Born Trump                           Emily Jane Fox

I ordered this on a whim from Kindle. The Trumps of course are not interesting in and of themselves, they are rather like second-rate characters from a TV soap, but this writer did nothing to make me want to read about them, and I ditched it early.  She comes from Vanity Fair which has of late also become strangely dull.  Come back Graydon Carter, all is forgiven.   We needed your relentless hatred of the orange monster.

Maigret Sets a Trap                Georges Simenon

I was wondering why I wasn’t so knocked out by this when the denouement blew me away.  He is seriously good.  Once again weather provides the setting.  This time Paris in the dead days of August.  Hot and oppressive, waiting for a thunderstorm to clear the air.   This is about a serial killer, and he comes into the story after five murders!   Who else would ever do that?  Such confidence he has.

Call for the Dead                   John Le Carré

Confined to bed for twenty four hours I lashed into Le Carré, beginning with this his first novel, which is at least half a detective story and introduces the delightful character of George Smiley, who collaborates with Mendel to solve the mystery of the sudden suicide of Fennan.  Also appearing for the first time is the sinister Munch.  And also for the first time the name Le Carré.  “When people press me, I say, I saw the name on a shop front from the top of a London bus.  I didn’t.  I just don’t know.  But never trust a novelist when he tells you the truth.”   I enjoyed it so much I resolved to re-read the Smiley novels in order.

A Murder of Quality               John Le Carré

After twenty four hours I was done with the first two and was forced to download the next.  This one is set at Carne public school and features the struggle between town and gown when vile things break out in this ancient public school.  For a short time Le Carré even taught at Eton, and of the masters he says “I loathed them, and I loathed their grotesque allegiances most of all.  To this day, I can find no forgiveness for their terrible abuse of the charges entrusted to them.”

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.  John Le Carré

I was forced to download this since I thought I had reread it recently, but turns out I hadn’t.  Of course I’d seen the excellent movie again.  I’m glad I did, because I really liked it after all these years.  Intriguing to get back into that world of Checkpoint Charlie, and the Munt puzzle which he brilliantly revisits in his latest A Legacy of Spies, which I re-read with delight a month ago for no better reason than it looked fun in paperback at Vromans.   And it was.

The Looking Glass War           John Le Carré

This did pose a dilemma as I have read it recently, but I determined to continue in my quest and again I was rewarded.   He was of course panned for this, immediately after his grand success with the previous novel.  It reminded me that the only thing I learned from studying literature at Cambridge is that it is almost always pointless reading any criticism.  Most of it is penis envy, and though the envy may be big, the penis is tiny.   JLC meant it as a corrective to the romantic view of the Circus from his big suprising hit novel, a more accurate portrayal of the petty world of British intrigue and the seedy and sordid world of spying.  Perhaps that view did not accord with the times.  Anyway, it is well worth the trip.  So that’s the fourth of the Smiley novels and the larger, more famous works lie ahead.

However I have decided to put re-reading them all on hold, there are just too many good new things to read on my shelf this summer.   Perhaps on my book tour…

The Essex Serpent                  Sarah Perry

I had trouble sticking with this one.   It reminded me of the world of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, but I kept being confused by the period setting, and the intrusion of things like the London Underground, cameras and so on into the world of the 1890’s.   I’m not sure I care enough to stick with it, but it’s the sort of thing I could pick up later and enjoy.   That’s me not it.

Seize the Day                          Saul Bellow

And despite all my ravings about Saul Bellow I kept finding myself putting this down.   Why?

Is it me, or can you smell gas?

Vengeance is Mine, All Others pay cash      Eka Kurniawan

I was quite enjoying this Indonesian novel.  Mainly a story of a dick, I may return to it.

