Book reviews archive

Click on hyperlinks (arranged alphabetically by author in two categories) to see the reviews - figure in brackets is personal score out of 10; it's unlikely to be lower than 6 as I generally choose my reading material carefully - anything above 8 is well recommended.

Fiction

Non-Fiction

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon - Oct-01 (8)

Having read another book by the same author, The Wonder Boys, I wasn't put off by the title of this work, and indeed, took note of the Pulitzer Prize accolade as well as the write-up and reviews.

The result was a delightfully warm and quirky story centred around two cousins from wildly different backgrounds who hit it off and, through a combination of front and talent, make it big in comics in 1940s New York, with their original creation 'The Escapist'. There's enough literacy in this work (eg. the layering of comic-strip heroes with each protagonist's mindset) to justify its Pulitzer, with my favourite being the brush with the early New York Surrealist art world echoed in a truly surreal episode in Antarctica during WW2.

Though there are some harrowing and adult passages during the decade-and-a-half it spans, the residual feeling is of a very human story set against the many harsh realities of the world, the zeitgeist of which is so well captured in this mini-epic.

No Logo - Naomi Klein - Oct/Nov-01 (9)

As anti-corporate and anti-globalization movements gather momentum and achieve higher media profiles, this is the book required to understand the origins and ethos of these movements.

Through four main sub-headings, the book details the gradual erosion of space, choice and jobs by the gigantic trans-national corporations in their manic pursuit of reality-divestment in favour of brand-awareness as lifestyle, culminating in the backlash that these practices have engendered. The statistics say much, but the interviews with real people say more. Everyone's heard of sweatshops, but the practices in third-world so-called "export processing zones" are frankly shocking.

It's not all doom and gloom though, as some of the case studies of backlashes (eg. the McLibel trial) show. The Web is cited as a major tool for "anti" groups, enabling the global (sic!) coordination of events such as Reclaim the Streets parties.

Read this and start to "ban the brand" from your life!

Closing Time - Joseph Heller - Nov-01 (7½)

Billed as "The sequel to Catch 22", this sometimes surreal story catches up with some of the original characters (the iconoclastic Yossarian included) as the Millennium approaches.

Whilst in form and structure it tries to emulate the original seminal work, the gags are fewer and at times tired. As a satirical indictment of modern mores, it does sometimes work (the society wedding at a bus terminal is a tour de force), but occasionally leaves the reader bemused as to the author's intent, especially regarding his feelings about rampant capitalism (perhaps he is genuinely ambiguous?).

That said, there's plenty to get one's teeth into, and I'm sure I'll get more out of it in future reads.

Deeper - John Seabrook - Nov/Dec-01 (7½)

Subtitled "A two-year odyssey in cyberspace", this autobiographical account charts the relationship of a somewhat technophobe writer with the Internet.

As a relative newcomer to the Web myself, some of the subjects seemed way outdated (the years covered are '93 - '95), but were of historical interest to get the feel of the Web's commercial beginnings (with the inception of the browser). All aspects are examined and laid bare, including the pettiness of "flaming" and the sad fantasists who hang around in chat rooms, as well as the positive vibe of enhanced communication and near-instant information access.

Accessibly written, this is an interesting stab at the subject, but the occasional philosophizing sometimes feels too much like smug bourgeois fence-perching for my tastes.

Time's Arrow - Martin Amis - Dec-01 (8½)

(About 3rd re-read) Perhaps not the easiest of his books (one for the confirmed fans, like me!), this tells the story of a man's life in reverse, from death to babyhood, bizarrely from the p.o.v. of a neutral "soul" residing somewhere in the man's brain, but with no connection other than shared observation. Add to this the fact that the man is a Nazi war-criminal, and perhaps you see the difficulty.

Written with insight and compassion, its peculiar reverse-take on the Holocaust should not offend the intelligent reader, but rather incite ruminations on the nature of time, cause-and-effect and their ilk.

The Stars' Tennis Balls - Stephen Fry - Dec-01 (9)

Whilst revisiting some of Fry's favourite themes (genial wealth, academia, political intrigue and evil), the author (as usual) manages to re-hash the elements into an original and page-turningly compulsive thriller.

Pivoting on a chance event coupled with the mean jealousy of a nasty misanthrope and his cohorts, the story relates the abduction, torture and political institutionalisation of an otherwise popular and successful young man, and, through an association with the incredibly inspiring character "Babe", his eventual return to the world to wreak his exacting revenge.

Full of morality tales, though not at all moralising, you probably won't want to put it down.

Experience - Martin Amis - Dec-01/Jan-02 (10)

The autobiography that coincided with the publication of father Kingsley's "Letters", this is like seeing the Platonic forms behind so much of the author's writing, pornography for fans and just bloody great writing for anyone else.

Amis reveals with candid vigour his own life behind the much-publicised scandals (a large book advance, and especially the teeth!) as well as his relationship with his family and an enviable circle of literary friends (includes Iris Murdoch and Philip Larkin). Always unflinching, surely any reader will feel with him the tragic loss of his cousin and the eventual and dreadful truth behind it, as well as the mixed anticipations of meeting his "lost" daughter. The detail on Kingsley has made me re-assess certain uncharitable opinions of him, and hopefully taught a broader lesson on second-hand judgment.

For me, this confirms Amis as the greatest wordsmith, and probably writer, in the English language (though I'm sure he would modestly disagree - he's a great fan of Saul Bellow). Bound to be my book of the year, and it's only just started.

The Universe in a Nutshell - Stephen Hawking - Dec-01/Jan-02 (8)

Billed as the sequel to "A Brief History of Time", this book attempts to bring the reader up to date with the latest advances in cosmology and theoretical physics, apparently with some talk of its being more easily comprehensible.

As an informed reader around the subject, I was happy to find plenty of new material for consideration; however, I personally found it more mind-boggling than the previous volume! Perhaps its lavish presentation (plenty of wonderful colour computer-graphics and pictures) was the factor in deciding its more popular appeal. I await with interest a general reaction.

The Howard Marks Book of Dope Stories - Howard Marks - Jan/Feb-02 (8½)

This cornucopia of drug-related writing presents an excellent overview of the subject, including fiction intermingled with fact, from historical to the present day.

An essential primer for the beginner, or a good reference for the initiate bound on knowledge-expansion, there are, however, one or two glaring omissions, namely crack and something by Irvine Welsh, surely a guru of the fictional genre.

HowardMarks - the website

A Year in Provence / Toujours Provence - Peter Mayle - Feb-02 (9)

(nth re-read) Ultimate comfort reading for the dank, dark English winter days, this is probably familiar to many (if only via the somewhat disastrous TV adaptation). However, bucking trends, its still essential stuff for the armchair traveler (like me!) and good inspiration for preparing large alfresco meals. I particularly enjoy reading these books in the morning over breakfast before setting off for work, though sadly, it doesn't always see one through the daily grind!

An Unofficial Rose - Iris Murdoch - Feb-02 (8½)

(2nd re-read) The canvas on which Iris Murdoch sketches an exploration of themes is usually a web of relationships, and this is no exception. 3 generations of the Perronet family are involved, from the elderly and recently widowed Hugh down to the devil-child Miranda, via the restless Randall, who needs to run away and leave behind his life's work at the rose nursery.

Much soul-searching occurs regarding momentous decisions, but are the decisions truly autonomous or are they subtly directed by the mysterious writer Emma Sands? As usual, things shake out OK in the end for most characters, except the Unofficial Rose of the title, who absurdly chooses a life of dullness through a misplaced idea of being good.

Evil Spirits - The Life of Oliver Reed - Cliff Goodwin - Feb-02 (7½)

A rather patchy effort at times, lacking continuity and any overall style, the writer nevertheless manages to present what is hopefully a more in-depth portrait of the infamous hellraiser. All the classic moments are covered, often from some enlightening perspectives.

The overall picture is of an essentially proud and private person whose antics were largely a drink-fuelled cover for the more vulnerable (am I alone in HATING this word being pronounced VUN-rubble?) inner-self, which he allowed to come to the fore in his more mellow late middle-age. The world always needs an Ollie, either as an iconoclastic hero or as a focus for self-righteous outrage.

