Books LIVE | Book Reviews
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Books LIVE | Book Reviews
5y ago
Published in the Sunday Times
Sally Rooney’s Normal People is a book for anyone who has ever looked at their family or their life or their relationship and gone “Is this how normal people behave?” Author pic supplied.
Normal People ****
Sally Rooney, Faber & Faber, R300
Sally Rooney is unbeatable at arguments. Not big, theatrical, screaming ones, although she would probably be very good at those as well.
She is good at describing those arguments where no-one raises their voice or says anything dramatically spiteful, but serious hurt is inflicted all the same and it’s worse, in a way ..read more
Books LIVE | Book Reviews
5y ago
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life ****
Eric Idle, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, R330
“I honestly think there are more hours of documentary about Python than there are hours of Python,” writes Eric Idle. “So, to the mass of mangled memories do I now add my own muddled, prejudiced, and deeply cynical account of what I think might have happened? Of course.”
In what he calls a “sortabiography”, Idle looks back over his 75 years, beginning with his dreadful childhood and ending with his comfortable life in California now, with a great many mad antics in between.
The book should come with a warn ..read more
Books LIVE | Book Reviews
5y ago
Published in the Sunday Times
Theo & Flora
****
Mark Winkler, Umuzi, R250
Some of the letters written by Theo and Flora. Picture: Mark Winkler
The story behind this novel is almost as nuanced as the one in it.
After Mark Winkler’s first novel An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Absolutely Everything was published, his father-in-law, Norman, gave him a box of letters and said: “Perhaps you might do something with these.”
There were 89 letters in total, written from 1944 to 1948, between Norman’s father, Theo, and his mistress, Flora. Norman passed away a few months later, and it took t ..read more
Books LIVE | Book Reviews
5y ago
Published in the Sunday Times
The Secret Keeper is veteran author Susan Lewis’s 43rd novel.
The Secret Keeper ***
Susan Lewis, Century, R215
There are people who love Susan Lewis’s novels so much that they ask to be buried with them.
“I’ve never had this happen to me before. I don’t know how many writers this has happened to. But a reader told me recently that she just buried her sister-in-law and that her sister-in-law’s request was to take some of my books with her. Isn’t that amazing? I am so blown away by that – that you can touch someone with your books so much. It’s so extraordinar ..read more