Toddler Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono review – sex lives of the quietly kinky | Short stories
[ad_1] This unignorably strange collection of stories evokes warring responses of admiration and disgust in the reader: Taeko Kono is a writer who puts the toxic into intoxicating. The selection, written between 1961 and 1971, is a brave choice for one of the launch titles in W&N’s new list of modern classics. (Though the publisher […]
First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami review – crowd-pleaser in cruise control | Haruki Murakami
[ad_1] Reviewing a book by Haruki Murakami is to some degree a redundant act. Whatever the phenomenally popular Japanese writer knocks out will sell by the truckload – the reviews just notify his throng of devotees that it’s time to buy a new Murakami. All of which loosens my natural hesitancy to lay into a […]
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez review – unsettling tales | Short stories
[ad_1] In 1927 MR James, author of some of the most indelible ghost stories ever written, gave a lesson in how to do it: “Let us, then, be introduced to the players in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings, and into this […]
First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami review – meditations on ageing and memory | Haruki Murakami
[ad_1] Eight stories are told in the first person, with each narrator a man in late middle age who shares interests, such as jazz and baseball, with his author. Only one narrator is given a name: “Haruki Murakami”. Murakami, by his own account, is less interested in creating complex characters than in the interaction his […]
What I learned from reading female writers from every country in the world | Books
[ad_1] Three years ago, when I set out to read writing by a woman from every country in the world, I had no idea of the ways in which this journey would surprise me, challenge me and, as life became smaller, sustain me. What I did know was that I needed to broaden my bookcase […]
Nude selfies: are they now art? | Books
[ad_1] Have you ever sent a nude selfie? The question draws a thick red line between generations, throwing one side into a panic while the other just laughs. And yet, as far back as 2009, that fount of moral wisdom, Kanye West, was advising how to stay safe. “When you take the picture cut off […]
Born Into This by Adam Thompson review – witty, versatile and thrumming with voice | Short stories
[ad_1] “What’s with these acknowledgement to country speeches that kick off every public event these days? It’s all just words! Where is the action? If you acknowledge that this is Aboriginal land, then bloody well give it back. Don’t just say it, do it!” So retorts a character in The Blackfellas From Here, one of […]
George Saunders: ‘Monty Python taught me that comedy and truth are the same thing’ | Books
[ad_1] The book I am currently readingCervantes: Don Quixote. I’ve read in it before but this time I’m in for the long haul. I’m alternating this with Hot Stew by the wonderful Fiona Mozley, and A Christmas Carol, by you-know-who. The book that changed my lifeThere are so many but I’m inclined to mention my […]
The cosiest comfort reads to curl up with this Christmas | Books
[ad_1] Even if you feel you have had more “curling up quietly at home” time than is strictly necessary this year, finding a good Christmas read is still an extremely pleasant yuletide activity, to add to your newer pleasant yuletide activities of not having to go to your office party and not tearing off your […]
Unseen Shirley Jackson story to be published | Shirley Jackson
[ad_1] A “lost” story by Shirley Jackson, in which the author of The Haunting of Hill House shows a microcosm of the racism and sexism in US society through a dissatisfied woman’s trip to a corner shop, is being published for the first time. Adventure on a Bad Night follows Vivien as she goes out […]
