To be fair, he also presents Ferdie as an extreme voice through his wife/colleagues arguing with him. But the book is a useful reminder of the experience you describe for Jews in this country. The line about not being ready to “move on” being key.
Let me get this straight: Howard Jacobson has written a novel about Israel, October 7 and Gaza protests - topics on which some may say we've heard enough from him - and it's pizzazzy, funny, and his best novel in probably 25 years?
Me on Howl, and how you needn't agree with a book to like it:
Thanks G.
He makes that point several times, but also he only gives examples of the most extreme social-media type voices who oppose Israel’s attacks, so unbalances things that way too.
She's terribly good. Daunt are also reissuing most of her other best novels in the coming years, inc Sweet William, The Birthday Boys, Injury Time, The Dressmaker etc. Not sure if McNally Editions are doing more.
"A lifelong smoker, who towards the end cut down to “only thirty a day or so,” she lived in a terrace in Camden, clotted with bizarre bric-a-brac including a buffalo’s head in the hallway and a lifesize dummy of Neville Chamberlain (which started out as Adolf Hitler, but was later repurposed)."
Beryl Bainbridge drew on her own life for her funny, dark novels. As two of the British writer’s best works, The Bottle Factory Outing and An Awfully Big Adventure, are republished this month, John Self reassesses her writing
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
Let me get this straight: Howard Jacobson has written a novel about Israel, October 7 and Gaza protests - topics on which some may say we've heard enough from him - and it's pizzazzy, funny, and his best novel in probably 25 years?
Me on Howl, and how you needn't agree with a book to like it:
This your new tattoo, David?
Mrs S just browsed past it. Is this based on the recent novel?
Awfully decent of Donald Trump to accelerate the green transition by sending oil prices through the roof.
She’s pleased with herself *because* she’s so deluded! The tradition of the happy idiot.
The third para here is also evidence of this.
The Trump administration is unsatirisable
Watched last night’s Apprentice [Spoiler!] en famille. Three firings in 16 seconds!
Tiddler Self (beside himself with joy): That was GENERATIONAL!
Nope!
CUT your takeaway pizza into evenly sized slices by simply locating its centre using a ruler and compass, then dividing 360 by the number of slices you want. This will give you the number of degrees each slice should measure at the centre. Then use a protractor to measure the degrees and a ruler to ensure accurate cutting. Chris Horsley, Barnsley
subscriptions >>> shop.viz.co.uk/viz354bs
Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold
What's wrong with it?
Not one of those boys is alive today. Some were killed in the war, some died from sickness, some disappeared without a trace, while others, though still alive, have turned into different people; and if by some magic means those different people were to meet their past selves - in their cotton twill shirts and canvas shoes - they would no longer know what to say to them. I fear, in fact, that they would not even guess they were meeting themselves. Well, to hell with them, if they're so imperceptive. They have no time to spare, anyway; they have to hurry on, to swim with the current, paddling with their hands, farther and farther, faster and faster, day after day, year after year: the shores change, the hills recede, the forests thin out and vanish, the sky darkens, the cold sets in, they have to hurry, hurry - and they no longer have the strength to look back at what is behind them and fading away like a cloud on the edge of the horizon.
Hell of an opening paragraph, mind.
Cover showing two men in opposing profile in front of vaguely Russian-looking buildings. No cover artist credited
Copyright page (L) and first page of text (R). The text starts right at the top of the page, no chapter heading, no space or line break, just straight into it.
Some Fitzcarraldo-ass typesetting on this 1980s paperback of Yuri Trifonov’s The House on the Embankment. This is the first page, straight after the copyright info.
war with Iran that causes gas prices to skyrocket, deliberately tanking the economy via tariffs and DOGE, installing Marco Rubio as viceroy of Cuba... trying to think if you could deliberately tank a presidency Producers-style better than this
Blimey. I had no idea about any of this, Dave. I'm keeping my extremities crossed that everything goes as smoothly as it can.
I talked to a psychologist yesterday and found out some weird shit…
I got 20% even though, forewarned, I chose American Psycho for Q2. So my score was worse than even random guessing should have produced.
Both crackers to be fair.
Why is Dubai discourse so rich? Class identities all mangled and so everyone thinks they are punching up and letting rip. Full column 🫵 www.economist.com/britain/2026...
If I never succumb to dementia, I will attribute it to this.
Too high for me after that!
You've never revealed the limitations of the mortal frame until you've tried to sing along to Morten Harket in 'Take On Me'. The range between the first 'Take' to the end of 'in a day or two' is unbelievable.