Schrödinger's Kittens - John Gribbin - Mar-02 (9)

(2nd re-read) Familiarity with at least the basics of quantum mechanics is a must, as well as an understanding of the traditional paradox of Schrödinger's cat. This book updates the reader with more recent (early 90's) developments in experimental quantum physics and shows how these have focused serious doubt on the standard "Copenhagen" Interpretation of quantum mechanics as a tool for understanding reality at these tiny scales. Other leading contenders are offered, including the SF fans' favourite, the Many-Worlds Interpretation.

Gribbin then unearths his "best buy", a hybrid involving signals traveling backwards in time. This sounds far-fetched, but it requires careful reading to fully understand, and at least it places objective reality back at centre-stage, removing that dreadful neither-alive-nor-dead scenario for the poor cat!

The Acid House - Irvine Welsh - Mar-02 (9½) 

(nth re-read) A diverse collection of early shorter works, from 2-pagers to a novella, many of these provide a kind of underpinning to the dark and murky world of the seminal Trainspotting, as well as a showcase for the author's broader writing talents. 

Three of the stories were made into a kind of film shorts triptych, eponymously titled. One of them, The Granton Star Cause, is particularly hilarious as it includes a scene in which a down-on-his-luck young Mr Average meets God in a pub and gets turned into a fly for his troubles (honestly, it really works as a short story!). Another, the novella A Smart Cunt, is almost like a lighter blueprint for Trainspotting. Essential reading. 

The Green Knight - Iris Murdoch - Mar-02 (9½) 

(1st re-read) This is the last novel Murdoch wrote whilst fully compos mentis, and there is a feeling, assuming familiarity with her work, that she knew it was to be thus, for there seems to be a kind of tying together of loose threads via repetition of characters names from earlier books. 

The story's central theme is redemption; the man believed to have been killed as a mugger by the rather icy Lucas Graffe mysteriously re-appears and insinuates himself into the circle of Lucas's friends. At first, he desires revenge, but after a surreal re-enactment of the "murder" scene, forgotten memories return and he desires only peace. 

As usual, there are many twists to the tale and classical allusions, but the whole is a delightfully crafted story ending on a faint whiff of hope. 

Sheepshagger - Niall Griffiths - Mar-02 (10) 

I came across an excerpt from this in the Howard Marks Book of Dope Stories (q.v.), and had singled it out as the best writing in the book. The whole did not disappoint; the writing is by turns lyrical, streetwise and shockingly violent, reminiscent of a kind of Irvine Welsh/American Psycho mixture, but set in isolated rural Wales. 

The form of the book is a group of disaffected young men reminiscing about the causes of their ex-"mate's" sudden psychopathic episodes, and his own subsequent death. Although you effectively know what's coming, the pacing is perfect and nothing prepares you for the abrupt descent into graphic violence and murder. This is interspersed with formative episodes from the unfortunate's childhood. 

Despite the content, there is always compassion seeping through the pages, and the description of a rave is probably unrivalled in its rawness. Without a doubt, my best new writer of the year, unless….

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey - Mar/Apr-02 (9)

I STILL haven't managed to see this film, so I bought the book. Well-deserving of its classic status, the issues are still relevant today, especially for anyone feeling alienated by the relentless peer-pressure of the all-too-many.

The story unfolds the effect of the introduction of a confident, swaggering old-style macho man onto the ward of a mental hospital with a mixed bag of inmates. Through various subterfuges and adventures, many of the men rediscover some of their beaten-back self-confidence and are able to tackle the world once again.

Though there are some rather racist/sexist comments and viewpoints (don't forget, this is the 60's), there's some wonderful descriptions of the effects and appearance of conformity, indeed the mental hospital is almost an allegory for "being different"; now I'll just have to see the film…

Mall - Eric Bogosian -Apr-02 (8)

A fast-moving thriller focusing on five completely separate and different lives as they approach a confluence at a shopping mall. It's a real page-turner that skates over but does not examine too deeply some existential questions for our time.

Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis - Apr-02 (9)

This was my first dip into the works of Amis Snr, and what a joy it was! I'd decided to try some Kingsley after reading stuff in Martin's 'Experience' and was hastened by an excerpt read on the recent TV program 'Reading the decades', a delightful description of waking with a hangover and knowledge of major blunders - yes, I'm sure it's been done a thousand times, but this is a serious contender for top spot. 

Anyway, the story concerns probationary lecturer Jim Dixon at a kind of potential turning point in his life: will he get tenure, and what will he have to undergo to stand a chance? The plot traces his farcical faux pas and his inability to resist a chance to stir things for the over-complacent, and just when he seems on the point of losing it all .... Read it and find out! 

The Red and the Green - Iris Murdoch - Apr/May-02 (8½)

Possibly the most "serious" of Murdoch's novels (it's set around the 1916 Easter uprising in Dublin), it nevertheless contains many of her usual touches. 

The main focus is on the complex web of relationships within an extended Irish family and particularly that between two cousins on opposing sides in the rising groundswell of unease (one branch of the family is semi-Anglcised). The build-up is slow and tense, followed by a short lull before the sudden denouement. 

Night Train - Martin Amis - May-02 (9½)

A sadly slim volume, it's intensity certainly compensates. Initially, the feel is of a major deviation from Amis' usual genre and subject matter - the story is recanted from the p.o.v. of a tough female American cop, stereotyped to the point of cliché. Yet this is an essential device; what begins as a typical tough-cop thriller (with all the TV-cop American-isms thrown in - stuff like swinging a left on 43rd and the like) slowly transforms into an existential puzzle. As layer after layer peels away from the case (an apparent suicide, completely without motive), so the layers of toughness fall away from the narrator as she confronts her own past and its part in the case. Superb. 

The Business - Iain Banks - May-02 (8)

The Business of the title is an ancient organisation pre-dating the Roman Empire and resembles a cross-fertilisation between a capitalist co-operative and a Masonic order, obviously functioning as a kind of metaphor for capitalism in general. 

The story is narrated by a young-ish executive, Kate Telman, who stumbles on some shady goings-on and is determined to find those responsible; this is set against a backdrop of delicate diplomatic dealings with a small Himalayan principality that the Business wishes to acquire to further its standing in international affairs. 

Kate must decide on the best course of actions that keeps the interest of the Business foremost whilst remaining in tune with her own conscience. 

Sartre: Romantic Rationalist - Iris Murdoch - May/Jun-02 (8½)

Murdoch began by embracing (as did many young thinkers of that era) the philosophy of the famous existentialist (it was written in 1953) but grew disillusioned with it over time. This book meanders between the two extremes deftly as it illuminates the freshness of his ideas, but also their limitations as an essentially pessimistic view of life. 

A useful précis which draws on both his novels and plays and his philosophical output to weave a more complete picture of the man and his ideas. 

How Proust can change your Life - Alain de Botton - May/Jun-02 (9½)

This is the second de Botton book I've read, after the book of the TV series "The Consolations of Philosophy". It began in a similar vein, with the (in my view) over-liberal interspersion of the text with small illustrations and diagrams. Thankfully, this petered out after the first chapter and we were left with a much tighter feel to the text. What comes across so well is de Botton's easily assured and deftly-worded expositions of chosen themes related to the now legendary (yes, he does mention the Monty Python sketch, so don't accuse him of being stuffy!) writer's life and personal philosophy. Each theme is allocated a chapter and is fully explored in a gentle and often humourous way that contains something fresh for the layman and initiate alike. 

So, overall, superb, but, did it change my life? Well, it's certainly uplifting reading that shines a lingering light, and, admit it, I may actually get round to reading Proust now! 

Glue - Irvine Welsh - Jun-02  (9½)

It was marvelous to return to Welsh's Edinburgh world of housing schemes, mindless violence and drugs. Sound weird? You'll understand how compelling it can be if you've read anything at all by the man. This was truly a return to home territory, centred on a group of four mates, taken as a series of time-slices during early childhood, teenage, mid-20s and mid-30s, and the complex relationships both within the group and to other, more peripheral characters. But this is the "glue" of the title - it isn't about solvent abuse! 

Ultimately life-affirming, with some hilarious farce after a very bumpy ride, this is truly vintage Welsh. 

