Seven books I’ve recently enjoyed reading

Oh bugger. One of those ‘no inspiration’ posts I’ve avoided in the main, but which I’m having to fall back on this week. Never mind. Besides, I’ve intended this blog to be about reading as well as about writing, so with a nod to my recent-ish ‘favourite reads of last year,’ here’s what I’ve read so far this year so far.

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The (kind of, but not really) contemporary

In all honesty, I don’t jump on bandwagons and rarely catch the zeitgeist. Which will become very evident after the next but one heading. I have, however, recently enjoyed Siri Hustvedt’s The Blazing World (2014) and Katie Ward’s Girl Reading (2011). Both, interestingly, about art and its creation; both with really interesting approaches to form and voice. I hadn’t targeted this as a ‘thing,’ and am sated, for now, with novels about artists. Both, however, are definitely worth a look.

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Non-fiction

I was excited and almost rushed to order Howard Fishman’s biography of Connie Converse. To Anyone Who Ever Asks (2023) tells Converse’s life story well, although could perhaps been slimmed down a little, here and there, when either the writer puts himself left and centre of the narrative, or when he speculates about people Converse might have met, and the effect such meetings might have had. Et cetera.

The Hare With Amber Eyes (2010) is part history, part memoir, told through the ruse of how the writer came by a collection of netsuke. Another skillful piece of writing. Like Hustvedt and Ward, there’s an interesting construction and narrative. I wanted more about hares, mind – the hare of the title is one of the netsuke and doesn’t feature as such.

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Modernism – tough and rewarding

If I’m in the mood for it, there’s little more rewarding than expressionism, streams of consciousness, absurdity, off-centre and dislocated narratives etc. I’m less tolerant now than I used to be, and get jittery around what I hear or have experienced about the more far out stuff by Joyce or Beckett, but found some really great, lively writing in Stevie Smith’s Novel on Yellow Paper (1939). The book as a whole gets a bit boggy, but the narrator is full of energy and gives a clear picture of struggle with ideas around identity and relationships.

Modernism; bin there, seen it, done it

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Comfort reading

I normally save PG Wodehouse and Margery Allingham for holidays, though for whatever reason, felt I’ve needed the comfort of old favourites earlier this year. They’re both late works by their respective writers, and while Allingham valiantly tries to reflect the age in which she was writing with creaky references to mods and rockers in Cargo of Eagles (published posthumously in 1968), Wodehouse is still all country houses, pigs, daft romances and domineering matriarchs in A Pelican at Blandings (1969).

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My own writing? Well, you know. Actually, I’m feeling slightly upbeat. The middle section needs a complete rewrite. Daunting, but getting over the nerves and dread of having to edit what’s already there feels ever so slightly liberating.

There’s a load of good stuff in the draft, but many of the elements I’ve had come to me need to breath, stretch out. Incidents need to be given more of a treatment, in many cases. The voice and tone, too, need working out (let alone working on), but even in this overview of what’s going to be a tough job, I feel that I’ve regained direction.

Yes, it all this feels a little scary, but it really isn’t. The bank holiday weekend has a bit of a busy feel, but I’ll get a load of writing in then and really looking forward to it.

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Thank you for reading. You know, for whatever reason, I review all the books I read. You’ll have better analysis, a wider choice and a more pleasurable experience taking tips from Harriet and her guests on Radio 4’s A Good Read, but for what it’s worth, here are my short reviews.