Brazzaville Beach - William Boyd

54%
05.02.20

This confident book was so busy trying to be clever that it became confusing and ever-so-slightly dull. The cold and detached 'heroine' commands three separate narratives that are probably meaningfully linked if I felt engaged enough to analyse them.

Waiting for Sunrise - William Boyd

65%
15.07.13

Ah, William Boyd's adventure stories masquerading as literary fiction, where men are defined by their quickness of mind and women by their breasts (I never knew there was such a variety). It's compelling, escapist reading, even if the plot(s) and characters don't stand up to scrutiny. Title was apt, though - the leading man does indeed spend a lot of time waiting for sunrise.

Thursdays in the Park - Hilary Boyd

44%
13.04.13

Late-blooming love is rarely examined in modern fiction but it is badly served here. Self-absorbed middle-class Londoners cocooned in their privileged world are annoying enough without the poor quality of the prose to mire it further. Any book that includes a description of a "glass-fronted dresser painted in National Trust Woodlawn Charm blue" needs a decent edit, quite frankly.

Any Human Heart - William Boyd

64%
27.06.08

This is along the same lines as 'Diary of an Ordinary Woman', which was a surprise as I'd mixed up Williams Boyd and Gibson so was expecting American science fiction rather than British history. This is more successful than Forster's 20th century diary, more engaging and clever - and fun, with a memorably charmless narrator. Well researched, of course, and academic - but also a good read.