John Self Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

John Self

@JohannaTC Worst without question is Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Little connection to the first book, space-race-era cash-in, oh and racist to boot. Also, haven't read but Dodie Smith's The Starlight Barking is said to be, well, barking, compared with 101 Dalmatians.

John Self

"A spiky, scratchy, unsettling thing; and all the more interesting and impressive for it." Yiyun Li's new novel sounds like a return to form after Must I Go. @LucyScholes on Li's "haunting" THE BOOK OF GOOSE: https://t.co/w7dzp7Ki9F

John Self

Hard to believe that Ottessa Moshfegh might have written a book even worse than Death in Her Hands, but, per @JohannaTC, her new one LAPVONA is “little more than a sequence of stomach-churning provocations which soon becomes dull and repetitive.” https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2022/06/ottessa-moshfegh-lapvona-review

John Self

"Although interesting as a study of character and excess, The Unfolding is a frustrating, unsettled book, never knowing whether it wants to be a satirical thriller, a state-of-the-nation novel or something in between." Jon Day on A. M. Homes: https://t.co/0Nep7eikGF

John Self

When I read Joan Didion's novel Play It As It Lays, I suddenly realised that Bret Easton Ellis was an expert pasticheur. https://t.co/UqueAqwSRR

John Self

Austere but tasteful proof of Kate Atkinson’s new novel Shrines of Gaiety, out September. https://t.co/ec9bCizuxL

John Self

Love this cover (by @lukejbird) for Jem Calder’s debut novella-and-stories REWARD SYSTEM, out next month. https://t.co/2rVMwIzM9D

John Self

A small mystery: reading Miriam Toews' new novel Fight Night, I made a note of the following line, which I thought good: "What makes a tragedy bearable and unbearable is the same thing, which is that life goes on." But I also thought it sounded familiar.

John Self

And it’s inspired by a novel by Felix Salten, who also wrote the novel (and source for the film) Bambi. https://t.co/eDU9bRvUUY

John Self

My selections, as denoted by a ‘JS’ at the end of the sales pitch, were: • William Golding, The Inheritors • Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie • Martin Amis, Money • Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses

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