Out of it - Stuart Walton - Jun/Jul-02  (9½)

A timely and erudite study (despite its in-ya-face cover) on the history of intoxication, this book looks at the various substances used and the contexts, both historical and current, in which they are taken. It also examines the gradual rise of hysteria against intoxication in general, through the grand failure that was Prohibition, and culminating in the DEA's McCarthyist War on Drugs. 

The author (whom I had only ever encountered as a wine writer) argues convincingly for a gradual decriminalisation process and asserts that it is humankind's natural right to take intoxicating substances, offering possible explanations on the way as to why the Establishment seeks to control such activities (for instance, capitalism functions best if people work hard, spend hard and save hard, and don't get blissed out on substances that may offer other perspectives on life). 

White Trash - John King - Jul-02  (8½)

Narrated 3rd person from 2 different viewpoints (with another occasional voice popping up 1st person), this offers some interesting views of different types of people from wildly different standpoints. It took me a while to work out what was actually going on, but when it finally clicked, I realised how powerful this kind of narrative style could be. 

The action is centred on a London satellite hospital, the narrators are a nurse and a high-level administrator, and one person is not what they seem. I won't spoil it by revealing the plot, suffice to say it became a proper page-turner.

Underworld - Don DeLillo - Jul-02 - Sep-02 (10)

This book was a weighty tome, tipping the scales at over 800 pages, yet the standard of writing was utterly superb throughout - by about a third of the way through, I felt I never wanted to leave this (under)world, and because of the book's length, was able to indulge myself in this for much longer than usual. 

The style and imagery are a delight, the Twin Towers depicted (topically!) on the cover, and reflecting the twin themes of the book, the Bomb and waste, bound DNA-like with the stuff of human experience from the perspective of a disparate collection of people, some connected intimately with other characters, others not, yet there is a complex web of interconnections binding them all, this concept being taken up by mention of the WWW. 

Unusually, the stories run in reverse, not literally, just the snapshots of the lives starting in the '90s and then moving back a few years and covering that period, all the way back to the '50s where another thread running through the book, the ownership of a baseball from a famous game, begins.

The feeling is of converging to a kind of ground zero (another Bomb image). I cannot recommend this book enough, it has to be one of the finest of last century. 

John Keats - Robert Gittings - Jul-02 - Sep-02 (10)

(1st re-read) Although I haven't read any other biographies of the man, this still has a feeling of being the definitive text, and this is backed up by the reviews quoted on the cover. 

Once past the boring early historical bits (basically only the 1st chapter), the author succeeds in sketching a surprisingly intimate and detailed portrait of the great poet, from the difficult childhood that so informed his later character, through his growing awareness of his natural talent, to his peak of creativity and subsequent untimely death at only 26 years of age through tuberculosis (poetically known as consumption). Passages quoted verbatim from actual letters really bring a vivid light to the narrative. 

Worth reading even for those with no interest in poetry, for the piercing insight provided into the development of precocious genius.

The Art of Happiness - HH Dalai Lama with Howard C. Cutler - Aug-02 - Sep-02 (8)

This is not a book on Buddhism, rather an application of some of its values and teachings to the pursuit of true happiness. A very nice distinction is made between happiness and pleasure, the latter being the fleeting moments of good feeling engendered, usually, by indulging in one's favourite pastimes, the former being a state of mind. The Dalai Lama argues that pursuit of pleasure does not lead to happiness, often its opposite. Whilst this can be true, I don't believe it is necessarily true, that it is possible to have both, provided that one's pleasures do not cause any harm or suffering elsewhere (I'm sure the Dalai Lama would agree, it's just that this kind of detail wasn't covered!).

Very approachable, the book takes a fairly light overview of "what's wrong with Western culture" and offers ways different to the usual therapeutic pathways (Howard Cutler is a psychiatrist) to improve one's mental outlook. Although I couldn't agree with everything suggested, the spirit in which the suggestions were made is, I'm sure, genuine.

Whether the book will change lives is something I'll never know, but at least it attempts to deconstruct some of the values and behaviours we consider normal.

In Search of Lost Time (Part I - Swann's Way) - Marcel Proust - Sep-Oct-02 (9½)

I said I would (q.v.) and I have! Read Proust, that is. This was a new English translation based on the original definitive, but clearly, many expressions have been brought up to date (though, I hasten to add, not modernised) so that the text is more readily assimilable. In fact, and I'm sure this is the hallmark of any good translation, it reads so smoothly and at times poetically that the reader would be excused for thinking it originally written in English. 

The content is meditative and reflective, full of philosophical musings and digressions, but with some wonderful humour. The finest writing is, for me, in the first and final sections, both written in 1st person, though the lengthy middle section (Swann in Love) still has much to recommend it: as an account of the surging highs and swingeing lows of the state of 'being in love', with all the mental gymnastics and doublethink that necessarily accompany it, it is a tour de force; it's just that, occasionally, it does go on a bit! 

Essential reading for the literary aesthete, it certainly accustomed me to reading gigantic, nested, digressive sentences that would have Secondary School English Language teachers in apoplexy, and Microsoft Word working overtime on the wiggly green lines!

The Nice and the Good - Iris Murdoch - Oct-02  (9½)

(nth re-read) This is one of my personal favourites, and its title and content are salutary lessons for those devoted to the "nice" - I feel there is more than a passing association with one of my own themes, Form above Content. 

The central character is John Ducane, a successful civil servant (this is set in the '60s) and slightly puritanical man who "needed to think well of himself". He begins a kind of flirtatious, non-sexual relationship with the wife, Kate (representing "nice"), of his superior, Octavian Gray. This is all above board, with all parties happy, but Ducane gets dragged into a murky world of occult dabblings when asked, by Octavian, to investigate a suicide at the office. The action shifts between London and Dorset (the Gray's home) and pulls in many other characters and side-plots on the way with good use made of the weather as symbolism, a regular Murdoch feature. 

All turns out well, with a few surprises and reversals - most satisfactory! 

Portrait of a Young Man Drowning - Charles Perry - Oct-02  (10)

(2nd re-read) I've still never come across anything quite like this book in both its writing style and its portrayal of a descent into madness. The story traces the life of Harry Odum from a young boy to his untimely but inevitable death as a young man. 

Growing up with a suffocating mother and frequently absent father in post-war Brooklyn, the young Harry learns the etiquette of the street whilst trying to be a good son. As his mother's vacillation between saccharine fawning and vituperative tongue-lashings becomes more pronounced, Harry drifts under the umbrella of the local hoodlums and impresses them with his combination of loyalty, fighting ability and quick-thinking. His vicious temper is an initial safety-valve outlet for his growing frustrations borne of the sexual ambivalence of his relationship with his mother. As things build to a head, he can only find real sexual release in connection with violence. 

Such a shame that the author died young after having to cope with the tragic loss of his son - this makes the achievement here even more remarkable.

Feeding Frenzy - Will Self - Nov-02 (9)

Will Self has let me down. As a man who once claimed to take his "anti-establishment role very seriously", his commitment seems somewhat wobbly. OK, it's probably my fault for taking these kind of statements at face-value, but you've got to have someone to believe in, or else your personal life becomes utterly unmoored. 

This collection of newspaper and magazine articles plus the odd radio speech provide the expected background to the man for anyone familiar with his fictional output. What was surprising was his tendency to belittle anything that goes against his preferences; indeed he makes that most annoying of category mistakes, conflating the broader aspects of altruism with the anti-smoking and anti-drug lobbies under the banner of anti-choice. BALLS! The two issues are entirely unrelated. Right. Got that off my chest, so to the writing, which is what this page is all about. Whilst it gets a bit too cutesy in places (usually the Times articles), there's still plenty of razor-sharp satire and sound enough counter-cultural material to please (often best in the Independent articles). Hmmm? Is this a man who tailors his writing to his assumed readership? Perhaps behind the facade, he's just like everyone else, only more so - with a capital S.

Porno - Irvine Welsh - Nov-02 (8½)

The doyen of drugs and housing schemes controversially revisits the whole Trainspotting crew (those still alive!) to relate another series of scams and vignettes of violence. Not popular with the critics, I'm a little less scathing - the whole plot and feel is a little flat and the characters have not convincingly aged, but it's still an enjoyable read.

This time, the plot is centred on Sick Boy's idea to make an original pornographic film. This naturally leads to a trip to Amsterdam where a chance sighting of his old sparring partner, Mark Renton, leads to an uneasy but compulsive collaboration.