The Moving Finger                 Agatha Christie

Sometimes one overlooks the obvious.   There is an excellent reason Agatha is the best read author in the world, she is actually very readable.  This short novel, which eventually even includes Miss Marple at the end, helping with the denouement, is narrated by a brother in a dry, ironic style. He and his sister retreat for peace and quiet, and physical recovery into the simple peace and quiet of the English countryside where, of course, they find anything but and become involved in a murder mystery,  a who-dunit about a poison pen letter writer.  Utterly pleasurable.

Maigret’s Failure                   Georges Simenon

The secret of Simenon is women.   He knows them.   Thoroughly.  He studies them.   He understands them.  He sees their sorrows.  He understands their heart aches.  Their betrayals.  Their sadness at growing old.  Their power over men.   Their hanging on to old illusions when their men have passed their sell-by date.  And of course in Madame Maigret he has created the ideal companion.  One who never complains or demands his time.  Who cooks at the drop of a hat, who even tries not to breathe when she has toothache so as not to disturb him.   Of course she is the least real of all his women.  It’s the sadness, and the drinking and the violence against women he perceives, because he was a lover of women.   Thousands.  A daily seduction was as essential to him as writing.  And he is not a good looking guy.  But women trust him and perk up when they see him like they do for Maigret, the ideal observer, who just smokes his pipe and says little until the whole crime falls into place.   Sometimes even in a dream.    This is a faultless Maigret which includes excellent examples of all this.

Tyrant                                   Stephen Greenblatt

The most brilliant take-down of the tyrant in the white house without a single mention of his name.   Stephen examines tyrants in Shakespeare history plays and what makes them tyrannous and how they grow into tyranny.  Richard 111, Macbeth, Lear, and Coriolanus.  Madness and megalomania leads them all down a path that seems so familiar from today’s headlines.   A fascinating and brilliant read.  And you can be sure one illiterate traitor won’t be able to read it…

How the Wheel becomes it.      Anthony Powell

A brilliant novel, exquisitely written.  A short return to the scene in 1983 after the long and classic series of novels A Dance to the Music of Time.  I felt it was so wonderfully written and constructed with his characters scenes constantly illuminated by the hilarious comments of the off-stage narrator.  I thought it might make a play and I wanted to read it again.  I found a first edition somewhere on my travels.  It made me buy the first of his twelve volume epic classic: A Dance to the Music of Time, and eventually the whole set.   See July.

Churchill                               Paul Johnson

An essential gallop through the exciting and brave life of one of the most remarkable men in history.  And one of the greatest exponents of English prose.  Nicely told by Paul Johnson.  He was utterly fearless and seemed to actually enjoy being shot at… Things I picked up:  Hitler loved whistling, Churchill hated it.    He was fencing champion at Harrow school.

May

Uncommon Type                    Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks has no business being this uncommonly good at the short story.  Is there nothing he cannot do?

Warlight                                Michael Ondaatje

A book of very accomplished parts.  Fine writing, good characters, why does it not all then come together in triumph?  I think he has chosen a very difficult way to tell the story. It’s hard to tell a love story backwards and then only learn about it and the meaning and depth of it from the older eyes of the offspring.  It involves the world of secrecy.  Might have been better chronologically.

Loser takes all                        Graham Greene

Fifties pot-boiler, set around Monte Carlo and some lessons about wealth.  A little too over evident on second reading.

Robin                                    David Itzkoff

I missed him.  I didn’t find him in the book.  It read like his life was sad.  It was far from sad. It made me want to try and write something about him, a little longer than the final chapter I wrote on him in my Sortabiography, to discover for myself what I mean instinctively about his absence from these pages.  It’s not the Final Chapter of my book but it was the last chapter I wrote because I kept postponing it, knowing I must because I owed it to him, to recall him, in all his heart warming funny, sweet affectionate ways, but I was avoiding it for the longest time, dreading facing the reality of his loss. So maybe I will have a go or maybe that Chapter does it.   This is a perfectly fine canter through his life, but the essence is not there for me.

Crime and Punishment                    Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Loved her, hated him.

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