Spies, detectives, and terrorists; westerns and Native American life; war and violence; gangs and prisoners; animals and humans; rebels and resistance; women and feminism; autobiography and memoir; racism and sectarianism; music and pop stars; football and footballers.
Ernest Hemingway, Men without Women
I think I've read and often re-read most of Hemingway's books, some more than twice. This is a really great book of short stories. Hemingway sets the small details of scenes very well in his own economical way and has intriguing themes. It's called Men without Women and Hemingway has been accused of sexism. There is a lot of machismo in his stories but he also has strong female characters. This one covers boxing, fishing, bullfighting, the physical and mental injuries of war, abortion, sexuality, gang-life, Italy, road-trips, love (or the end of it), death, addiction; a lot! A lot of it seems quite autobiographical. I looked up analyses of the stories after reading each one and this helped me to see beneath the surfaces of them. Some (but certainly not all) academic analyses of the stories seemed to me to overanalyse and I also enjoyed reading lay reviews. (I should have kept links to the reviews to share here but didn't).
Alice Munro, The View from Castle Rock
I've read quite a few of Alice Munro's books of short stories, although most quite a long time ago. This one is a bit different in that it's a sequence of stories fictionalising accounts of her ancestors, going back to 17th-century Scotland, and her own childhood and life. It's good and I enjoyed it but feel like I might (given that, for instance, she won the Nobel Prize for Literature) be missing some layers here that I'm not seeing.
Ben MacIntyre, Agent Sonya
Astonishing and fascinating true story of Ursula Kuczynski, a German Jewish communist driven by anti-fascism, whose life spanned from the start of the 20th century to the end and from the start of communism to its collapse. It goes from her lives in China, Switzerland, the UK, and Germany to her spying for the Soviet Union, while having several (also intriguing) lovers and bringing up three children. Somehow she escaped death and capture by her own side (the purges) and by others. Seemingly very well researched and captivatingly told, in part because of the author, but also because of the incredible person and life it is about and the huge risks she took in pursuit of her ideals. She ended up an author in the East German GDR still supportive of communism but disillusioned by attempts at it at the same time. I've always been interested in western supporters of communism including those who took to spying for the cause, but she outdid many of them in her daring and astonishing life. A human book full of detail.
Sebastian Barry, Days without End
I read Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry last year, which was amazing so I thought I'd give another of his a go. It was this one, a 'western' I suppose, grim and gory like many westerns but full also of humanity, beauty, love, and compelling. It was hard to put down, gripping, and drew me in. Its story over a couple of decades or so, I guess, is of Thomas (an Irish immigrant to the USA in the 19th century) and John who meet young and end up bound together through the Indian wars and Civil War. They come upon an Indian (as she is called) girl and she becomes part of the story. It includes racism, sexuality, gender identity, alongside violence, war, and blood. I wanted to read fast to swallow up the story but had to slow myself down to focus on the beauty of the description and detail.
Audrey Magee, The Undertaking
I read Audrey Magee's amazing The Colony last year so decided to read this, her previous and first novel published 8 years before in 2014, which apparently also took a long time to write. It's about a German man and woman during the Second World War who have a marriage of convenience that turns out to be more than that. It's about the war from a German perspective (Magee studied German at university). He goes to the Russian front and she is in Berlin. It only lightly touches in a distanced way on the experience of jews and others persecuted and killed (but without ignoring it at all) and more heavily on the horror of war and experience and consciousness of Germans. It describes the securing of complicity but felt like it invited judgment rather than giving it itself. Contrasts in experiences are included and sometimes the style is quite minimalist and removed. It includes significant and high-profile parts of the war. Difficult to put down. With mass murder and torture going on at the time it was published (eg in Syria) and this year genocide, mass slaughter in war, mass racism, and persecution, it didn't feel at all like history. It doesn't seem like we've learned from this experience. Along with Sebastian Barry this year, another Irish writer, as I have mentioned before, I unintentionally seem to gravitate to Irish authors.
