About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Sarah Bernstein
Positive The Times (UK) Bernstein’s energies are poured into shaping the distinctive psychology of her narrator and her equally distinctive prose ... As well as a novelist, Bernstein is an academic and poet, and both those vocations can be felt in her prose, for good and ill. She can be precise and startling, but also clunky and evasive.
Mensun Bound
Rave Times Literary Supplement There’s a long tradition of seamen boasting of their triumphs through highly burnished books ... Bound, however, is generous in his praise of others and modest about his own achievements. He steers us confidently through the science and is blessed with a poet’s ear for richly evocative language ... He is also winningly open about his own anxieties and mistakes.
Lauren Groff
Mixed The Spectator (UK) The problem with this is not so much the anachronism but the fact we guess Marie’s thinking and reactions in advance. The heresies...don’t seem that heretical; we can feel them coming. And given the countless times we are reminded of women’s underestimated resourcefulness and Marie’s all-conquering competence, brains and drive, any real sense of jeopardy about her path dissipates early on. We know this strong female leader will prevail ... But that does not prevent Matrix from being a well-paced read; nor does it spoil Groff’s delicate prose ... The novel’s best moments come when exploring the relationship between power, faith and the figurative, such as with Marie’s construction of an impenetrable labyrinth around the abbey ... For Marie understands that mystery is essential to reputation, and reputation is a source of power. It is a shame, then, that when it comes to Marie’s character, Groff fails to heed her own insight, trading in mystery for predictability.
Ben Lerner
Mixed The Spectator (UK) But where Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04 are characterised by a transcendent delicacy of thought and impression, The Topeka School is weighed down by a dense, linguistically clichéd gospel of ‘privilege’, ‘patriarchy’ and ‘toxic masculinity’. At times it can feel like an audit of contemporary grievances ... Here men are almost uniformly oblivious, insecure, quick to rage, narcissistic and adulterous ... a ‘pre-history of the present’. But it’s a long way from the 1990s to Trump, and I’m not convinced the route runs through the claustrophobic therapy sessions of (mostly) middle-class graduates and their kids, even if they are in crossover country. Ironically, Lerner’s depiction of public speech tips into a populism Trump might recognise — one that has shadowy elites deceiving the common man through cunning abuse of language ... Lerner’s own deeply associative prose reaches a poetic pitch; a kaleidoscope of images, memories and phrases. He also remains uniquely good at conveying the energy of emerging intimacy, the moment things quietly yet fundamentally change ... But something has been lost, as Lerner’s chisel is swapped for the buzzword bludgeon. For that very reason The Topeka School will be described as ‘timely’. But unlike the classic-in-waiting 10:04, while it’s of its time, it will struggle to transcend it.
Nina Stibbe
Positive The Spectator There is a chatty, gossipy quality to the novel, which mimics the tone of a diary but eschews its formal structure, instead preferring short, episodic chapters to pack a comedic punch. At their strongest, these feel like little shots of laughter, but cumulatively the adrenaline wears off, as yet another quirky character or absurd event is thrown into the distracted plot. Things pile up, and the pace drags ... Lizzie is a witty, observant guide, but while there are plenty of good gags and needle-sharp quips, the novel is most effective when not trying to be funny. A chaste photograph taken with Andy during a day trip to London; a ‘heartbreaking’ visit to her ‘father’s family home’ and the emotional assault of ‘his new children’s intimacy with him’: in such scenes, Lizzie’s comic guard drops and we catch a tender glimpse of a deeper inner world. In Reasons to be Cheerful, as in life, the best moments rarely involve a dentist.