K. Amis, The alteration
B. Bainbridge, The bottle factory outing
W. Fiennes, The Snow geese (from last month. I forgot)
A. Leckie, Ancillary Sword
A. Leckie, Ancillary Mercy
C. Mieville, Railsea
S. Rohmer, The mystery of Fu Manchu
K. Vonnegut, Cat's cradle
I think The Alteration is one of Kingsley Amis' best books - far better than the dire offerings I've read recently - though it's not in Lucky Jim's class. It is clever, and done very well right through the end, which I think is a nice subversion of the conventions of such novels. I have read it several times, but I'm rereading it as part of my plan to read all of the John W. Campbell award. However, although excellent, partly because of the frequency of reading, I've given BOTM to Capote's classic, which does not suffer from being overlooked. It's a book that spawned a genre. And, though true crime is not a genre I've read a lot of or intend to, this is outstanding. It's tense, even though we know the outcome, which is no mean feat. Above all though, it brings the human dimension not just to the victims, but to the murderers and the wider 'cast.' I also think it does narrative perspective well: it bring vividly to life the way such actions upend some lives and communities, but quickly wash through others. I gather bits of it are slightly made up, but I have no quarrel with that.
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