the disappearance of Joseph Mengele by Olivier Guez
reading another novel about nazis, but this is not a romp
reading another novel about nazis, but this is not a romp
a pre-release post on a novella about Russian conscripts
some things are worth dying for – what is worth killing for?
rare writing depicting middle class rootlessness not as tragedy
cracking under lockdown and stunning books
a real dirty french novel
a not-dirty-enough-to-be-dirty french novel
feeling sad so read a sad book on abortion
an enjoyable but intellectually presumptive novella
high grade historical fiction and the blogger hits some snags
another ruddy belter from enard who i love
accidentally read a book by a nazi
infamous for the wrong reasons…
A beautiful novel for an ugly world.
Some newly-translated cracking French fiction
A La Recherche du Temps Perdu 4: This Time It’s Gay
Love is not the preserve of the randy, love is not just something that happens with pants off or about to be off…
It is 1230am on a Friday night, I am (which is very rare for me) not at work, my girlfriendContinue Reading
Volume 2 of Marcel Proust’s giant novel, In Search of Lost Time, is a joy to read. I don’t knowContinue Reading
Last night I cut my hand in several places on a broken champagne flute, and to recuperate took myself offContinue Reading
I’m writing this in the beautiful Spanish Pyrenees, having spent a day doing little more than reading Proust and lookingContinue Reading
Phwoar! Actually, I retract that. Other than the bit where a priest is raped by a woman and two menContinue Reading
Urgh. Nadja by André Breton is the worst book I’ve read for fucking ages. Dull, poorly structured, self-important and smug,Continue Reading
Opium: The Diary of his Cure is an odd, but engaging, book by the French not-Surrealist modernist Jean Cocteau. FriendContinue Reading
A classic, yes, I should probably have read it by now… But nineteenth century, French, more than 300 pages –Continue Reading
This is edited from a brief presentation I gave in a class. So it’s more literary than usual and doesn’tContinue Reading
Albert Camus was (according to the blurb of this 1960s Penguin edition) active in the French resistance during the NaziContinue Reading
Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant is a fun romp through the bachelor pads, newspaper boardrooms, restaurants and theatres of glamorous,Continue Reading