September 13, 2013

Evil on the run

…he was hanged by the Allies at Auschwitz. He is a warning to us all of the dangers of blind adherence to ideology. Review by Ian Thomson

 

August 30, 2013

Unspectacular vernacular

…unfortunate in a translation of a writer like Dante, for whom accuracy, precision and concision were sovereign virtues.  Review by Ian Thomson

The Franz Kafka chronicles

Kafka: The Years of Insight, by Reiner Stach, translated by Shelley Frisch, Princeton RRP£24.95/$35, 720 pages Franz Kafka:By Ian Thomson

 

May 24, 2013

Tennis and termites

Here and Now: Letters 2008-2011, by Paul Auster and JM Coetzee, Faber RRP£20/Viking RRP$27.95, 256 pages With the advent of Review by Ian Thomson

 

December 27, 2013

Roth Unbound, by Claudia Roth Pierpoint

…profound and commanding presence in American literature; it is time the Swedish Academy recognised his particular genius. Review by Ian Thomson

 

December 13, 2013

Stories II: The Collected Stories of T Coraghessan Boyle, Volume II, by TC Boyle

Stories II: The Collected Stories of T Coraghessan Boyle, Volume II, by TC Boyle, Bloomsbury.

 

May 23, 2014

‘Zeppelin Nights: London in the First World War’, by Jerry White

Zeppelin Nights: London in the First World War, by Jerry White, Bodley Head. Few had reckoned on such a Review by Ian Thomson

 

April 25, 2014

‘The Trigger’, by Tim Butcher

The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin who Brought the World to War, by Tim Butcher, Chatto & Windus. In Review by Ian Thomson

 

April 4, 2014

‘Echo’s Bones’, by Samuel Beckett

…extraordinary world of comic dread and Dürer-like imagination. The book is strictly for Godotistas, but well worth the wait. By Ian Thomson

 

September 19, 2014

‘Perfidia’, by James Ellroy

James Ellroy, the Los Angeles-based crime novelist, writes of an American underworld where the hoodlums are in cahoots with Review by Ian Thomson

 

September 5, 2014

Postcard from . . . Jamaica

…a question to my namesake Lancel Thomson, an elderly fisherman: “So would…A ridiculous idea – how could Thomson get to Scotland at his age? But he answered: “I have a brother…love but out of economic necessity. By Ian Thomson

 

August 8, 2014

‘Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born’, by Matthew Parker

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, died…Jamaica. Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born: Ian Fleming’s Jamaica, by Matthew Parker, Hutchinson. Review by Ian Thomson

Finals countdown

…all its mish-mash of literary styles and influences, Noughties is a caustic, street-smart novel for our times. Review by Ian Thomson

 

December 23, 2011

Cold case files

…and intellectual engagement. Traces Remain is as deliciously readable and absorbing as top-notch Sherlock Holmes. Review by Ian Thomson

 

June 25, 2011

Illuminations

Illuminations, by Arthur Rimbaud, translated by John Ashbery, Carcanet. Arthur Rimbaud, theReview by Ian Thomson

 

July 10, 2010

Hellhound on His Trail

…house in Pimlico, London, from where he planned to fly to Ian Smith’s apartheid Rhodesia. He was intercepted by Scotland…where he was given a life sentence. He died in 1998. Review by Ian Thomson

 

All That Follows

…telling and the matchless quality of its prose. Crace’s is a unique voice still, and we are lucky to have it. Review by Ian Thomson

The vampire strikes back

…dishes. Bram Stoker, a middle-class Irish Protestant in thrall to macabre imaginings, would have been intrigued. Ian Thomson‘s ‘The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica’ is published by Faber in May By Ian Thomson

 

February 9, 2009

The Three Suitors of Fred Belair

…humour and irreverent boisterousness make it a fitting, if flawed conclusion to Markham’s last literary endeavour. Review by Ian Thomson

 

February 7, 2009

Notes from a smaller island

…humour and irreverent boisterousness make it a fitting, if flawed conclusion to Markham’s last literary endeavour. By Ian Thomson