Jon Taylor > Recent Status Updates

Got a bit bogged down in the (no question, fascinating) history of the Ghors but the description of the two domes and arch set against the mountains set my imagination alight.

Things turn quickly. One mullah decides you’re a spy and the whole atmosphere changes. That was quite a frightening episode.

There is not the same notion of ‘government’ in Afghanistan. Stewart writes of old men in villages who pay no tax and get nothing from the state. Hard for us soft Westerners to comprehend… The old man described in this chapter was the definition of stoic. Silent, watchful, courteous. Almost alien to us in 21st century UK.

Qasim’s a character. Learned loads about men and status in Afghan culture. There is a quiet humour in Stewart’s writing which could be seen as patronising although, as he says, he is aiming to merely portray what he sees honestly without too much narrative intervention. Some beautiful passages of description - brief but beautiful.

Sad thought - this is probably as close as I will ever get to experiencing Afghanistan. I doubt I have the physical or mental strength to do what Rory Stewart did. Incredible will power and self-belief that can only really come from a public school education I suspect. Another sad thought.

Amazing how much these American detectives drink. It really is a fucked up country…

This is of its time, which makes it all the more enjoyable. There’s a layer of sleaze over parts of it that just couldn’t be portrayed now but which suit this genre so well.

This is just like a 70s movie, maybe with Donald Sutherland. The priest is brilliant - just the right side of crazy. Wouldn’t surprise me if he did it…

Pacy, concise. Just enough character. Just enough of everything - vivid, short descriptions of setting and people, quick fire dialogue. Great deepening mystery. And the fact it’s set in NY in the mid 70s is the icing. I can picture so many TV and movie detectives that this works as nostalgia too.

Great start. Punchy prose, just the right shade of world-weariness. All the elements of a good mystery where everything’s cut and dried until it obviously isn’t.

Ok. A few little issues. The first is that this is tending to the melodramatic - and the structure of the chapters - a change of setting, a slow burn with some philosophy and then a ‘dramatic’ climax - is becoming cliched. The other is the kids’ dialogue. It just doesn’t ring true to me that Jake would have the wisdom that he speaks at his age. But then, this is a memory…

I’m wondering how dark this is going to get… Frankie’s mother appears to be about to take things into her own hands - probably incorrectly. The mystery side of this is hanging together well - I’m still guessing.

Krueger’s understanding of the impact of loss on adults, told from by an adult recounting his childhood view of it, is deep. He recounts the sharp punch of shock and the growing anger and despair of grief. The moment where Frank the adult narrator protects Frankie the boy from the reality of what happens to a body left in water for days was a gut punch.

Powerful scene between Frankie and Redstone. Commentary on white America’s treatment of Native Americans. I hope that the truth is discovered in time for Redstone but I’m beginning to think that this is going to take a doubly tragic turn.

Struck me tonight how brilliantly plotted this is… events are carefully layered, plot on sub-plot, each one fascinating. Krueger’s skills as a writer of mysteries means that things are revealed at just the right pace and narrative questions pop up all the time. Such a good book.

England lost the semi-final of the World Cup tonight. And yet, still this book can transport me away from all of that. That truly is a miracle of the writer’s art…

The narrative perspective is superb. The description of Emil Brandt’s attempted suicide from a second hand perspective loses none of the tension that could have been more easily milked from a first person view. Frankie’s writerly view of what goes on and his tendency to exaggerate stories sets up an interesting tension in the narrative too.

This is a low key beautiful novel - all that’s great about American writing. Nature, both human and in the truest sense of the word, are at its heart and place matters and is beautifully described. The relationships feel real, as though this were a memory. I’m loving it.

There’s a serious American writer at work here - the pace is slow, the prose beautiful without pretension and still I am gripped. Makes me nostalgic for my own childhood but also for a time I know only from American movies.

Superb first two chapters. The narrative voice, Frank, is beautifully done, filled with the wisdom of memory. The characters are deep and real - it has a feel of Stephen King’s less fantastical moments. The pacing is elegiac - refreshing after the headlong pace of Between Two Fires.

Hell seems pretty rough.

Less keen on the doppelgänger stuff. Weird how I can deal with the monsters and demons but when the down to earth hero starts getting all magical, it’s a turn off. But we’re moving to the end now.

Eerie feast, a mirror of the earlier one. Great temptation, lust and gluttony.

The nun-demon was especially creepy, the voice perfectly constructed deceiver as Satan would be. Noted also that she (it) was not described which was extremely effective.