Paul > Recent Status Updates

Ah, retro-futures... Lots of one-star reviews, I see.

Well, this is a patchy collection, but when it's good, it's brilliant.

Two down, six to go.

'The Southern Thruway' - what a terrific piece of writing!

I warming to this now...

Pleased to see that two characters so far share their names with GR friend and Modiano aficianado, Ilse...

He happened to write songs as well as books. R.I.P., Mark Lanegan. A great voice has been silenced.

Wow! This is Josipovici on top form...

How exciting - my latest Josipovici arrived in the post today!

Wise words from the master, so far...

While lambasting everything and everybody, labelling them "cretinous" and "hideous", our narrator laments his late friends. Misanthropic altruism.

Terrific stuff, the ever-dependable Bernhard: "Salzburg, which at bottom is the sworn enemy of all art and culture, a cretinous provincial dump with stupid people..."

Josipovici, different every time. This one is Bernhardian autofiction, I suspect.

It was my GR friend, Ilse, who informed me that Josipovici had been called the English Bernhard. I have seen glimpses of it in the books I've read by GJ, but 'Moo Pak' is firmly in the Bernhardian mode, in terms of narrative technique, at least.

Some interesting ideas. He's preaching to the converted so far, though...

Midway point, interim verdict... highly original in a sense and, in another, typical SF pulp.

I get the feeling Modiano's books are all just sections in one longer work - it's an atmospheric and moving one, though.

Man, what a storyteller Jacobsen is!

I've been anticipating getting stuck into the third part of the Ingrid Barrøy trilogy for some time now. Four years in the translation, finally arriving at my local bookshop, sitting on my bookshelf because I had no time to read it... At last!

Kind of a pot-boiler, kind of not...

Terrific so far - just my sort of thing

An easy read...

Time to explore some of the 'lesser known' Oulipians, I think...

Gosh, a month away from Goodreads - I'll have so much to catch up on! I've just started my doctoral studies - better late than never - and I've had no time for reading, reviewing or commenting on friends' reviews. Last year was the best year I can remember for reading. This year so far, I've read one book! I've missed your reviews and our interactions. I need to make time for reading again...

How did I not discover this writer before?

Intriguing...

Finishing the year with Ishiguro-San