There are some nice social observations (Nikki Fuller-Smith's accent, with the over-used questioning lilt to round off most statements is one) plus some set pieces of the later Welsh's wonderfully understated farce. Lighter than recent works, the whole impression is very tongue-in-cheek (pun intended).

Smoking Poppy - Graham Joyce - Nov-Dec-02 (8)

The plot here has, I'm sure, been done before - the stolid father pursues the errant daughter into a strange and dangerous other world, both learning something in the process. That's not to decry the story: it's nicely-paced, convincing in its imagery and avoids many potential pitfalls for this genre, especially over-use of action; here, the tension builds in waiting.

For me, though, the characters are not quite convincing on the page, and the final message, though laudable in a broader sense, was just too predictable.

The Concept of Mind - Gilbert Ryle - Dec-02 - Jan-03 (8) 

A definitive text on the debunking of Descartes' Mind/Body duality, this undoubtedly delivers what it sets out to. The main problem for me is that it is too repetitive, but that's philosophy for you! Another criticism is that although the text is largely easy enough to understand, there are sudden introductions of specific philosophic uses of words without any definitions provided - it's as though it was intended for the intelligent layperson, but the author forgot about the fact that most people are not conversant with the general currency of philosophy. 

Still, it's comprehensive enough and recommended for the serious student, but I have read more recent material encompassing the same subject that I found more persuasive. 

Cognac - Cyril Ray Dec-02 - Jan-03 (9½)

(2nd re-read) As with the 1st re-read of this wonderfully enjoyable little book, I began on Christmas day after lunch whilst, appropriately, drinking a particularly fine cognac (an early-landed for the connoisseur).

The style is laconic, relaxed, laced with gently restrained erudition. The subject matter is not really comprehensive so much as salient, full of both personal and second-hand anecdotes, but the reader emerges with a real feel of the region/drink and its history - this work must have been a real labour of love and I would recommend it just for the writing, even if there is no particular interest in the drink. You never know, it might just spark one! 

The Message to the Planet - Iris Murdoch - Jan-02 (10) 

(2nd re-read) One of my all-time favourite Murdoch books, as per usual, there's so much more to be got from subsequent reads. 

The central character is the somewhat mysterious Marcus Vallar, once-distinguished mathematician, painter and now penseur. Repeatedly pursued by Alfred Ludens who believes Marcus holds the key to some universal secret, the sage is brought once again into the bosom of his old coterie to try to revive dying Irish poet Patrick Fenman who believes Marcus once put a curse on him. After the near-miraculous recovery of Patrick, word slowly spreads and a small cult following attaches itself to Marcus. But not everyone believes in him. Is he a genuine mystic, like a second Messiah, or just an unworldly ex-genius losing his grip on life? 

There are of course many side-plots and intrigues that populate this wonderful story, as well as some specific themes - the resonance between Leonardo (da Vinci, not di Caprio!) and the Christ figure being among my favourites, as well as Ludens' significant dream exactly half-way through the book that carries with it a kind of prequel to Marcus' definitive gesture, each echoing Marshall McLuhan's iconic "The medium is the message". A must-read.

In Search of Lost Time Part 2 (In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower) - Marcel Proust - Feb-Mar-03 (10) 

Continuing the reminiscences of the young narrator of Swann's Way, the style is very much in the same vein as the first part, written in first person and with disquisitions on love, human frailty and aesthetics - in fact the whole work is in first person, making it, for me, even better than book one. 

At last, he woos the haughty Gilberte (Swann's daughter) and they get on well for a time, with a complete acceptance into the Swanns' world. But a rift over nothing opens up and the young narrator (whom we assume to be based on the young Proust) experiences all the range of emotional turnings and cul-de-sacs connected with first love and separation. 

In the second part, he journeys to Balbec ('Place names: the place', as opposed to 'Place names: the name' from Book 1). The description of the train journey is wonderful in itself, then we feel the rapid deflation of the balloon that was the narrators idealised picture of the place. Slowly, however, things pick up and the helpful hand of habit lends itself to a restoration of equilibrium. Then, the narrator begins to give in to the more sensual pleasures of regular wining, dining and womanising. 

This does not mean to say, however, that there are no lengthy discourses on life, art or philosophy - quite the reverse, especially when the artist Elstir and the redoubtable Albertine are introduced. 

The Large, the Small and the Human Mind - Roger Penrose (et al) - Feb-03 (9) 

This is really my kind of book, a bold attempt at a synthesis of different strands of up-to-the-minute scientific thought. Penrose is well known as something of a maverick and iconoclast, although he has received a knighthood! 

The large (relativistic cosmology and the origin of the universe) and the small (the quantum world) are explored relatively lightly (but there are plenty of other good books around on these subjects) - the real nexus of the work is how the two must necessarily be combined/resolved in order to make room for a more complete and self-contained theory, and the possible implications for consciousness. 

Also included are some reactions to his previous works by suitable luminaries from relevant fields of research - the discussion of neo-Whiteheadianism and actualisation of potentialities from Abner Shimony is a little heavy in comparison to the rest of the book and requires some prior familiarity with the subject. But overall, the book forms a concise introduction to Penrose's ideas - for more detail, consult his previous works. 

Climbing Mount Improbable - Richard Dawkins - Feb-03 (10) 

A full reading of a Dawkins book is long overdue, as he's someone I've admired for many years, and the experience has not disappointed. 

After an initial introduction to whet the appetite, the reader is taken on a series of short journeys through evolution, each one focusing on the development of a particular characteristic or body part, in order to more fully illuminate the whole subject. The metaphor of climbing a mountain is the main device used throughout the book, but there are also others.

Particularly striking to me was the concept of a simple self-replicating entity: if conditions are suitable for such an entity to form (e.g. a particular molecule in the 'primordial soup'), then it naturally follows that this will proliferate and evolve, simply because that is what it happens to do. It is then only a short journey to the realisation that the 'meaning' of life is simply that - replication. Everything fancy that has evolved above that instruction is merely a successful experiment by the natural selection process to better achieve that same end.

The writing is consistently precise, concise and illuminatory; how creationists can read this and still consider themselves human (i.e. conscious, rational beings) whilst continuing to believe in their own myths is beyond my ken!

Iris Murdoch: A Life – Peter Conradi – Mar - Apr-03 (10)

At last I found it – the definitive biography I’ve been looking for ever since I heard it was being written. Definitive because Conradi was a close friend of the Murdochs during the later part of Iris’s life, and because he is also a formidable academic in his own right.

As with many biographies, the start is hesitant, verging on boring (like life, really; who remembers being a baby?) – the family background must first be provided in the true thoroughgoing scholarly way. But things very soon pick up, as familiar (to her readers) names crop up as part of her family history.

We are taken on a journey through childhood, onto boarding school (Badminton) then Oxford. As graduation coincided with wartime, she took a post in the Treasury immediately after. Following this, a stint working with repatriation of refugees across Europe. Then a series (sometimes a ‘parallel’) of intense love affairs before finally settling down with John Bayley and a career of writing.

The progress of her writing is neatly interwoven with her life, with a mixture of literary criticism and biography, presenting the writing almost as an extension of life, sometimes reflecting, at others prefiguring. The author’s interpretations of the work open up whole new vistas of thought for those not classically schooled (and that includes most of us!). A hugely satisfying book.

Adventures in Wonderland - Sheryl Garratt – Mar - Apr-03 (9)

This book presents a history of dance music, from its roots through to the superclub era. The writing is professional, yet manages to convey the feeling that must have prevailed at many of the key moments – sometimes almost like the onset of a revolution, at others a kind of privileged knowledge of being somewhere and doing something that was fresh and new before the masses ever caught on.

All the milestones are here: New York and Chicago house, Detroit techno, Ibiza, the early London scene, raves and illegal parties, the Manchester ‘baggy’ era, the summer(s) of love, the birth of Jungle (now Drum ‘n Bass) – all liberally illustrated with anecdotes both second-hand and personal (the author is a veteran of the scene).

Highly recommended both as a good read and as a general reference work.

