connected to all the others. Rich with delicious characters like Provost Blank and Mr and Mrs Laderman, Beacon City Confidential is a funny, stimulating and skilfully written novel by a writer who is quickly becoming one of my favourites.
Us with Us a brilliantly insightful travel book that's much more of a memoir of the writer's year in Cadaqués, the Catalonian coastal village. I enjoyed the structure as much as the writing – the diary entries, angry restaurant reviews, the text messages, the history and rumours. All of this set against the political background of the Catalan independence movement. It's funny, poignant, well-written and, basically, a joy to read.
An Acceptable Future isn't the kind of book I'd typically pick up. Thankfully, it was a risk that paid off. It's not often you come across a time-travelling love story set in the future with an editor and a novelist as it's main characters! It had me hooked from the outset, and I read the book in one sitting I was so taken by it. Pacy, well-written and clever, I thoroughly recommend it.
I'm not sure how much it should matter, but I guessed what was going to happen pretty early on in the novel. So, I was looking forward to being proved wrong most of the way through. Unfortunately, I wasn't. But maybe that's not so important. What is important is that I thoroughly enjoyed the concept and the story, and Clarke's writing was excellent.
Piranesi isn't really my genre, although I did enjoy Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell a few years ago. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable deviation from my usual reading.
The Death of Francis Bacon took me by surprise. Having read and enjoyed Porter's previous two novels, I expected more of the same. But this is another planet of writing.
My reading got off to a precarious start. After the first couple of pages, I thought, hang on a bloody minute, what's going on here? It makes no sense. So I put it down and read a bit about the book, researched a little into Bacon's last days, and then returned to it. I devoured it in a couple of hours. I loved it. It was more an atmosphere than a story. It glided over me like the first reading of a poem. It was like stepping into the dying painter's consciousness (and unconsciousness) and catching glimpses of a confused, lonely creative mind.
My next step is to take a closer look at Bacon's paintings, particularly the latter ones, and reread the book. Maybe it'll get five stars after that.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running was okay, I suppose. Not only do I admire Murakami, but I'm also a runner and a writer. So I expected to love this book. In fact, I couldn't wait to start it. My enthusiasm, however, was soon quelled. There were a few interesting insights about how his running fuels his writing – he believes that the former relies on the latter – and the first couple of chapters did inspire me to think about running differently, so as far as that goes, it was a success for me. However, I found the book quite dull on the whole. Ironically, it felt like a long-distance run and I was most definitely flagging towards the end. I'll stick to his wonderful fiction in future.
An incredible little novel (is it a novel?) about a family of two boys and father, and a crow. The wife/mother has just died and this is the story of the family's journey through grief, which is helped along by the crow. It's a beautifully written mix of prose and verse, which made me laugh out loud and cry a little (which is not something I do very often while reading). I loved it.
