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chris (Japan) (2013/02/10):
Jonathan Raban has a lively, quirky writing style: there's considerable energy in his prose and it's enlivened by a dry, British wit and high degree of self-effacement. That's what makes this far-ranging miscellany mostly a pleasure to read. From humble, studious origins, Raban recounts his trials as a fledgling book critic -- hard-working and underpaid -- in the snobbish literary circles of 70s and 80s London. Unfortunately he also inserts chapters here and there purporting to be a fictional account of a frustrated reviewer; it's difficult to tell Raban's intentions with this device, because when he sticks to "true-to-life" stories he's nearly always entertaining and enlightening. There are incisive studies of classic and contemporary authors -- from Trollope to Updike -- but what mostly rewards the reader are articles based on his travels. Even early on that was his strong point. In all, not major Raban, but well worth reading for his many fans. This volume contains a mixture of different kinds of writing. It opens with an autobiographical essay on Raban's childhood. It contains fictional narratives of various kinds. It discusses the English writing scene at the time Raban was coming of age as a writer. It contains samples of the travel- writing which Raban is perhaps most known for. I however found the most insightful and interesting parts of the book the book- reviews. Books on Byron, Trollope, Thackery,Kipling Evelyn Waugh, V.S. Pritchett, Bellow, Updike,Anthony Powell, Peter Quennel are skillfully reviewed. My favorite of these was the piece on Trollope. Raban relates the work to the life and shows how the awkward, rejected in childhood Trollope wrote works in which the characters fear of social rejection is central. Raban shows the heroic side of Trollope- his overcoming in his writing much of what he could not overcome in his life. Raban also writes interestingly of spendthrift chaotic Byron whose lack of any self- control brought such devastation to the lives of others. In the final essay of the work Raban writes of his going to Sea as a way of escaping the narrow vistas and imprisonment of his own small life. There is a great deal of interesting observation in these essays, though they fall short of being on the emotional level very powerful work.
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