Looking for Jake and Other Stories
China Mieville
Although novels are the basic staple of my literary diet, one of my year’s best books is China Mieville’s collection Looking for Jake and Other Stories. One of the advantages of the short story is the ability it provides the writer to generate an emotional intensity that can be hard to sustain in a longer form, an opportunity Mieville uses to its full advantage. The stories are dark, disturbing glimpses of dystopian landscapes that will be familiar to readers of his other work, it is an essential addition to the library of any Mieville fan and an excellent taster to whet the appetite of new readers.
Seeing Voices
Oliver Sacks
What it means to be Deaf is a topical issue given recent advances in both cochlear implant surgery and genetic testing for genetic deafness, and the idea that Deaf parents might intentionally have a Deaf child can be incomprehensible at best, morally repugnant at worse. Oliver Sacks’ examination of Deafness, Seeing Voices, challenges these (mis)perceptions and introduces the reader to the concept of Deafness not as disability but as culture. Although written over 25 years ago, it provides insights into the history of deaf eugenics, the neurological, psychological and linguistic adaptations that accompany the acquisition of a visual rather than aural language that remain relevant today.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Lionel Shriver
When I came across a second-hand copy of Lionel Shriver’s novel We Need to Talk about Kevin, I pounced on it with glee. About half way through the first page I realised that it was not a good book for somebody contemplating having children. By then, it was too late-I couldn’t put it down. Shriver crystalises every single misgiving any prospective parent might have into diamond-like clarity, while rendering it compulsive reading. Not only is the prose beautiful, she writes with such skill that the uncompromising climax is both inevitable and unexpected. Kevin will stay with me for a very, very long time indeed.
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