The Middlemen: A Satire by Christine Brooke-Rose
pointed gags from the 1960s about things that haven’t changed
Tag: class
video – the pret a manger coffee subscription was the best thing that ever happened to me – anti-comedy stand-up
pret a manger is like Greggs for people with student debt … like Birley Sandwiches for people who iron their own clothes
England 2K State Insekt by Tempest Miller
some youthful poems someone from the internet sent me
‘under the lectern’ from the pleasure of regret – scott manley hadley: live at paradise (new web series episode)
on academia, class, education and enjoying the work of Malcolm Lowry
my father, from a distance – scott manley hadley: live at paradise (new web series episode)
Filmed at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto’s historic Paradise Theatre on Bloor St W, the poet,Continue Reading
Rescue Me: On Dogs and Their Humans by Margret Grebowicz
we have lived with dogs for longer than we’ve lived with agriculture; we are arguably not people without them…
Waiting for Ted by Marieke Bigg
a novel about someone on a chaise longue
Monaco by Juliet Jacques
pointless, self-indulgent, felt like it took less time to read than to write… in short, I loved it
Aftermath by Rachel Cusk
excellent short book on breaking up and live-in domestic servants
The Hill of Devi by E.M. Forster
reading another of Forster’s late, weak (maybe pointless?) books
Meat Love: An Ideology of the Flesh by Amber Husain
anti-meat text that confronts (but in a “healthy debate” kinda way) the meat eating majority
James Baldwin: Living in Fire by Bill V. Mullen
an interesting – tho intentionally unemotive – biography of Big Jimmy B
Do Every Thing Wrong!: XXXTentacion Against The World by 😇 Jarett Kobek 😇
an extensive discussion re the weighty themes raised by this book
Never Seen The Sea by Holly Watson
i experience the plot of keep the aspidistra flying while reading and in retrospect for my childhood
The Passengers by Will Ashon
an excellent book
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
posh ominous australian fiction
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
while we seek relief in schadenfreude over self-esteem, the world will never be fixed
Boy Parts by Eliza Clark (Influx Press, 2020)
a week off work begins with a great contemporary novel
Valentino and Sagittarius by Natalia Ginzburg
the lockdown continues and nothing changes
James Baldwin Threeway
baldwin, baldwin, baldwin
one day I read 5ive plays by Arthur Miller
on january 2nd, 2021, i read FIVE arthur miller plays
the mirror and the light by hilary mantel
Written June 15th and actually it was this one, not Things Fall Apart that caused me to pause blogging, forContinue Reading
If All The World and Love Were Young by Stephen Sexton
top prize-winning poetry and emotional toll of lockdown ekes in
Look Back In Anger by John Osborne
further disintegration as i read a play that hasn’t aged well
Lift Every Voice, edited by Christine Taylor
little review of a strong anthology
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
great early[ish] essays from one of america’s best
Parade’s End by Ford Madox Ford
a very very very good big book on WAR
The Unauthorised Biography of Ezra Maas by Daniel James
the emotional cost of working in high end catering
Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
you absolute Stein
An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim
beautiful grown-up time travel
The Priest of Love by Harry T. Moore
An un-Lawrentian D.H. Lawrence biography
Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine
who is this for?
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
my thoughts on literature and class
The Automaton by David Wheldon
i remember that i don’t like reading about magic
Drunken Baker by Barney Farmer
the bottle salves but doesn’t heal
Sunshine by Melissa Lee-Houghton
this is impressive, i am depressive
The Commons by Stephen Collis
why are poets so obsessed with outside?
Paymon’s Trio by Colette de Curzon
a short story chapbook that’s fine, no more, no less
Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson
Finally, a book about race that makes me angry at myself
On Dressing Down & The Tragedy of Fidel Castro
A book that makes big promises without sufficient returns…
The 24-Hour Wine Expert by Jancis Robinson
Should non-fiction books about intoxicants even be legal, yeah?
I Write Self-Involved Book Review For Another Site
I read and discuss a book about dickhead hipster bartenders, just weeks after stopping being one.
Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann
Rosamond Lehmann is not a widely-read novelist any more, though in the middle of the 20th-century, she was both popularContinue Reading
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Big books. I have an odd relationship with ’em. The idea of big books, to be honest, I have aContinue Reading
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a big, serious novel all about big, serious things. It is intelligent, articulate, humaneContinue Reading
Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble
Margaret Drabble is not a novelist I’ve read before. To be honest, I’m mainly aware of her for being withinContinue Reading
Every Day Is For The Thief by Teju Cole
About a year ago I read and quite enjoyed Teju Cole’s Open City. It was a set text for myContinue Reading
How to be both by Ali Smith
Ali Smith’s latest novel – How to be both – has been shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker PrizeContinue Reading
Swann’s Way (À la recherche du temps perdu 1) by Marcel Proust
I’m writing this in the beautiful Spanish Pyrenees, having spent a day doing little more than reading Proust and lookingContinue Reading
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is an engaging and somewhat strange book. It is, actually, the autobiography of GertrudeContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 