Lamentations

Traditionally ascribed to Jeremiah, Lamentations continues the doom and gloom of his eponymous book in a most unpleasant, misogynist and occasionally nicely worded manner.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil – Lips and Robb Reiner

I absolutely adored the documentary movie of which this book is a spin-off, essentially a real life Spinal Tap. The comparison is continued in the book, complete with deserted book signings, turning it up to 11 and po-faced exegesis on a song called “Show Us Your Tits”.

The reason the book works so well is the likeability and enthusiasm of twin narrators Lipps and Robb, who never question the absurdity of grown men spending their time doing ridiculous things. One could call them artless or even dim-witted, but their commitment to each other, to “integrity” and to the oft-invoked “majesty of Anvil” becomes admirable and, ultimately, really touching.

Jeremiah

An almost nostalgic return to righteously genocidal mood of various earlier OT books. Men, women and children will be variously killed, burned, devoured and otherwise tortured if they don’t, er, circumcise their hearts. Which is impossible. A bummer, then, but at least the prophet himself seems quite excited by the prospect.

Hitch 22; a memoir – Christopher Hitchens

I’m a great admirer of Hitch. I don’t agree with him about a few things, and he is often unnecessarily crass, but he writes with a passion and eloquence that I love.

This memoir is at its best when he’s talking about the influence of his parents on his outlook, and when he talks about the virtues of the USA (he was English but is now an American citizen). Even the duller, more detailing sections detailing his various political/intellectual feuds are written in prose that is completely free of cliché and often breathtaking.

Chocky - John Wyndham

Despite being published in 1968, this is a very old-fashioned sci-fi yarn about about sterling Brits with names like Janet and Kenneth getting involved with some rum goings-on. The set-up, about a boy apparently being haunted by an otherworldly voice, is solid but nothing much actually happens which accounts for the novel's brevity.

Staying On – Paul Scott

Clearly the aging English couple staying on in India long after the end of the Raj are an allegory for the dying embers of Empire, but the metaphorical reading was for me less interesting than the literal one. The depiction of two people clearly devoted to one another but uncommunicative and mutually cantankerous felt spot on, and the final bereavement extremely touching.

Isaiah

I like the jolly-sounding daughters of Zion, who are “haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet” (3:16) but it turns out God disapproves. There’s also the splendid name “Mahershalalhashbaz” – if only I was having another child.

There’s a gruesome and immoral statement that children can be slaughtered “for the iniquity of their fathers” (14:21) which seems a little harsh, if unsurprising because it turns out that God unambiguously confesses to having created all of the evil in the world (45:7). I thought theologians still fretted over this one? Read the book guys!

Preacher; until the end of the world – Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon

The introduction from Kevin Smith is truly cringe-inducing, but the story itself (or rather two stories) is lots of fun. On occasion the sensationalism tips over into bad taste, but that goes with the territory here.

Rites of Passage – William Golding

Those who read Lord of the Flies at school will recognise this novel’s themes of misbehaviour in confined groups and the breakdown of civilization under pressure. This is a much denser work, though, a tough read but in the end rewarding. It won the Booker in 1980.

The Shortest History of Europe – John Hirst

I thoroughly enjoyed this gallop through European history up to 1800. In fact, it comprises 2 gallops, one of 30 pages and one of 100 pages. Real “big picture” stuff except for a bit where it gets bogged down in Roman detail (I’m guessing this is Hirst’s period). I now realise I need to read up a lot on the medieval period.

Anglo-Saxon Attitudes – Angus Wilson

I have developed a distinct affection for famous-at-the-time-but now-deeply-unfashionable posh English authors of the 1930s-50s. Wilson is very much of that ilk, somewhere between Anthony Powell and LP Hartley.

The plot revolves around an archaeological dig that took place decades before the action of the novel, which sets up a neat thematic riff about how well we can ever understand the past and the tricks that time can play on us.

The first half seems all over the place, introducing multiple characters with seemingly little connection between them, but once a key revelation is made things come into focus and the story becomes an investigation into the past, reminiscent of John Le Carré classic Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.