Category Archives: fiction

The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook (Penguin)

Posted on September 11, 2014 by drewsmith28

“The beast is here. I’ve seen him. Berti’s seen him. Dietmar’s seen him.” IT would seem to have taken a long time for writers to get to grips with all the emotions and smells of World War 11, as if … Continue reading →

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The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty by Sebastian Barry (Faber)

Posted on August 11, 2014 by drewsmith28

“In the middle of the lonesome town, at the back of John Street, in the third house from the end, there is a little room. For this small bracket in the long paragraph of the street’s history, it belongs to … Continue reading →

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The Thrill of it All by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)

Posted on July 24, 2014 by drewsmith28

“My name is Robbie Goulding. I was once a musician. For five years in the 1980s I played guitar with The Ships.” I gave my first copy to my daughter in New York who is into her music. The second … Continue reading →

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The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry (Faber)

Posted on July 9, 2014 by drewsmith28

“It’s a beautiful night and no mistake. You would never think there was a war somewhere” In a Literary World Cup, my money would be on Ireland. I read a sarky review of one of Sebastian Barry’s novels in the … Continue reading →

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A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride (Galley Beggar)

Posted on June 23, 2014 by drewsmith28

“She and me. Like to lurk here in the day. Those gossips we have are the very best and we read and read. Quote quotes back forth. That’s good for sharing books of this and that. Word perfect. We snick … Continue reading →

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Icefields by Thomas Wharton (Washington Square Press)

Posted on June 20, 2014 by drewsmith28

“At a quarter past three in the afternoon on August 17, 1898, Doctor Edward Byrne slipped on the ice of Arcturus glacier in the Canadian Rockies and slid into a crevasse” Wharton’s take on the founding of the Jasper community … Continue reading →

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Murder bag by Tony Parsons (Century)

Posted on June 4, 2014 by drewsmith28

Lee Child – see below – also writes the endorsement on Tony Parson’s departure into the crimo genre. “Tense and human”, he says. Welcome to the field of nastiness and violence, Tony. Parsons can write. I have followed his work … Continue reading →

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The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Faber)

Posted on April 28, 2014 by drewsmith28

“The world begins anew with every birth, my father used to say. He forgot to say, with every death it ends. Or did not think he needed to. Because for a goodly part of his life he worked in a … Continue reading →

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Mistress by James Patterson (Arrow)

Posted on April 9, 2014 by drewsmith28

I was curious to read something that was really popular, a best seller to compare with other books here. Does popularity equal literature? Does it matter? Are readers the ultimate accolade? So I turned to the “world’s bestselling thriller writer” the … Continue reading →

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Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown)

Posted on February 5, 2014 by drewsmith28

  I should post a reservation about BIG books in general. Both the Booker listed Kills and the winning Luminaries are substantial door-holders, so is Donna Tartt’s Goldfinch, fewer pages but denser type, smaller margins. Such expansiveness demands more time, … Continue reading →

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