It must be Beautiful – Graham Farmelo – Mar – Apr-03 (9)

No this is not a narcissist’s Bible, rather a book about great equations from Science’s recent past; the title concerns the fact that these equations frequently display a kind of beauty-in-simplicity (often only truly appreciated by the cognoscenti, excepting, perhaps, the most famous of all, E=mc²).

The selection is broad, covering the traditional disciplines of physics, chemistry and biology as well as the more modern fields of chaos and information theories.

Some of the stories behind the discovery of the equations actually delve into the lives of the people involved or into the general cultural zeitgeist, giving a broader appreciation of the subject than a purely scientific review. Suitable for the intelligent lay person.

Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe – J. Richard Gott - Apr-03 (9½)

Written by a highly respected physicist, this is not science-fiction speculation but an overview of current physical theories that may provide clues as to whether any kind of time travel (as colloquial understanding has it) is possible.

Of course, time travel into the future is already possible (via relativistic effects due to acceleration to high velocities), but this is only a one-way ticket to the future. The book attempts to answer the more interesting question of whether time-travel to the past is possible, along with all the logical conundrums that arise. One possibility given for our not having met time-travellers from the future is that it is impossible to travel backwards in time to a point before time travel was invented, part of the "chronology protection conjecture."

The origin of the universe is also considered: a truly remarkable idea is that the universe could have given birth to itself, obviating the requirement to ask where the universe came from. Mind-bending!

An Accidental Man – Iris Murdoch – Apr/May-03 (9½)

This is the first of a new series of imprints I’ve read; each comes with an introduction/critique by some literary luminary or other. I was initially appalled by this one – I thought it must be a load of self-indulgent claptrap by some upstart egomaniac: it didn’t describe an Iris Murdoch novel at all.

My initial reaction was confirmed in a few pages; this was vintage Murdoch, a sometime comical, sometime dark exploration of the nature of contingency and its rippling effects across a small group of people. The central character, the ‘accidental man’ himself, was described as Satan himself in the intro, but in fact seems a mild egotist whose life has been lived in the shadow of a possible misunderstanding in connection with his older (and very successful) brother.

It doesn’t all end happily for everyone, but looking back, some aspects of the intro did, in fact, ring true – it was really just the tone that distorted the thing.

White Noise – Don deLillo – May-03 (8½)

A much slimmer volume than the seminal ‘Underworld’, and written much earlier, this is a meditation on death and fear of dying, as evinced within a ‘typical’ middle-class American family.

There’s plenty of humour here, both in situation as well as dialogue. For example, the husband/father is on his 5th marriage (4th wife!) and is Head of Hitler Studies at a small university. Plus, the quickfire dialogue between him and a colleague during random meetings/walks together can vary from hilarious to deeply philosophical.

‘Tis a pity, then, that the story seems to fall apart somewhat at the end. That said, still worth a read for the majority of its content.

The Sandcastle – Iris Murdoch – May-03 (9½)

The second of the new imprints I’ve read, the introduction to this was actually good, unlike that of 'An Accidental Man'.

This is the story of the effect of a young female painter on the life of a middle-aged schoolteacher, and the consequent tipping of the scales of the power-balance in his relationship with his family. There are some marvellous 'Murdoch moments' here, presided over by some or other meteorological quirk, as well as some delightful and hilarious side characters.

This was Murdoch's third novel and feels like her first fully mature work, though the fourth, 'The Bell', is generally considered to be her first 'great' novel.

Wholeness and the Implicate Order – David Bohm – May/June-03 (10)

This is a truly wonderful book, the finest of its kind I’ve ever read! The first chapter alone renders the book worth reading; it's an inspiring analysis of how fragmentation in thinking and in modern living, especially in the West, is causing a general malaise throughout society. The second chapter looks at the role of language and experiments with a verbally derived language format (the ‘Rheomode’) to replace the current subject/object format. Chapter three is a consideration of knowledge as process, essentially neo-Whiteheadian. After that, it does get a bit technical as he re-examines quantum theory and offers a fresh viewpoint.

Firstly, hidden variables are considered as a part of a possible new level underlying the current Quantum Theory. Then the notion of order is discussed and considered in both implicate (folded up) and explicate (unfolded) terms, again applying to Quantum Theory. Finally, using such models as the hologram (among others), metaphors are provided to show how our standard viewpoints of particles/waves could be otherwise explained, as well as such mind-benders as the EPR Paradox. Naturally enough, consciousness also makes an appearance as a further manifestation of the implicate order.

There’s still plenty for the non-technical reader to appreciate and I would wholeheartedly recommend the book to anyone looking for a clear non-religious path towards a reintegration of mankind into the universe.

Timeless Simplicity – John Lane – May/ June-03 (9)

A slim volume concerned with providing an antidote to the stressful high pace of modern living, this book offers a kind of spectrum of simplification steps so that the reader may choose their own entry level, an important feature as this removes any kind of feeling of over-peachiness that might have put people off the idea.

So, the message is not about returning to bare-bones living, although examples of such are quoted; it’s about taking a new approach to life, about questioning what we really need in materialistic terms, and about finding pleasure in a more simple, spiritually-orientated lifestyle.

Creativity is used as a primary example of inculcating spiritual awareness: art, cooking, sewing/mending – many activities may fall into this category. A bit religious at times for my tastes, but it’s still inspiring in a carefully restrained way.

On the Road – Jack Kerouac – June-03 (9)

The defining book of the ‘beat generation’, this is somewhat more tame than I’d imagined, almost Utopian at times, though not flinching at others from describing the darker side of life.

The thrust of the narrative traces the contours of the relationship between the two main characters, the narrator Sal Paradise and the madcap Dean Moriarty, over four separate road trips across the entire North American continent. By turns relaxed, frenzied and lyrical, the postwar zeitgeist is laid bare. At times, it conveys a kind of lost innocence, at others it seems a shade sketchy and knowing, but it’s an enjoyable read and comes together rather well in the end.

Gödel, Escher, Bach – an Eternal Golden Braid – Douglas R. Hofstadter – Jun/Jul-03 (10)

A classic work (originally published in 1979) that I’ve been promising myself for years, this certainly didn’t disappoint. To adequately summarise the book is almost to do it an injustice, since its form and content are so delicately and pervasively intertwined, but I’ll have a stab at it anyway.

The three great men of the title (or rather their works) form the triple-stranded DNA-like backbone for the subject matter via their common root, namely self-reference, recursion, feedback loops, tangled hierarchies – call them what you will. The book ranges over Number Theory, Zen, genetics, AI, consciousness, free will and much other stuff in-between, preluding each chapter with a Carrollian dialogue between fantasy characters that encapsulates its subject matter.

Some of the ideas now seem a little outdated, but the author explains his reasons for a no-amendments policy in the preface to this 20th Anniversary edition. It’s also relentlessly materialist in the direction of enquiry, and I’d love to have seen Chaos Theory and fractals integrated into all of this, but never mind – this should be on the bookshelves of anyone interested in syntheses of the perennial Big Subjects, especially a possible explanation of how the abstract notion of a ‘Self’ may arise from layers of self- and inter-referential symbols.

Mark Rothko – Tate (various) – Jul-03 (9)

I was amazed to find a fellow art lover at work, and was kindly lent this book incorporating selected reviews, critique and writings of the artist, along with a fine selection of colour plates of his work. It’s certainly confirmed my belief in Rothko as a truly great artist, and some of the writing is very inspirational and revelatory, not the self-indulgent claptrap one often hears from self-proclaimed ‘critics’.

The meticulous visitor will already know of our love of Rothko’s art – his room in Tate Modern is a place of pilgrimage for us – and this book certainly serves as a strong incentive to search out more; pity so much of it’s abroad. We’ll just have to await a big exhibition…

Interpreting Pollock – Tate () – Jul/Aug-03 (9½)

Another borrowed book as in the Rothko, above, this has really stimulated my interest in Pollock’s work. I hadn’t really seen a great deal before, the Tate Modern only having ‘Summertime’ on permanent display. But the truly monumental works like Blue Poles, Full Fathom Five, Autumn Rhythms and others have quite blown me away!

Additionally, the colour plates are interspersed with salient biography and careful criticism to make this slim book an excellent introduction to the artist, his work and his influences.

