Ballad of a Small Player
Lawrence Osbourne

Reviewed 18th November 2015

Lord Doyle is a seedy solicitor on-the-scoot doggedly trying to lose his misgotten gains in some of the less salubrious gambling houses of Macau. Dream-like and razor sharp at the same time, this book chronicles an obsession of self-destruction that ends in a sort of madness. The prose is cool and measured and has more than a touch of Grahame Greene about it. Excellent

Burning the Days
James Salter

Reviewed 22nd September 2015

I have just finished reading this — which I read simultaneously with William Boyd’s Sweet Caress. Two very different styles but both linked as biographies — one an autobiography, the other a piece of fiction.

At the end of the exercise I would have to say that I liked Amory Clay, the subject of Boyd’s book, better than I liked the persona of James Salter. Not least because by the end of Sweet Caress you know more about Amory Clay from Boyd’s confection than you do from Salter’s own revelations of himself.

Salter’s prose is often crystalline, that is true. His views and opinions (particularly in the sections that deal with flying) are often very perceptive. But he comes across as a shallow, vain and self-regarding individual obsessed with booze, easy conquests and how well he is doing in comparison with others. He was not, I suspect, a happy man or particularly pleasant to be with. The revelations about himself are mostly guarded and superficial. Although the book is an easy and engaging read, and Salter is probably the better writer in a purely technical sense, I didn’t enjoy this book in the way I enjoyed learning about the life of Amory Clay through Boyd’s engaging writing.

The Darkling Spy
Edward Wilson

Reviewed 13th August 2015

I have started this book three times and given up three times — about thirty pages in.
There is too much of Mr Wilson trying too hard to show how much period research he has done and not enough plot development.
It’s a bit like Charles Dickens writing a spy novel — it just doesn’t work

 

An Armchair Traveller’s History of Apulia
Desmond Seaward

Reviewed 9th August 2015

It is important to remember that this is not a guide book. But there again it is not really a history either. It is a succession of interesting anecdotes loosely assembled around a “tour” of Apulia.

It is entertaining but occasionally infuriating — the ‘tour’ doesn’t really follow a route and backtracks, skips and repeats. There is a glaring omission in that virtually nothing is said about the post-First World War period (perhaps because it didn’t interest the authors) and there are several errors that a competent sub-editor should have picked up (one of the founders of the fascist movement is called both Giuseppe Cardona and Giuseppe Carradonna).

That having been said the linked chapter/essay format is engaging and lively and the depth of knowledge about the region is both lightly worn and pleasantly conveyed.

Dirty Snow
Simenon

Reviewed 14th December 2014

Outstandingly good and quite unlike anything else by Simenon, Dirty Snow is a work of compete genius. If he had written nothing else in his life, Simenon should be remembered for this.

The story of Frank Friedmaier is the story of a man who finds his own redemption through a nobility of action that has nothing to do with his former life or character. (In that, Frank is a bit like Dickens’ Sidney Carton). The story is brilliantly told without an unnecessary word or a superfluous paragraph. The descriptions of Frank’s mental attitude during his incarceration are exceptionally good.

(Forget the laughably pompous “Afterword” written by a third-rate American novelist. It completely misses the point and will only spoil the story’s effect)

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