Jesse’s Reviews > London: City of Disappearances > Status Update

Finished Northern Lines. consisting of stories set in several near-northern neighborhoods. Highlights were Death of a Cleaner, about an eccentric, aristocratic domestic servent, and Continuity Error, a grim short story about a dysfunctional playwright. I am enjoying this, but I'm also ready for it to be over. 3 sections left.

Finished the next section, Bad Noise. An interesting collection of stories of demise and desolation among drunks and junkies, in front of the backdrop of the slow decline of London's vibrant 60's counterculture.

I'm over the hump! Finished South of the River, a section on some seedy sections of suburban London. A great short story called Crushed Mexican Spiders that I'd be doing an injustice describing the plot is included, along with some somewhat incoherent poems. But the centerpiece of the chapter is a stream-of-consciousness dream-autobiography of Steve Moore, an early mentor to Alan Moore, by the latter.

Finished the section 'Objects of Obscure Desire.' A selection of mostly short essays about objects (and also buildings and people) that were coveted and disappeared. (Or, in one case, this was inverted, in that the antagonist coveted the disappearance of the protagonist, only to be foiled.)

Finished the next section, East Ending. Mostly a somber reflection of the lives of the London Jewish community between the Nazi takeover and the sixties, with some fun murderer stuff thrown in at the end.

Finished the section 'Old London,' a collection of essays about, obviously, pre-modern London. Not my favorite section, so far. This book is at its best when sticking to the sixties and seventies. There was some cool stuff in here... Grisly tales of grave-robbers and the musings of a professed opium-fiend, but still, a bit of a departure. Still, it keeps it fresh!

Finished 'Secret Histories.' Mostly discussing London-based secret agents both for the Soviets and MI6. Interestingly, instead of military types, they were often literary types, like Graham Greene. Plus, Michael Moorcock shows up to seriously blur some fact and fiction.

Finished the 2nd section, 'Bibliomania.' After the first section was largely centered around a part of town (the West End), I was kind of excited to follow London's mutability from area to area, but the second section wasn't about a neighborhoot at all. It was about the weird community of bohemian booksellers in 60's-70's London. The sections cover VARIED themes, which, to my mind, is even more exciting.