Twelve - - Jul/Aug-03 (9.5)

An all-too-brief but very now story of New York teenage life, the pacing is very fast, the story weaves between bourgeois ease and gritty street life and centres around, though is not particularly about, a new street drug known only as ‘twelve’. Perhaps the brevity reflects the youth of the narrator, perhaps of the other lives in the story. The title, too, is tantalising – the action takes place during the twelve days of Christmas, also the body count is around that number; I should re-read it to check.

This is an excellent debut novel that really gets into its subject – life from that difficult post-adolescent viewpoint. You could finish it in a day, it’s that unputdownable.

The Holographic Universe – Michael Talbot –Jul/Aug/Sep-03 (9.5)

An appropriate time for me to read this book as it takes off from the ideas of physicist and thinker David Bohm as well as those of Karl Pribram. A little heavy on the animal experiments, it still begins quite academically in laying the groundwork, then suddenly switches to almost a Sunday tabloid feel as a list of paranormal miracles is catalogued; remember, though, that everything quoted here was sufficiently well-documented to be at least an accepted occurrence, even if explanations have in the past fallen short of credibility.

Credible research evidence is then listed for other paranormal activities, such as clairvoyance, precognition, reincarnation, out-of-body and near-death experiences, even UFOs, all in the light shed by the holographic model of the universe. Suddenly, everything seems, intuitively at least, explicable. The old mind/matter duality is resolved by common origin in the implicate order. We are partially responsible for our own destinies in that we may create them as self-fulfilling prophecies, in the continuous choreography between our mind as will and our surroundings. All this happens at a very deep level. If it sounds mystical, that’s perhaps because hard science treads too carefully in these areas, but the one inescapable hard science fact that neatly ties in with the holographic model is quantum non-locality, as proved in 1988 to the satisfaction of the scientific community.

I doubt whether the book would convince sceptics or ‘Brights’, but who cares? Let them bask in their own boring clinical white world. Some of us prefer the rich colour afforded by an open mind.

In Search of Lost Time (Part III – The Guermantes Way) - Marcel Proust – Aug - Sep-03 (8½)

Always good to be back in Proust’s delicately aesthetic world, this volume follows in characteristic depth the young man’s enchantment, nay obsession, with Parisian High Society, through to his eventual disillusionment therewith.

Focussing his attention on the Guermantes family, he longs to be a part of their circle, and goes so far as to stalk (such a modern concept seems completely out of place here, but I use the word for its concision) the Duchesse de Guermantes, convinced that he is actually in love with her. Through chance connections, he obtains entrance to his Holy Grail, only to find things less entrancing than anticipated: the petty bickering, the hypocrisy, the plain old dullness of some of the denizens of this world are not adequately compensated for by the occasional sparkling wit.

The ‘Iris Trilogy’ (‘Iris’, ‘Iris and the Friends’ and ‘Widower’s House’) – John Bayley – Sep-03 (9)

First two are re-reads, third is new.

The first two books in the trilogy formed the basis for the film ‘Iris’. The first tells the story of their meeting and early courtship, interspersed with material from the early day’s of the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The second takes a different angle, set in the later days of the disease up to Murdoch’s death and speaks candidly of the author’s own feelings about the situation. The ‘Friends’ of the title is a reference to the obscure compensations that naturally arise for the carer. Both books are written in Bayley’s inimically relaxed style, dreamy when exploring memories, poignant when concerned with the relationship, and peppered with delightful literary references and asides.

The third book seems slightly looser in style, with some odd moments of sudden discontinuity, as though patched together later by a hurried literary editor, but these moments are brief and order is restored once again. This seems to be a deliberate ploy to reflect the mind of the writer over the difficult period of his bereavement and becomes an effective literary device.

Further Requirements (Collected miscellaneous writings) – Philip Larkin (edited by Anthony Thwaite) – Sep-03 (9½)

Essential reading as background to our latest obsession, this delightful cornucopia is divided into 4 sections: statements and interviews, broadcasts, forewords and reviews.

Having actually heard recordings of the man, and of his role as played by the excellent Hugh Bonneville in the TV adaptation of his life, the voice seems to resonate throughout the writing, the cadence weary, slightly surprised but content thus to seem just a little dull. The wit, too, is characteristic – proper mat-pulled-from-under-the-feet stuff, so surprisingly does it slip out of the narrative at odd times.

Perhaps my only complaint is his disproportionate reverence for Betjeman: I personally find about 80% of his output over-metred and sing-song-kiddy-rhyming for my taste, but Larkin feels it’s genuinely good; who am I to argue?

The Consolations of Philosophy - Alain de Botton - May/Jun-02 (9½)

(re-read) The original de Botton book that spawned the TV series “Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness”, this work looks at reasons for unhappiness and how to overcome them, through the ideas of six philosophers. The chapters, then, are:

• Socrates on unpopularity
• Epicurus on wealth
• Seneca on frustration
• Montaigne on inadequacy
• Schopenhauer on love
• Nietzsche on difficulties

The material is basic, easily comprehensible to all levels of reader, but the presentation is fresh enough to give even the seasoned thinker pause.

The timescale covered by the choice of philosophers (Ancient Greece to the 19th century) just illustrates the little that the bulk of humanity has learned – it’s ironic that we (as an accepted viewpoint) generally look up to ‘philosophers’ as gurus, yet we manage to take on so little of their actual teachings, particularly the basics as presented here, that even problems encountered thousands of years ago still recur today. However, the book is a bestseller – perhaps we’re entering a new ‘golden age’ ;-)

In Search of Lost Time (Part IV - Sodom and Gomorrah) - Marcel Proust - Oct - Nov-03 (9½)

M. Proust is back on full form again with this exploration of both male and female homosexuality. But whilst this subject matter occupies much of the narrator's musings, it is never prurient but treated like any other consideration: philosophically. It transpires that the staunchly upright and formerly formidable M. de Charlus prefers the attentions of his own gender, and even Albertine is suspected of possessing 'tendencies', though only on circumstantial evidence.

With Proust, though, it's the writing that counts for most, and this volume contains some ecstatically evocative descriptions of the coastal regions around the fictional Balbec (for the setting is once more almost entirely here, as for part II). Perhaps my own preference comes through here, or does he just write better in a coastal setting?

Animal Farm - George Orwell - Nov-03 (9½)

I once more admit my ignorance for not having read this classic till now. The book is short, easy to read and of obviously broad appeal to people of all ages. The tired old phrase 'deceptively simple' shines with fresh significance here: as everyone knows, it's supposed to be an allegory of the Russian Revolution, but as I'm unfamiliar with that particular subject, I cannot pass judgement on whether this is achieved. What I could see, however, is that the collective human condition has been skilfully exposed. The particular example here is Communism, such a good idea, yet untenable in practice; the feeling one comes away with is that the same would apply, whatever the system - differences between individuals and groups creates a basis for structure, this leads to hierarchy, power struggle and finally, of course, the inevitable corruption (enshrined in the memorable "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" - who said that?).

I wonder if anyone's so stupid (Dubya?) that they read the story as an argument against animal rights?

The Ending of Time - J. Krishnamurti and David Bohm - Nov-03 (10)

A transcription of dialogues between the great spiritual educator and the renowned physicist/thinker, this book explores some of the more general issues connected with mankind and his place in the Universe (and whatever that's a part of). Questions such as 'has mankind taken a wrong turning?' and 'can insight bring about a mutation of the brain cells?'

Krishnamurti's contributions occasionally tend towards the woolly/mystical, and the language is sometimes too loose for my taste, but Bohm usually keeps the whole thing on a tighter footing so that it is a true meeting of East and West.

The recurring theme is, of course, time and the necessity of 'removing' ourselves from its clutches. The whole thing is sometimes argued from the wrong direction, that Man's way of thinking produces the illusion of time. This is clearly nonsense - we have evolved simply because time has become separated from other dimensions in its own peculiar way: we are a product of time, and not the other way round. There are also odd contradictions: Krishnamurti at one point says that those who spend too much time meditating are the most boring people on earth, then later says that the best way to live longer is to live quietly, free from stress and pollutants - make up your mind, man!

