Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli's Faces in the crowd was, as regular readers here might remember, one of my two Bah Humbook virtual gifts from Stu of Winston's Dad. I ordered it on Christmas Day for my Kindle - after all, it was a Christmas present - and have now read it. Wow, what a read, … Continue reading Valeria Luiselli, Faces in the crowd (Review)
Novellas
Fridays with Featherstone, Part 4: On writing and admired writers
Today, I bring you the final part of Susan Errington's Wet Ink interview with Nigel Featherstone. In this part Nigel talks primarily about some of the writers he admires or who have inspired him - and how they relate to his writing. I love the fact that many of the writers Nigel admires are also … Continue reading Fridays with Featherstone, Part 4: On writing and admired writers
Fridays with Featherstone, Part 3: Using the Arts and Landscape in fiction
Today, I bring you the third part of Nigel Featherstone's Wet Ink interview with Susan Errington. One of the things that stands out in the two novellas I've read by Featherstone is the way he uses the arts. Even though the title of the first novella, Fall on me, is a direct reference to the … Continue reading Fridays with Featherstone, Part 3: Using the Arts and Landscape in fiction
Fridays with Featherstone, Part 2: Writing about men
Today, as promised last week, I bring you the second part of Nigel Featherstone's Wet Ink interview with Susan Errington. But first, a brief intro. Back in early November, Nigel wrote a guest post for my Monday Musings series on writing about family, on how this is what he finds himself writing about. In this … Continue reading Fridays with Featherstone, Part 2: Writing about men
Fridays with Featherstone, Part 1: Thoughts on literary form
What do writer Nigel Featherstone and the now sadly defunct literary magazine Wet Ink have in common? An unpublished interview, that's what! When Nigel approached me, with the agreement of his interviewer Susan Errington, asking whether I would like to run the review on Whispering Gums, I of course said yes - for several reasons. … Continue reading Fridays with Featherstone, Part 1: Thoughts on literary form
Poor novellas?
Having just reviewed two novellas in succession - Nigel Featherstone's I'm ready now and Gerald Murnane's The plains - I was intrigued to receive an email this week from AbeBooks titled "The best novellas: Literature's middle child". It linked to an article which starts: Poor novellas. They are the middle-child, the Jan Brady of the … Continue reading Poor novellas?
Gerald Murnane, The plains (Review)
Wayne Macauley, he of the Most Underrated Book Award fame, wrote in his introduction to my edition of Gerald Murnane's The plains that "you might not know where Murnane is taking you but you can't help being taken". That's a perfect description of my experience of reading this now classic novella. It was like confronting … Continue reading Gerald Murnane, The plains (Review)
Nigel Featherstone, I’m ready now (Review)
Way back in my youth when I started studying literature, I thought I had to get the "right" interpretation. It made reading a little scary, I must say. However, as I gained confidence, I discovered that there are as many responses to a novel as there are readers, something I was reminded of when I … Continue reading Nigel Featherstone, I’m ready now (Review)
Julian Barnes, The sense of an ending (Review)
I should have known I wouldn't be the first to think of it, but during my reading Julian Barnes' Booker Prize winning novel, The sense of an ending, I was suddenly reminded of TS Eliot's The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock. It was the melancholic tone, the sense of life having passed one by, … Continue reading Julian Barnes, The sense of an ending (Review)
Jahnavi Barua, Rebirth (Review for the Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize, 2011)
What a shame Jahnavi Barua's novel, Rebirth, is, to the best of my knowledge, available "for sale in the Indian Subcontinent only" (backcover). Our Shadow Man Asian team had real problems tracking this one down, but I'm very glad we did manage to obtain some copies, eventually, because this is a beautiful book. The title, … Continue reading Jahnavi Barua, Rebirth (Review for the Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize, 2011)
Whispering Gums 