You know what? This isn’t important literature; it has nothing [much] to say about the world we live in and isn’t interested in holding a mirror up to anything for the sake of critical commentary. What it is, however, is what a good novel should be, which is bloody entertaining and genuinely thrilling. The print equivalent of solid, big-screen excitement; I’d say mindless entertainment but it’s too well structured and written for that, so mindful entertainment I guess [?]. A damn fine read. Especially if it’s not the sort of thing you would ordinarily go for.
May 15, 2011
The Passage: Justin Cronin
May 6, 2011
London’s Lost Rivers
Paul Talling, £9.99
The man behind Derelict London has been at it again, putting together another pocket sized tour to the bits of London you never knew existed; wet bits, to be specific – rivers, canals, ditches, brooks – long since drained, built over or otherwise consigned to the vagaries of history. A handsome little book and most illuminating.