But these are minor criticisms - with a book like this, its whole raison d'être is not to be the last word but to act as a springboard for the reader to plunge into the pool of original speculation. This it certainly achieves - there's plenty to agree with and more to illuminate new paths. Essential reading for those seeking a more enlightened path in life.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying - Sogyal Rinpoche - Dec-03 (10)

A more up-to-date and wider-ranging discussion than the iconic Tibetan Book of the Dead, this compact gem of Buddhist thinking is divided into three sections: living, dying and death. There is so much basic good sense in Buddhism, yet I can understand how the ordinary Western mind will reject much of the content as the practices are rooted in ancient traditions. However, a little wisdom should enable the intelligent reader to cut through the flowerier stuff to the inevitable pearls it conceals.

This is a very useful book for anyone facing the possibility of either their own or a loved one's death as well as providing foundation material for those seeking a less materialistic path.

Mindpower - Dr Vernon Coleman - Dec-04 - Jan-04 (8)

A useful 'pep' book on using the power of the mind both to establish a baseline of health and to fight any diseases from arthritis to cancer. There is discussion on the hardlink between mental state and susceptibility to illness as well as some techniques for relaxing. Very much a layperson's read, it nonetheless gathers together the relevant information to inspire the reader.

Stalking the Wild Pendulum - Itzhak Bentov - Jan-04 (9½)

Subtitled "On the Mechanics of Consciousness", this is a book that was way ahead of its time (originally published in 1979). Bentov was, according to the brief bio, a man who hadn't fitted well into the formal education system and who made a living designing specialist biomechanical equipment for medical surgery. He was, however, interested in a broad range of subjects and, during discussions with friends (many of them scientists), he gestated the ideas contained in this book.

The title alone should provoke interest: he uses the pendulum as an illustration of one of the many paradoxes of Quantum Theory, that at the point of rest, just before the reverse in direction, the momentum of any 'pendulum' is well-defined, indeed totally defined as zero. According to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal, the position must therefore be very ill-defined, indeed for zero momentum, the position should be 'smeared' out across the infinitude of space. It is, then, this notion that forms the point of departure from 'established' fact and allows the author to speculate about the many consequences this could have. The holographic model is touched on, as well as paranormal phenomena, higher levels of consciousness and much more.

Essential reading even now, this deserves cult status for its boldness and originality.

Armadillo - William Boyd - Jan-04 (9½)

(2nd re-read) It must be a long time since I read any William Boyd as this is the first to make it on the reviews. One of his lighter works in terms of subject matter and plot, it's still one of my favourites.

Cool, controlled loss adjuster Lorimer Black finds his well-ordered life slipping over the precipice of chaos as a sequence of malevolent chances wreak their havoc. As usual with Boyd, there are glimpses into some unusual areas of life not normally seen by the majority - the high-end of the insurance world and ancient armour are two covered here.

The mark of a really good book is being able to get more out of it on subsequent readings, and this certainly fits the bill: themes become apparent - contingency, identity, control... This was actually turned into a TV production: whilst it was a decent interpretation with good casting, it didn't come close to the book. An excellent introduction to Boyd's work.

On Creativity - David Bohm (edited by Lee Nichols) - Jan-04 (10)

A selection of essays by the distinguished physicist and thinker, taking as their focus the role and nature of creativity in its broadest sense. Truly inspiring stuff as usual, this strongly reinforces Bohm's worldview as that most closely corresponding with my own.

Creativity, as both a component of one's state of mind, and as an underlying function of human activity, is shown to be essential to the maintenance of a positive vector, both for the individual and for society in general. Indeed, it is effectively woven into the very fabric of life. Also examined is the connection, at root, between scientific and artistic activity. By careful examination of the derivation of key words, Bohm shows how what have become essentially separate disciplines were in fact rooted in the same soil, with creativity being the essential nutrient.

Only by changing ourselves can we hope to change society, and only by becoming creative can we hope to change ourselves. Thus, creativity is seen to be at the centre of positive change - good news indeed for those who are naturally creative - but, we knew all along, didn't we ;-)

In Search of Lost Time (Part V – The Captive and The Fugitive) - Marcel Proust – Jan - Mar-04 (9½)

This volume has probably taken me the longest to finish, it being a concatenation of two sub-parts, yet it’s been a wonderful read. In The Captive, the narrator has installed Albertine in his Paris home (the parents are conveniently away), but suffers from an almost insane jealousy, worrying about whether she is attracted to other women. As a result, he effectively keeps her prisoner, not by anything so crude as brute force, but by a combination of emotional blackmail, material treats and surveillance.

In The Fugitive, the narrator must first come to terms with Albertine’s sudden departure, then the announcement of her death in a riding accident. Gradually, the jealousy is deconstructed and he finally gets to visit the long-desired Venice. Yet questions continue to nag: what was the true nature of Albertine’s sexuality?; was she really killed in that accident?

Finally, some oddly loose ends come together in quite another quarter.

This volume particularly excels in Proust’s method of ‘getting inside’ a person’s head (Iris Murdoch is also one of the finest exponents of this style) by allowing the reader to experience all the mood swings and pseudo-logical constructions. This is in great contrast to Joyce’s method of so-called ‘stream-of-consciousness’ narrative; both methods are, however, very effective.

The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens and the I-Ching – Terence and Dennis McKenna - Mar-04 (10)

A cult volume from the early seventies, this is once again in vogue (and reprint) as 2012 approaches, and still seems pretty fresh even now. The subtitle firmly grasps the triple strand of this amazing book as it picks up each in turn then begins to weave them together, DNA-like, into a speculative but carefully considered worldview.

Initially, the nature of consciousness is considered: I for one was unaware of the length of history of the holographic model of the mind, and here it is being talked of in the seventies! A molecular mechanism for holographic coding is advanced which also encompasses Jungian ideas about collective consciousness.

Comparison between the chemistry of neurotransmitters and that of known hallucinogens is considered (much of what was here speculation is now known to be fact), and a mechanism advanced concerning their possible action within the cell, and neural DNA in particular. The authors’ own experiences under the influence of chosen substances are revealed, along with the fundamental insights that led to their being directed towards the I-Ching as the next step in their quest for an ‘answer’.

For those unfamiliar, the I-Ching is an ancient Chinese divination system (it translates as ‘The Book of Changes’) that operates via arrangements of a set of 64 symbols (known as hexagrams as each is composed of 6 horizontal lines, each of which may exist in 2 states, unbroken and broken). It’s easy, then, to imagine that there are many possibilities for mathematical treatment of such a system, and this is exactly what the Brothers McKenna set about, using it as a numerological basis of developing a modular approach to time. From this was born the (probably now infamous) ‘Timewave Zero’ computer program that mapped the ingress of novelty into historical time. Using the Mayan calendar final date of 2012 as the zero point, the timewave is shown to ‘retrodict’ some historical and evolutionary events surprisingly well. Interestingly, the timewave, due its modular construction, is essentially fractal in nature.

Let’s see what happens as 2012 approaches! Some say that this will be the ‘singularity’, though its nature is still debated – is it technological or spiritual? Whatever, it’s a fine excuse to party hard!

The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch – Apr-04 (10)

(nth re-read) Despite the full dissertation, I’ll add my two pen’th in the form of a normal review. One of Murdoch’s finest, this story contains too many elements to easily summarise. We begin with theatrical personality Charles Arrowby enjoying his first days in splendid isolation at his newly-acquired seaside retreat. I always want the narrative to hang onto this part as it contains such a relaxed atmosphere of natural observations and internal reflections, but alas, real life rapidly intrudes in the forms both of visiting ‘friends’ and a ghost from the past. The ludicrously coincidental presence in the local village of Charles’ long-lost ‘first love’ is typical Murdoch, and is nicely presaged by an hallucination of a sea-monster (he connects this vision with a long-ago experimentation with LSD).

Throughout the book, the presence of Charles’ cousin James seems to take on an increasingly portentous atmosphere. The depth of their relationship only becomes apparent much later in the story when we realise that James, an accomplished practitioner of fairly ‘high level’ Eastern mental feats and a committed Buddhist, has in fact kept a watch, almost a ‘grip’, on Charles since their childhood days.

