Book cover for The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
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A clever, insightful tale about childhood, class, and forbidden love in turn-of-the-century England. Just regarded as a classic.
Book cover for A Start in Life by Anita Brookner
A Start in Life by Anita Brookner
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How admired is Brookner? This is my third; I now suspect she was off her rocker. Superficially a keenly observed/written family tale, it betrays a debilitated worldview in which all people are but ageing lumps of selfish flesh.
Only partially true!
Book cover for Discipline by Larissa Pham
Discipline by Larissa Pham
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This is perfectly OK, but I do regard this autofictive voice as resulting in a kind of "minimum viable product" effect, i.e. this is the minimum amount that could have resulted in a "good novel" judgment.
The John Irving approach is more fun.......
Book cover for The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis
The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis
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Tevis can be so resonant... this 1963 celebration of/lament for us blockheaded humans seems useful as a signpost marking the absolute end of the 'gosh, outer space!' era of sci-fi. Jaded, yet still well worked through.
Book cover for The Handle by Richard Stark
The Handle by Richard Stark
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Pretty good. Felt like an Elmore Leonard novel much of the time.
Book cover for Suder by Percival Everett
Suder by Percival Everett
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Everett always has the most interesting strengths and weaknesses.... this one is nominally about baseball but is really about mental illness. Lots of fanciful nonsense here, and yet everything in here kind of has the feeling of a modern Huck Finn tale.....
Book cover for The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon
The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon
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Reading the Maigrets in chronological order. This was #6 and the best so far.
Book cover for What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
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Against all expectation, this 2025 novel enters the top three McEwans, I think. (Child of Time, Atonement)
A thrilling exploration of the war between the historians and the novelists that is also McEwan's Arcadia (Stoppard) and his Conversation (Coppola)
Book cover for A Gorgeous Excitement by Cynthia Weiner
A Gorgeous Excitement by Cynthia Weiner
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Sizzling, adept Gatsby riff set in the coked-up Upper East Side of 1986 with focus on pheromonal prep school girls on the cusp of college. The protagonist is a smidge too reactive but lots to like here. Promising first effort.
Book cover for Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
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Spark keeps things moving; I found these specific projections of her late 20s baffling. I think a book that really explodes LWI for being silly is something like Diane Johnson's The Shadow Knows, which is really *good*. I don't know what this is.
Book cover for A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin
A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin
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Very good read. Everybody says "perfectly constructed," but it's got flaws and implausibilities too. What finally lands is this terrible loveless family and its credulous daughters. It takes a 23-year-old man to construct that.....
Book cover for The Pusher by Ed McBain
The Pusher by Ed McBain
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Good enough but a little dunderheaded. I assume later books (unaffected by publisher's initial three-book order) will be better.
Book cover for The Waterworks by E.L. Doctorow
The Waterworks by E.L. Doctorow
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A time-traveling "sci-fi" novel — I think? — that despite hubbub never really does more than announce its intentions. If there was revelation in there, I missed it. Doctorow is a good, humane writer but this kind of thing is not his bag.
Book cover for Porthole by Joanna Howard
Porthole by Joanna Howard
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Amusing novel about a female filmmaker experiencing a career crisis and convalescing at a kind of mind-spa that does a lot of memory palace stuff I'm not wild about in principle but Howard makes it work. Recommended.
Book cover for Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard
Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard
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I've been reading the Elmores in chronological order. For the first time it is 100% clear that his early-80s switch to Miami was.... rough.
This one ends good but has too much going on and it's a little confusing in places and not that interesting.
Book cover for The Seventh by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake)
The Seventh by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake)
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Usual spiky Parker fun with patented Westlake narrative mayhem. Alas, the most memorable aspect is the insertion of an unsuccessful/unconvincing character.
Cover for The Mugger by Ed McBain
The Mugger by Ed McBain
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Very satisfying and straightforward.
Book cover for Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro
Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro
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A fine use of a writer's residence aboard a cargo ship, to be sure.
And yet, I think perhaps perverse and intellectual modern European novellas are simply not my tempo.
Book cover for The Ax by Donald Westlake
The Ax by Donald Westlake
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Outstanding premise but Westlake doesn't know what to do with it, it seems. Director Park I'm sure made a meal of it, in the form of No Other Choice, out soon.
Book cover for The Singularity by Dino Buzzati
The Singularity by Dino Buzzati
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Whimsical sci-fi novella on consciousness and love that has some Lem in it. Pretty good.
Book cover for A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
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Quite good but persist in finding the fascination with UK snooty-snoots circa 1927 baffling.
Book cover for Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
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Cracking good read.
Book cover for The Ballad of a Small Player by Lawrence Osborne
The Ballad of a Small Player by Lawrence Osborne
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Not transcendent, but still very adept.
If you like novels where gamblers do insane things. (Sometimes I do!)
Book cover for All Systems Red by Martha Wells
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
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More supple than I was expecting.
Book cover for Split Images by Elmore Leonard
Split Images by Elmore Leonard
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Reading the Elmores in order; this is the first one in a bit that didn't quite convince. The main problem is the protag, who is not credible.
Interestingly, Elmore veering kinda close to DeLillo, he's grappling with Reagan/Pope assassination attempts
Book cover for Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
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Jonas has a very decisive writing style.... doing a campus novel but keeping things mostly interior is blazingly clever.
I told somebody this was like if Moshfegh were not at all neurotic. The extended scene in the second half is a beaut.
Book cover for The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
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This is a hot book that didn't really work for me, mostly. She's a good writer, though, and this book does have its virtues.
I would be fascinated to hear what other people here thought of it.
Book cover for Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow
Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow
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I forgot how good Doctorow is. I'll be reading more of his back catalogue.
Book cover for Such Good Friends by Lois Gould
Such Good Friends by Lois Gould
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Gould is a brilliant woman whose first novel is pitched somewhere uneasily between Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, Ephron's Heartburn, maybe Diane Johnson's The Shadow Knows but not as good as any of them.
Laceratingly punny, but it all curdles.
Book cover for The Jugger by Richard Stark
The Jugger by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake)
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Simply splendid. The first third is deceptively routine, but Westlake has sprung the narrative with plenty of tasty surprises/turns and it slams all the way home.
