Early summer books

It started with the good: All Fours, by Miranda July. I haven’t laughed out loud so much at a book since Bridget Jones’s Diary. I don’t choose comedy novels because I take reading far too seriously. The unnamed artist makes terrible, hilarious decisions over and over, but she’s also just trying to have the horny creative life she wants. I chose another light novel next, Muriel Spark’s A Far Cry From Kensington. Working in publishing always seems so grim in fiction, and grey fifties London too, but this journey is lit up by the delightful Mrs Hawkins who starts a devastating feud with the poisonous Hector Bartlett.

My hardback-a-month project hit a wall with Parade, by Rachel Cusk. I’m surprised how much I hated this book, and I have a pattern of refusing to give up on a book once I’ve started it, so this was a blow. After a few weeks I saw sense and pivoted to In Ascension, by Martin MacInnes, because it’s sci-fi and it was on the Booker Longlist 2023. The opening act was good, set mostly on a ship exploring a newly discovered trench in the ocean, but I became overwhelmed by the dry science talk, and I wasn’t interested in the arc about feeling guilty not caring for an aging mother, so I fell into the reading pit again.

The recovery: A.O. Scott’s Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty and Truth. A bold title, bought after listening to the author being interviewed by Marc Maron a year or two ago, and picked up because I owned it digitally. The new iPad needed a run out with the Books app. The first half of these essays on what criticism is and why it’s important was a joy. It got a little stodgy towards the end, but he reminded me how important it is to pay attention—to how I choose and how I engage with art of all kinds. (The iPad Books app is amazing, btw.)

Finally, the very interesting Double Fault, by Lionel Shriver. I was expecting not to like this because of the pickle she got into over cultural appropriation. The interviews she was doing at the time left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s dark. Winnie, a professional female tennis player, marries another pro and is crushed with envy when he begins to have more success than her. She’s unlikeable, there isn’t much tennis, but I read it in a day, admittedly skipping the melodrama and repeated arguments. Winnie has a heart of ice when it comes to competition. The Olympics started this week. It makes me wonder what’s going through the competitors minds.