The Rub of Time                                           Martin Amis

Various essays.    Wonderful on Nabokov, and Hitchens and Travolta.  Made me buy and read the Saul Bellow at once.

The Adventures of Augie March                 Saul Bellow

An almost perfect novel.   I don’t know how he does this.  I can understand how Dickens writes, how Jane Austen achieves her effects, but this pours out like poetry.  Quite extraordinary.   I see now how Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens became such fans of his work.  I’m about halfway through, and dreading it coming to a close.   I think one of the finest books I have ever read.

The Angel Esmeralda                                   Don Delillo

Nine stories.   Exquisite.

Playback                                                        Raymond Chandler

Almost perfect.  A continuous pursuit of the mysterious lady who arrives on the train in LA.

The Monk of Mokha                                    Dave Eggers

A tale of coffee in the Yemen.

Maigret Goes to School                                 Georges Simenon

A school teacher from La Rochelle seeks help in a murder.

Great Contemporaries                                  Winston Churchill

Published in 1938 Churchill is the best prose writer of the twentieth century.  Fascinating people here from Hitler to H.G.Wells.

Righteous                                                       Joe Ide

An IQ Novel.   Having been bowled over by his debut I had to immediately send off for this his second novel.   Obviously he spent ten years on the first, and this can’t quite follow it, but he is the real thing.

Maigret’s Mistake                                         Georges Simenon

A charismatic brain surgeon and the death of a mysterious young woman.

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