There are many great ‘Murdoch moments’, but one of my favourites is a fateful gathering at Charles’ seaside house on a summer evening – the whole thing is ‘choreographed’ as a scene from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Despite some deeply moving episodes, the book ends positively with Charles considering his next move; yet one feels that maybe James’ spirit is not too far away…

Henry and Cato – Iris Murdoch – Apr - May-04 (9)

(1st re-read) A deeply moral tale, this book looks closely, as one of its themes, at fear, not so much as a negative thing than as an absence of positive, in this case a lack of courage. However, there is much more besides. The death of playboy Sandy Marshallson sets forth a chain of events that recalls his brother Henry from his middle-of-the-road middle-of-nowhere existence in middle America back to the family seat, Laxlinden Hall, in England.

The relationship between Henry and his mother is strained, but the estate is bequeathed entirely to him and he sets about trying to do something ‘morally good’ with his inheritance. All his intentions become thoroughly bodged and confused when he claims a ‘surprise’ part of his inheritance (his dead brother’s ‘mistress’) and when his old school friend Cato Forbes, now a somewhat disenchanted priest, gets sucked into an underworld of crime and violence.

But it all turns out to a more reasonable conclusion than one might have hoped for at some stages of the story.

Dead Babies – Martin Amis – May-04 (9½)

(nth re-read) An early Amis novel and perhaps the most overtly comic, this is a classic for lovers of the most twisted comédie noir there is. Set at the close of the ‘70s, this theatrical farce/whodunnit sets the scene before deconstructing and finally destroying (most of) the characters.

We find a peculiarly mis-matched bunch of young individuals gathered at Appleseed Rectory in anticipation of a weekend of drugs and general debauchery, awaiting, indeed, the arrival and ministrations of an equally strange ‘troy’ of young Americans.

The story is really an exposé of the effects of a culture of excess on the lives of those who over-indulge, and is at its most telling when the group gather to watch a series of pornographic films: the usual degradations and perversions meet with deep ennui, yet a rogue ‘experimental’ film showing a normal couple fumbling through the barriers of undergarments actually peaks the interest of some members of the group.

Amis’ formidable wit and style pervades the whole thing, and there are many twists that keep the plot buoyant; just don’t expect a happy ending!

The Essential Jung – Anthony Storr – May - Jun-04 (10)

This carefully edited collection of Jung’s writing brings together samples of all his major contributions in one book. The writing is Jung’s own material, verbatim, with small editorial introductions to each section, thereby giving a true flavour of the Great Man’s own intentions.

Included are: his early contributions to psychoanalysis; psychological types; the collective unconscious; archetypes; development of the individual; and religion. Whilst I don’t hold with this last, substitution of a different word/concept for that of “God” would more closely tally with my own ideas. The blurb on the back cover describes Jung as being “on a giant scale” – a very apt one-phrase summary for a man whose ideas question the basic fabric of existence, and who had the courage to address issues normally considered outside the realm of investigative science.

A must-read for anyone interested in getting a broad-spectrum overview of Jung’s entire corpus as well as sufficient depth to provide a true insight.

The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature - Rupert Sheldrake - Jun - Jul-04 (9½)

A relatively new evolutionary theory under this particular rubric, yet having existed in various other forms previously. The author carefully delineates the history of the idea and shows how it was always supplanted by more materialist theories. Here, it is offered not as a substitute but as a compliment to traditional evolutionary theory.

The essence is this: once a pathway (e.g. a new technique) has been made by a pioneer, that pathway becomes easier to follow by others. Whilst this sounds obvious if we consider hacking through virgin jungle, it becomes stranger when we bring the idea to bear upon, say, crystallisation of a new material, yet the phenomenon has been empirically observed.

Many other phenomena begin to make more sense if considered to be influenced by stabilising fields that transcend space and possibly time (though that one's more complicated and I won't go into it here). The theory also ties in with quantum theory (via sum-over-histories approach) and even Jungian archetypes.

Maddeningly, the author does not even begin to speculate about the possible mechanisms of morphic fields, but merely assumes them to be non-material and knowing no bounds (not unlike quantum non-locality) - for completeness, I would have liked some hypothesis advanced, however bold, to explain how material events can give rise to so-called non-material fields that can, in their turn, influence the material world. Still, that's my only gripe - it's certainly thoroughly grounded in every other way and essential reference material for those keeping an eye on the future of science.

Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams – M.J. Simpson – Jul – Aug-04 (8)

As I’m a big fan of Adams’ work, this was a must-buy. The style, though, as with many biographies, is somewhat bland, and fails to do justice to the biographee. However, the Douglas Adams revealed is perhaps not what devoted fans would like to have seen, and this is a kind of backhand compliment to the biographer – no compromise on truth, he presents the man he himself admired with full compliment of warts.

There is scant material covering the early years, then we begin to learn something about later schooldays and, of course, Adam’s time at Cambridge University, one of the settings so wonderfully evoked in the first ‘Dirk Gently’ book. The bulk of the book looks more closely at Adams’ work, unflinchingly bursting anecdotal balloons and dispelling myths as well as revealing some of the man’s less-than-ideal character traits like his complete inability to submit work to an agreed deadline and his near-worship of the rich and famous.

Still, it takes nothing away from Adams’ work, rather exposing how much work actually went into getting things so right, and I guess he’s not dropped off my dinner party guest wishlist – after all, he was only human, like the rest of us.

Underground London - Stephen Smith - Aug-04 (9½)

A self-confessed London-phile, this book was bound to appeal: appropriately, it was purchased in the Metropolis in a small bookshop near South Kensington tube station. And "it does exactly what it says on the tin" - it explores different aspects of the subterranea Londinium via working upwards, as it were, through time, through the strata underlying the city's history.

The chapters each take a theme in this manner, some being inherently more fascinating than others. The chapter on the Tube was always going to be riveting: it makes the reader consider their routine journey in an entirely different light, thinking of the disused stations, the small hours maintenance, the staff-only areas and the dread possibility of hearing a public announcement for 'Inspector Sands', a codename signifying some kind of crisis.

What was a surprise and a delight is the writing style: learned and witty with echoes of Amis Jnr, though occasionally a tad smug, it nevertheless keeps the book buoyant throughout. IMHO, deserves some kind of semi-cult status among the London-phile literati.

Yellow Dog - Martin Amis - Sep-04 (10)

A new Martin Amis is always a major treat. After the unusual 'Night Train', he's back on more familiar ground, though with some new twists.

Start with the 'ideal' life of Xan (yet another diminutive of Alexander) Meo, so-called Renaissance Man, then blow the thing apart with past underworld connections. London gangland, the haemorrhoidal anus of gutter journalism, trouble for the (fictitious) Royal Family and a vengeful corpse on its last flight join the storyline elements that are shot through with violence, pornography and excess in general - longstanding Amis themes.

And the confluence of the four storylines, whilst not unexpected, is achieved under the auspices of a near-miss of the earth by a rogue comet, after delving into histories of rape, incest and paedophilia. Sounds horrible? It isn't - Amis' delicious locution and revelatory phrase-turning make for a must-read, a fat treat for the literary soul!

The Flight From the Enchanter - Iris Murdoch - Sep - Oct-04 (9½)

2nd re-read. An early Murdoch, this, but still with great charm and hints of a mysterious world lurking beneath the surface.

As the title suggests, the story centres loosely around an 'enchanter', a man of considerable personal power and influence (Murdoch was obsessed by such types). But the counterbalancing influence is female emancipation (this was written some time ago!) and this runs as a nice little theme throughout, culminating in the 'enchanter' not getting his own way in all quarters.

Brazzaville Beach - William Boyd - Oct-04 (10)

nth re-read. It must be longer ago than I thought since I last read this book as I don't particularly recall coming across the iconic z -> z² + c before. What's this mathematical notation got to do with a novel? The initiated, or those having come fresh from the Fractals section will recognise the definition of the Mandelbrot set, the oft-named 'granddaddy of fractals'. The tie-in is the major theme of this un-putdownable book, that is chaos, contingency.

Hope Clearwater, the narrator, is looking back at two periods of her adult life whilst 're-gathering', or perhaps awaiting the next event, on a beach in Africa. The earlier episode in her life involved her marriage to mathematician John Clearwater (who at one stage was working on turbulence, hence Chaos Theory). The later one, picking up from where the first would leave off, was her attachment to a prestigious field study group in Africa documenting chimpanzee behaviour.

The three time-periods are expertly juggled, with all balls remaining in the air at all times. Highly recommended to a broad readership.