Category Archives: Novel

“The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

A fascinating attempt to novelise the Iliad, taking the material beyond the confines of Homer’s poem, both before and after, but not falling into the trap of having to tell the whole bloody story in detail, wooden horse and all … Continue reading →

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“Mariana” by Monica Dickens

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

Normally I get annoyed with the first few pages of a novel, and have to be coaxed into the author’s world; with this book I was hooked at the start, raving about the prologue of Mary in her Essex cottage … Continue reading →

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“Cargo of Eagles” by Marjorie Allingham

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

Another great Albert Campion whodunit: there’s something about Allingham’s writing which I really really like. It’s a kind of knowing, yet sympathetic distance, a strong narrative voice, but always stopping before it gets too playful and you lose connection with … Continue reading →

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“Z for Zachariah” by Robert C. O’Brien

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

[Spoiler alert] A girl alone after nuclear war, running her family farm; a man walks in from the dead zone, in a unique suit and equipment that sustains life in radioactive environments. She romantically imagines marriage and a family; he … Continue reading →

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“Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

A masterpiece: sometimes, just sometimes, the wonderfully secure narrator’s false shields crack, and the respective pain of pervert and victim is revealed. But so lightly done. Beautifully expressed self-delusion.

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“The Dispossessed” by Ursula le Guin

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

There’s a book on the politics of The Dispossessed which, if I get round to reading it, might help me think and write about that aspect of this novel. In (that and) other respects it’s a very good book indeed, … Continue reading →

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“The Truth about Lorin Jones” by Alison Lurie

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

A deft novel about each other and ourselves, about the conflicting stories we hear and tell about us, about prejudice and, more profoundly, the logical unknowability of a person, even ourselves. Lurie’s characters’ names give this away: the heroine – … Continue reading →

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“Ed King” by David Guterson

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

A fantastic book in its own right – i.e. judged as a novel, not an updating of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Guterson has an easy, just-self-conscious style – you know you’re being told a story, but he doesn’t intrude – … Continue reading →

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“Smiley’s People” by John le Carré

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Developing to some kind of resolution the story of Smiley and Karla, subtly making clearer the binary connections between them. P450 tries to make this explicit: Karla’s being brought down by Smiley’s defining compassion; Smiley’s being somehow damaged by his … Continue reading →

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“We Need to Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver, and film

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

The three of us sat in silence at the end and had to have a beer before going home. I’d read the book, another had read its beginning, the other none. Two significant changes: removing the epistolary form of letters … Continue reading →

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