RaveThe Spectator (UK)As unsettling, disturbing and riveting as the previous instalments, and I was even disappointed that it came in at a mere 500 pages ... There is a lot of dialogue, and Knausgaard’s skill in capturing conversation makes his characters spring vividly from the page ... His books are as accessible and creepy as anything by Stephen King and as addictive as your favourite TV drama series. There’s no writer I would rather devour.
Taffy Brodesser-Akner
RaveThe Spectator (UK)\"Brodesser-Akner can spin an excellent yarn with intelligence and wit. She is very much a post-modern writer, using brackets to expound on details in gossipy, amusing asides ... Only slightly let down only by a mawkish death scene which serves as a device to clarify the back-story, this will be one of my books of the year.\
Lai Wen
RaveThe Spectator (UK)Absorbing ... This is an utterly gripping book, and a must for prize shortlists.
Charlotte Mendelson
RaveThe Spectator (UK)A glorious ride. Mendelson observes the minutiae of human behaviour like a comic anthropologist, skewering pomp and sulking faux victimhood ... My only cavil is with the passivity of the family: the lack of insight and self-saving action of intelligent individuals ... But then again, self-delusion affects both tyrants and their brainwashed prey and Mendelson’s astute perception demonstrates this with aplomb.
Lisa Taddeo
PositiveThe Spectator (UK)It’s difficult to find here the loving, nurturing female friendships that most real women hold dear ... The stories will chime, albeit uneasily, with those who have had bruising encounters with disingenuous, exploitative men and fremenies ... These are devastating stories of women’s pain, loss and compensatory behaviour. Taddeo is the 21st century’s more excoriating Edna O’Brien.
Jon McGregor
RaveThe Spectator (AUS)Jon McGregor has an extraordinary ability to articulate the unspoken through ethereal prose that observes ordinary lives from above without judging. While he is also skilful at depicting the particular, it is his overview of different lives running in parallel that is so bewitching, as if he is looking down on ants running around with their own urgent purposes, but each one minuscule in the scheme of the world. All his books have been treasures, capturing both the scramble of individual lives and the stillness of the universe and nature, impassive and immutable ... McGregor’s subtle depiction of personal foibles doesn’t mean we lack sympathy ... McGregor’s intuitive grasp of semantics, from sounds to structure, and his knowledge that less is so often more, has always balanced his writing midway between prose and poetry. Rhythm is ever present ... When disaster strikes, McGregor shows rather than tells ... This generally works well, though when it shifted from Doc’s wife to two therapists I felt the momentum was briefly broken. But this and a couple of medical points...can’t detract from the immersive magic.
Atul Gawande
RaveThe Independent (UK)Gawande points out that we have medicalised the care of the aged and terminally ill to the point where doctors often forget the wellbeing of the patient in their anxiety to do everything medically possible to prolong life and prioritise safety ... A few inspirational developments for the elderly are discussed ... This humane and beautifully written book is a manifesto that could radically improve the lives of the aged and terminally ill.
Kevin Wilson
MixedThe Independent (UK)If you\'re the kind of person who shudders at the word \'kooky\', look away ... The ease with which incredible scenarios occur is cartoonish...And the final twist is so improbable that I expected an \'and then they woke up and it had all been a dream\' ... The playwright Dario Fo suggested that one of the criteria of satire is being subversive. This is what\'s missing here; the characters are parodies but without an incisive edge. By Fo\'s definition Wilson\'s novel is a spoof; harmless nonsensical fun rather than anything intellectually stimulating, despite its serious underlying message about parents imposing their will on their kids ... But it\'s probably not fair to criticise a book for not being acerbic or sobbingly funny if that\'s not its aim. If you like your comedy less acidic and more gentle...this is a well-intentioned story; amusing and accessible, albeit infuriatingly implausible.
Miriam Toews
RaveThe Independent (UK)The mixture of grief, numbness, and a sensation of being removed from one\'s life and observing from above, are starkly captured. Even the hysterical, mirthless laughter when yet more goes wrong is familiar. And Toews captures perfectly the conflicting feelings when a loved one wants to die: sorrow, confusion, guilt, frustration and even anger ... Yet, unbelievably, this book is full of humour ... Toews evokes perfectly the interminable red tape of hospitals, such as the battle to speak to medical or nursing staff, and the sometimes petty rules. There are wonderful observations on every page, sometimes hilarious.
VIV Albertine
RaveThe IndependentIn this funny, well-written and poignant memoir, she relates what it was like to be in the first wave of women who were able to join bands despite lacking formal training in music. But this book isn’t just about the punk era. It follows Viv’s life from childhood through to the present ... Pithy, hilarious and smart, this is a wonderfully observant account of the life of a woman who made her dreams come true.
Edna O'Brien
PositiveThe IndependentO\'Brien paints a fascinating picture of each era of her life. Her mother sounds idiosyncratic, smelling seat cushions for farts after visitors had called. The Archbishop McQuaid\'s moral proselytising provided a backdrop to her work and study in Dublin ... There are plenty of amusing anecdotes, such as the one in which the actor Patrick Magee came to lunch and wouldn\'t leave ... This hyper-acuity to feelings is also evident in the number of people she castigates in her memoir. Sometimes there are valid reasons...At other times, O\'Brien\'s pointed digs seem petty.
