Books I Read October 24th, 2023

Over the course of last week my hush puppy game has gotten pretty tight. I also read the following.

Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer – An overview of the artistic and cultural avenues by which WWI was remembered in Britain. Occasionally interesting but it doesn't really hang together. At some point the author describes it as being work for a novel which never came together, and that's very much how it feels.

The Wise Friend by Ramsey Campbell – Part of October's foray into horror. An academic and his teenage son explore the mysterious works of their mysterious aunt, a brilliant painter who might maybe also have been a witch. The set-up is familiar but the execution is top notch, Campbell is clever and the writing is good enough that page to page you don't really care that you more or less know where it's going.

The Limit by Rosalind Belben – A devoted husband cares for his terminally ill, incontinent wife, considers their strange and passionate love affair. Apart from an exaggerated interest in bodily function (to which post-modern writers seem curiously devoted) I thought the writing really crackled.

War with the Newts by Karel Capek – The discovery of a seemingly harmless species of semi-intelligent amphibians acts as a satire of capitalism, fascism, communism, Utopianism generally speaking, in this forgotten but influential text by Czechoslovakia's preeminent pre-war novelist. Strange and funny and sad in its prescience for mankind's continual capacity for self-destruction.