I think it not unreasonable to claim that Days at the Morisaki Bookshop is a 'slight' book. Not in terms of size (though it isn't that large) but rather in terms of narrative and style. Not a huge amount happens it seems to me, and there is a lightness in the style which is presumably … Continue reading “Days at the Morisaki Bookshop”
Category: Fiction
“This Other Eden”
This Other Eden is certainly up there with Paul Harding's other novels, Enon and Tinkers. It's a bit of a slow-burner to begin with which, given the subject matter, is somehow fitting. Part social and historical narrative, part love story, it lays bare a slice of unsavoury history. We may associate eugenics with the Nazis, … Continue reading “This Other Eden”
“Crash” performance is tomorrow!
Clip from the Market Rasen Mail: Really excited to be performing Crash again tomorrow, plus further readings of poetry and prose an hour later! Click on the image above to be taken to the booking page, or the button below for the event website. The WordFest website
Starting stories, minutiae, and scratching an itch…
Some recent posts from my Substack site: "Writing until the light goes out" "Writing until the light goes out"
New books out this week!
And if you go to the website you'll even find a post about kissing.... "Writing until the light goes out" "Writing until the light goes out"
“Collected Stories” – Peter Carey
It has been many years since I read any Peter Carey: Oscar and Lucinda, and I remember nothing of it. Perhaps because of that I was somewhat thrown by his Collected Stories. Not in the sense of how well-written they are, but rather the strange dystopian worlds many of them seem to inhabit. There is … Continue reading “Collected Stories” – Peter Carey
“17 Alma Road” highlighted on Portobello Book Blog
click to go to Portobello Book Blog
Words of wisdom? You decide…
Some recent posts from my Substack site: "Writing until the light goes out" "Writing until the light goes out"
“Birnam Wood”
Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood is a strange amalgam of a book. For the first two thirds it meanders slowly along without seeming to be getting anywhere particularly significant - and then, as if it has been injected with some illicit substance, suddenly speeds up and turns into 'a thriller' with an ending that has more … Continue reading “Birnam Wood”
“Getting Through”
There is a theme of regret and missed opportunity running through John McGahern's short story collection, Getting Through. Mainly these involve broken relationships, between man and woman, father and son: 'Sierra Leone', 'Along the Edges'. As with High Ground and other stories, McGahern's prose has a depth which belies the narrative somehow. They are incidents … Continue reading “Getting Through”
Ian Gouge - Writer 