Monthly Archives: April 2007

After Dark – or the metaphysics of sleep

This review of Haruki Murakami’s new novel After Dark will appear in one of the usual places soon:
Reviewing Haruki Murakami’s previous novel Kafka on the Shore, John Updike noticed that Murakami ‘describes his characters falling asleep as lovingly as he itemizes what they cook and eat.’ This is a characteristically acute observation, though Updike might [...]

The Secret Agent

This piece about Conrad’s The Secret Agent and Edwardian terrorism appears this week in the ‘100 years ago’ issue of Time Out London (link now fixed):
A national newspaper fulminates at the way London has become a safe haven for ‘gangs of assassins’. Foreign governments complain about the readiness of the British to grant asylum to [...]

On Chesil Beach

This very brief review of Ian McEwan’s new novel On Chesil Beach will appear next week in Time Out London (link updated):
In the story Ian McEwan tells of his own career, the ambition to write ‘at the edge of human experience’ gives way gradually to a preoccupation with ‘character’. It’s fair to say, however, that [...]