Sean O'Driscoll, Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber: the extraordinary life of Rose Dugdale
The true story of the daughter of a rich English family who became radicalised in the 1960s and a volunteer with the IRA, being involved in some very colourful and daring missions as such. The author also wrote The Accidental Spy another IRA story which I read in 2023. Later in life Dugdale stood by what she had done in the past. This book treats her as sincere. There is only passing explanation of a sociological, political, or psychological kind and the book is mostly just a factual account of events. It's based on lots of interviews with lots of people including Dugdale. When I read it, it seemed to me a book which is not just a re-interpretation of a story already told but is a story not yet properly told, although I did later discover there had been one or two partial tellings of parts of her story. There are passing references to the human costs of IRA actions, for some cases and not others. The book is not an attempt to be sympathetic to Dugdale but also only at some points raises the effects of the violence on victims and their families, which is not to say it is at all excusing it or is apologism. There are elements of the author being impressed with her as an unusual and determined person, and it's a sympathetic portrait psychologically. It paints Dugdale as sometimes full of humanity and at other times (in relation to the enemy) the opposite, brutal and unforgiving. A fascinating and well-told story.
Alan Hester, Tiny Keeper: Steve Death, Record Breaker, Shy Genius and Maverick
This is a lovely and lovingly researched biography of the goalkeeper of Reading FC, a lower division football team, in the 1970s - Steve Death. I lived in Reading, or later nearby, and went to the home matches through the 70s seeing Death play many times, a tremendous player and fascinating character. I wrote a separate blog post about this book, and about Steve Death and watching Reading in the 1970s.
Sebastian Barry, A Thousand Moons
A sequel to Days without End (which I read this year, see above). This one features Winona, the Indian girl, now as a young adult, and her adopters, John and Thomas, from that first novel, after the American Civil war with the repercussions of that, including continuing racism. There is plenty of hatred and brutality but also tenderness and love, a combination which makes for some terrifying and heart-rending moments. Winona's voice is spoken by an author who is a 60+ white Irish man, which will be an issue for some, but does not get in the way for most reviewers who sometimes mention this but are usually very positive about the book. When I read the book I enjoyed it but felt I didn't get into it as much as Days without End, maybe the novelty of the idea had worn off, but looking back a few months later to write these notes I feel I was very struck and captivated by it. I've always thought the reading of a book goes on well after you've finished it and sometimes after you've read something is when you really appreciate it. Avoid the reviews which give too much away with some exceptions such as this one. It would help a lot to read Days without End first. I also read in 2024 Barry's Old God's Time, a completely different (and amazing) book.
Roy Keane, with Eamon Dunphy, Keane; Roy Keane, with Roddy Doyle, The Second Half
Not long ago, I was watching a football match on TV and at half-time the channel cut away to an advert for a series on The Day of the Jackal, a TV drama about an attempt on the life of the French President. Then the programme returned to the studio, and the chair asked the pundits if they were looking forward to watching the drama. 'Ideal Job', said Roy Keane, and there was a pause. 'Assassin', he continued with a wry smile followed by uncontrollable laughter in the studio. It was a very Keane moment. I was looking for something to explain and understand Keane and thought at first these books didn't get to it. But after a while I decided it's maybe just as it seems - a passionate, competitive, opinionated, confident man with a temper, not meant in bad way. These are fascinating and readable books about the intriguing Irish footballer, manager, and now ('cuddly grump', as I saw it described somewhere) pundit, written by two very notable Irish authors, one of whom, Eamon Dunphy, is as much a troublemaker as Keane was. One book (Dunphy's) covers his earlier career, the other (Doyle's) his later career.
Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
I read Karen Joy Fowler's fantastic rich book Booth in 2023 about the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, his family, history, the USA etc. This one is an amazing book and it is difficult to say why without giving spoilers. Don't read any summaries or reviews as they nearly all do give huge unforgivable spoilers. In fact, some of the reviews say don't read the reviews because of this. The book is about family, morality, being human, and other central things I can't name without giving too much away. A bit like Francis Spufford (see below), I read one great book first then to read others by the same author equally great, but so different you (or I) could never guess they were by the same author. Fantastic book.
Francis Spufford, Golden Hill
About a mysterious British man who arrives in New York City in 1746 with an also mysterious bill of exchange for £1000 the details of which he will not elucidate upon. Very eventful and freewheeling, with many twists and turns, interesting characters, nicely painted people and vivid scenes, riotousness, action, movement, and theatre. Rich and 'thickly woven' as one reviewer puts it, highly inventive, ingenious, entertaining, full of eccentricity and unusualness and an intriguing and complicated love interest. There is plenty left to the end to make the final pages a great read. Spufford has written very different kinds of books, the first I read was Light Perpetual in 2023 and then Cahokia Jazz in 2024 all just totally different books and I, at least, would never guess they were written by the same person. Golden Hill is actually his first novel, written in his early 50s, amazingly to me as it seems the book of a very experienced writer, although he had written plenty of nonfiction before.
