Book review
Pain passed down: a portrait of Russia and the war that dare not speak its name
Seierstad’s new book has an antihero as its central figure, whose story, and that of Russia itself, is above all about violence and its corollaries: pain, callousness, neglect and always, everywhere, alcohol. While the other heroic Russians are not ignored, this is essentially a salutary read
Rebecca reimagined: The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain, reviewed
Manderley becomes Manderville, Mrs Danvers becomes Danni and there is a lesbian love affair played out in the boathouse. Originally a short story and expanded for a new feature, it makes for an engaging jeu d’esprit
Too much and much too long: The Rouse by China Miéville, reviewed
Miéville’s new novel has taken more than a decade to write and now we can see why: it is 1,264 pages long. The initial 190 pages could have been a standalone novel but instead it continues, the style more ornate and ormolu as it goes on
Worried about masculinity: from turrets and gargoyles to the state of men
Ronson uses the story of the very strange Chris Mark as a springboard into one of the hotter subjects of the day. The terrain may be familiar but it is nevertheless intelligent, engaging and funny
Curiouser and curiouser: The Strangers by Naomi Alderman, reviewed
This aptly titled novel might be Alderman’s weirdest book yet – a cross between a work of fiction and a memoir, whose main character, called Naomi Alderman, says gave her ‘a kind of freedom with both forms’
Mind the gaps: a far-from comprehensive life of Hannah Arendt
A much-acclaimed German ‘biography’ of the Jewish exile from Königsberg who became one of the most influential political and social thinkers of the postwar decades spurns chronology in favour of thematic commentary
In with the new: Julie Christie, Mary Quant, Up the Junction – the decade that changed Britain
The 18 months covered in the latest volume of David Kynaston’s magnum opus contain some of the defining moments of the whole postwar period
Martin Amis: 1949-2023
Over the next few days, people will be reaching for certain set phrases about Martin Amis. That he was ‘era-defining’…
Is your baby racist?
Babies, look at them: waddling about the place, falling over, crying, needy. Those racist bastards. Yeah that’s right, you heard…
Umberto Eco really tries our patience
Colonna, the protagonist of Umberto Eco’s latest novel, is the first to admit he is a loser. A middle-aged literary…
Designing the swimming car, the Doodlebug and the Panzer tank was all in a day’s work for Ferdinand Porsche
The aggressive character of the famous German sports car, in a sort of sympathetic magic, often transfers itself to owner-drivers.…
The politics of prediction
Forecasts have been fundamental to mankind’s journey from a small tribe on the African savannah to a species that can…
What is written down
Marcus Tullius Cicero was the ancient master of the ‘save’ key. He composed more letters, speeches and philosophy books than…
To wit, deWitt
Patrick deWitt is a Canadian writer whose second novel, a picaresque and darkly comic western called The Sisters Brothers, was…
Lover and fighter
I don’t like boxing. If I ever get into a boxing ring, I’ll be in the corner with the governor…
Bard times
It is fair to say that Jeanette Winterson is not Shakespeare, though I cannot imagine why any authors would accept…
Two serious ladies
‘You understand, Lenú, what happens to people: we have too much stuff inside and it swells us, breaks us.’ The…
Poet as predator
Craig Raine says that Jonathan Bate’s unauthorised biography of Ted Hughes gets it wrong on every level
Love it or loathe it
At the heart of the eschatological ideology of the Islamic State is the belief that when the world ends (and…
The raffish toff with a winning Formula
Max Mosley’s autobiography has been much anticipated: by the motor racing world, by the writers and readers of tabloid newspapers,…
The wandering Jew
Stefan Zweig wasn’t, to be honest, a very good writer. This delicious fact was hugged to themselves by most of…
Walking the same walk
Mark Cocker is the naturalist writer of the moment, with birds his special subject. His previous book, Birds and People,…
Shades of the classroom
How our perceptions of 17th-century England are dominated by the convulsions of the two decades at its centre! Peter Ackroyd’s…
Poet, priest and life-enhancer
Hilaire Belloc was once being discussed on some television programme. One of the panellists was Peter Levi. The other critics…
Into the badlands
Larger than Europe and the United States combined, Siberia is an enormous swathe of Russia, spanning seven time zones and…
