C. Achebe, Things fall apart
P. Barker, Regeneration*
E.M. Brent Dyer, Jo of the Chalet School*
I. Fleming, From Russia, with Love
U. Le Guin, The left hand of darkness
S. Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh*
I note, a) I've begun to really step up the rereading, which may damage my calculations about how many books to retain in the house and b) this has been an exceptional month. I reckon at least three of these would have taken BOTM in January (Wood, Barker, Rushdie). And I could make a case for Le Guin and Achebe. I think this is the last of Rushdie's great works, and it makes painful the decline he has suffered since. Comparing this to The Enchantress of Florence (which has strong echoes of this in it) is painful.
Not though as painful as Paul Auster would find James Wood's essay on his output. It's a savage, and richly deserved, binning. And just one of the succession of gems in his latest collection of essays. It helps of course that I think he's right on most of the authors he discusses, but really it's the penetration and elegance with which he approaches each subject that makes this outstanding. As a bonus, we don't just get literary criticism but an astounding essay on the late Keith Moon, decades after his death. It's been richly lauded, and I heartily concur. Unless of course you're a huge fan of Paul Auster.
