Michael Johnston's Blog, page 4

‘Serious Sweet’ by A L Kennedy

Alison Kennedy is an immensely talented novelist who has described a long day in the lives of two very challenged people in a way that is both serious and sweet: Serious Sweet [New York: Little A, 2016] is the latest demonstration of her literary skills. Kennedy has the signature style of conveying the whole scene …

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‘The Old King in his Exile’ by Arno Geiger

Arno Geiger’s new book, The Old King in his Exile [High Wycombe: & Other Stories, 2017] is an uplifting memoir of the years in which he came to terms with his father’s transition into Alzheimer’s. Given that this is a situation we are all more likely to experience than ever before, these first-hand accounts can …

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‘Hot Milk’ by Deborah Levy

This Man Booker Prize short-listed novel, Hot Milk by Deborah Levy [London: Hamish Hamilton, 2016] explores the ways in which its narrator, mid-twenties Sofia Irina, resolves, and also fails to resolve, several of her hang-ups. Her Greek father deserted her English mother for a Greek girl little older than Sofia and she has not seen …

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‘Albert Angelo’ by B S Johnson

B S Johnson’s second novel, published in 1964, was Albert Angelo [New York: New Directions, 1964].  It’s a novel for those who like something different from basic linear narratives, despite the fact that its chapters are called Prologue, Exposition, Development, Disintegration and Coda.  Albert recounts his life; by vocation an architect but who earns his …

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‘The Sellout’ by Paul Beatty

Paul Beatty’s hilariously funny, satirical novel The Sellout [London: Oneworld, 2016] has just won this year’s Man Booker Prize.   The point of good satire is that it not only pokes absurd fun at its subject but by illuminating it from a completely different angle makes us review and revise our own ideas. Imagine a …

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‘No Mean City’ by A McArthur and H Kingsley Long

Sadly, No Mean City [London: Corgi, 1956] is a classic of its era.  The authors’ frighteningly authentic description of life and death in the Glasgow slums of the inter-war years makes solemn reading as we follow the occasional rises and more frequent falls of the blighted citizens of Glasgow, no mean city but a hard …

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‘Children of the Master’ by Andrew Marr

What’s not to enjoy with Andrew Marr’s second novel, Children of the Master  [London: Fourth Estate, 2015] The laddie’s book’s a richt stotter!  Jings, whaur tae stairt?  Granted Scots will have a slight edge of extra enjoyment reading some parts of it, but every Sassenach should read it too.  There are two central characters and …

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‘All That Man Is’ by David Szalay

On this year’s Man Booker short list is All That Man Is by David Szalay [London: Jonathan Cape, 2016]. Will it win? Answer shortly. One of Granta’s Best Young British novelists, Szalay is the author of three previous novels.  This one takes an interesting form. In a series of nine chapters, the author looks at …

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‘Heartstone’ by C J Sansom

The Matthew Shardlake series of historical crime fiction from C J Sansom continues superbly with number five, Heartstone. [London: Pan Books, 2011] As ever the author combines several apparently separate story lines within a gripping, sometimes terrifying ‘detective’ story against a convincingly authentic Tudor background. Now it is the summer of 1545 when Henry VIII’s …

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‘A Spool of Blue Thread’ by Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler’s book A Spool of Blue Thread [London: Vintage, 2015] has me in its thrall. The two chapters, 4 and 5, which are so rich in dialogue just perfectly capture the mood and the theme. Everyone is speaking but not everyone else is listening or hearing what is being said. It’s Chekov in Maryland. …

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