Summer Lightning – P.G. Wodehouse

Just scroll down a bit and look at the review of Something Fresh. This is essentially the same book, which is an indisputably Good Thing.

Night – Elie Wiesel

This Holocaust memoir must have been astounding when it first came out in the 1950s. The graphic description of life and death inside the camps is extremely painful, never moreso than when the boy narrator is casually separated from his mother and sister, never to see them again. The writing is impeccably restrained and often honest to the extent of being uncomfortable.

It seems taboo to ask, but is it possible that the impact of such works has diminished over time? Does familiarity breed not contempt but a kind of numbed acknowledgement of horror?

Something Fresh – P.G. Wodehouse

After many a happy frolic in other parts of the Wodehouse universe, I finally enter the legendary grounds of Blandings Castle. It’s every bit as joyful as I had hoped, featuring the familiar mix of perfectly constructed prose and farcical mayhem.

Included in the volume are a couple of short stories, one of which contains one of the all-time great bon mots: 

“It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine."

The Easter Parade – Richard Yates

The first thing you read upon opening this book are the blurbs, the first three of which are provided by Julian Barnes, Kurt Vonnegut and Joan Didion. Exalted company, indeed.

The next is the magnificent opening sentence:  “Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents’ divorce.”

It’s a heck of a start, and thanks to Yates’ insight and artistry, the level is maintained throughout. Be warned, though; this is a gutwrenchingly sad tale.

The Survivor – Thomas Keneally

I generally enjoy novels set in academia, but this story of Antarctic explorers was a little icy for me. The plot reminded me of Angus Wilson’s Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, with its concerns about the excavation of the past, both literal and metaphorical.

The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot

Most of this classic comprises a portrait of a rural community in the realist style we associate most readily with the wonderful George Eliot. Maggie Tulliver is a convincing heroine, particularly in the childhood sections, and an exemplar of intellectually unfulfilled Victorian womanhood. 

Weirdly, the ending suddenly switches to melodrama, in a way that is both baffling and oddly moving.