Ben MacIntyre, Colditz
Ben MacIntrye's books are seemingly very well researched and fascinating and I've read many of them, on spies (like Agent Sonya, see above), the Iranian embassy siege and much more. I don't know how he churns them out when quite a bit of work seems to go into them. This, though, was actually a bit disappointing to me, maybe because I was subjected to so many stories of Colditz as a kid, including films, TV series dramatisations, etc so that I already knew a lot of the broad brush facts and themes. But it's disappointing only relatively. Colditz was a prisoner of war camp in Germany, for prisoners from many nations who had tried to escape from PoW camps repeatedly. Needless to say putting them altogether in one place led to even greater adventurousness and focused co-ordination to escape. Some incredible, audacious, inventive, and detailed escape plans were put together and great personalities are discussed in more depth. There is eccentricity and respect and unbelievable adherence to conventions and proper behaviour by the Germans. In itself the book is very enjoyable and interesting, well narrated as always, thriller-like in places. It's full of detail and less well-known figures such as the fascinating Indian prisoner Birendranath Mazumdar who was subject to terrible racism. Its selling point relative to all the other stories of Colditz available is that it's supposed to go beyond the derring-do of those stories to be about the other side of Colditz, darker and less admirable, not told before. But it is still mainly about the derring-do. The British like the Colditz story as it's told as they use it to project the Brits as clever and ingenious and the Germans as stupid and fools. This book partly undermines this by outlining less appetising sides of the society of prisoners, including class snobbery, and some Germans are portrayed sympathetically and with admiration. Beyond things like the class and racist aspects, there isn't a lot of social and political critique. But it's not supposed to be that sort of book and at least there is some exposure of the less appetising side of things. Well written, well researched, and entertaining, accessible history; if you don't know much about Colditz all the more so. A great read.
Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely
I love the characters and mood of Raymond Chandler's novels about the private investigator Philip Marlowe, and I loved the book and especially film (with Elliott Gould) of The Long Goodbye which I have watched lots of times. I'm terrible at focusing on and following crime plots, which is a shame as these are great books. It's a major problem with reading the Marlowe books. But I liked this, nevertheless, great winding plot, great characters, nice atmosphere.
Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
I've read lots of Graham Greene's novels which I have really enjoyed. For some reason, I'd never read this one which I think is probably his most celebrated book. Nevertheless, for some reason I didn't get into it as much as I had the others, I'm not sure why. But still a great book. I learned about Mexican history, the radical left presidency of Plutarco Elias Calles who pursued a number of positive social programmes but also the secularist anti-clerical persecution of the Catholic church which led to the Cristero war. I didn't know anything about all this until I read this book. Of course, as with his other novels Catholicism is central, in this case it's the story of a flawed Catholic priest trying to escape the just-mentioned persecution of Catholic priests in the 1930s. The book follows on from a non-fiction account by Greene of the Catholic persecution in Mexico at the time, based on his travels in the country.
Martin O'Neill, On Days Like These
Martin O'Neill played football for Nottingham Forest under the legendary manager Brian Clough. Their players rose from humble beginnings to great heights as a highly successful English football team at home and in Europe in the 1970s and 80s when I was first into football. I remember O'Neill well as a talented midfielder and he went on to become a successful football manager. This book covers the extensive range of his playing and managing days (including forthright descriptions of growing up Catholic in Northern Ireland during the troubles). There are on the pitch stories but also some behind-the-scenes politics insights. Written in the present tense, the book is a gripping read, almost like a thriller, you feel like you are in the moment, and it's difficult to put down. O'Neill is a good storyteller and the book is written as if he's speaking it. You can almost hear his distinctive voice telling the tale. It's very event-oriented; there's not much in the way of depth or introspection which is a shame but then it wouldn't be the same book with that. It seems like the book is not ghostwritten but some parts are explored in more depth and others very briefly, so maybe there was some independent editing advice given about where to expand and where to cut back. O'Neill talks with fondness of the town of High Wycombe, where he managed Wycombe Wanderers for several years, which comes as a surprise to me as someone who lived in the town and area for a while. O'Neill loved Wycombe so much that he bought a house in Beaconsfield, a much more upmarket town nearby. A great read.
Next post: Books I Read in 2025 part 2