A. Bennett, Anna of the five towns (1902)
L. Ellmann, Ducks, Newburyport (2019)
D. du Maurier, The scapegoat (1957)
Ducks, Newburyport was not my favourite, but it did take up most of the reading time. It has also been somewhat misleadingly reviewed. I think that may well be because many of the reviewers didn't finish it. It is accurately reported as being very very long, and definitely outlandish in technique. It is a stream of consciousness novel, but a very specific manner which is essentially a list. That makes it hard going, though the writing does make many of those fragments very quotable. Contrary to most of the reviews, it is actually full of plot. There's a whole biographical backstory packed into it, and central conventional narrative has a dramatic (one could say melodramatic) climax. It's far from perfect, and it could definitely be half the length or less, but it's an ambition to be applauded.
Everything else was high quality without being outstanding. Arnold Bennett remains consistently good, and given that consistency, ever more surprisingly unfashionable; Du Maurier was fun. However, Maalouf's evocation of the beginnings of modern religious conflict in Lebanon was particularly nicely done, and it's right on target for me. I'll be reading the rest of his.
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