Books
Funny, absorbing and as noir as noir can be: Thomas Pynchon rides again
The elusive novelist’s latest starts off complicated and then rapidly gets more so with its knot of gangsters, thugs, wacky inventors, spies, cops, political operatives and their accomplices
When, why and how came the fall – the success and sorry decline of the British Army
An impressively detailed chronicle by an analyst well up to the task. Read it and weep
When two worlds collide: Well, This is Awkward, by Esther Walker reviewed
A high-powered childless fortysomething social media exec’s life is turned upside down by the arrival of her 11-year-old niece
Revelling in illusion: the French sociologist-cum-philosopher who hit peak absurdity back in 1991
An admirably brief critical biography of Jean Baudrillard, whose prose was to thought what mud is to a windscreen
All that was bravest and best: William Miller, forgotten Victorian hero of South American independence
A meticulous account masquerading as adventure story of the life of the baker’s son from Kent who became a brilliant military tactician and soldier pivotal in the struggle against slavery and imperialism
On the road, high society style
In 1949, aged 26, Judy Montagu, cousin of Mary Churchill and daughter of Venetia Stanley, criss-crossed the US in a Greyhound bus. The resulting diary is edited and annotated by her daughter, whose mother died when she was only nine
The end is nigh – or is it?
Two AI aficionados sound the alarm in this blend of third-rate sci-fi, low-grade tech analysis and bad geopolitical assessment
Mad, bad and brilliant: Jesus Christ Kinski by Benjamin Myers, reviewed
The celebrated postwar film actor Klaus Kinski returned to the stage in 1971 to perform a monologue, footage of which has long fascinated the author of this experimental and distinguished novel
Dressing the word salad
We owe the ghostwriter of this book a debt of gratitude. A novelist called Geraldine Brooks is cited as a…
Justin Currie’s truly remarkable rock memoir
Aged 58, and suffering from Parkinson’s, Del Amitri’s chief songwriter never loses his sense of humour as he treks across America, playing in cowsheds, state fairs and parking lots
Will Israel always have America’s backing?
The views of today’s young Americans should concern Israelis, says Marc Lynch. With no memory of Israel’s foundations in 1948, they are considerably more pro-Palestinian than their parents
The radical power of sentimentality
Ferdinand Mount identifies three distinct sentimental revolutions – in the 11th, 18th and 20th centuries – that transformed legal frameworks and social structures as well as hearts and minds
The gay rights movement threatens to implode
Tolerance pushed too far by LGBTQ+ demands may soon turn to intolerance, and legislation can be rolled back in the blink of an eye, warns Ronan McCrea
A literary Russian doll: The Tower, by Thea Lenarduzzi, reviewed
The closer we get to the mystery of Annie, a 19th-century consumptive locked up in a tower by her wealthy father, the more we are lost in other stories within stories
The traitor who gives Downing Street a bad name
Even by 17th-century standards, George Downing’s duplicity in serving both Oliver Cromell and Charles II was exceptional and set new standards for unscrupulousness
A death sentence for Afghanistan’s women judges
Threatened with beheading by the Taliban in 2021, some judges managed to flee the country. But many remain in hiding, having destroyed all evidence of their qualifications
Robin Holloway lambasts some of our most beloved composers
Works by Strauss, Holst, Rossini, Schoenberg and Wagner are all targeted, while Hildegard of Bingen’s music is pronounced a ‘psychedelic bore’
Death and glory: the politics of the World Cup
The choice of ‘tiny boiling Qatar’ as a venue in 2022 – where thousands of construction workers lost their lives – typifies Fifa’s cynical favour-auctioning, says Simon Kuper
The vanished glamour of New York nightlife
Booze, coke, models, parties… Mark Ronson’s vivid account of DJing in the 1990s is a celebration of a lost world
An unheroic hero: Ginster, by Siegfried Kracauer, reviewed
When Kracauer’s protagonist is finally conscripted in the first world war, he starves himself to ‘general physical debility’ and is sent to ‘peel potatoes against the foe’
Stray shells and suicide bombers in Kabul’s finest hotel
Lyse Doucet describes how the Intercontinental, the journalists’ refuge for decades, is increasingly targeted by the Taliban as they gain control in Afghanistan
Auschwitz-themed novels are cheapening the Holocaust
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has spawned a host of deathcamp dramas that trivialise the Jewish tragedy, says Tanya Gold
Hell is other tourists in Antarctica
If you’ve longed to see every penguin species in the world, think about the company you’ll be keeping, warns Jamie Lafferty
Since when did the English love to queue?
Far from being an ancient trait, the ‘irksome novelty’ dates from 1939, according to Graham Robb – whose idiosyncratic history of Britain corrects many erroneous beliefs
How Charles III became the richest monarch in modern history
Valentine Low describes the financial deals struck by the Windsors with successive politicians in exchange for relinquishing political power
