Tower and Town, March 2021 (view the full edition)A Good ReadSometimes when a book receives a lot of publicity my reaction is a grumpy adolescent resistance to reading it. It's very silly and childish, but there you go, still trying and failing to be 'cool' and stand out from the herd. Sorry. It's why I came late to Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, now out in paperback, and deserving, I think, the plaudits heaped upon it. As you probably know, it's a book that skewers liberal guilt and smuggery about race, class and economic status. When a (black) girl babysitting a (white) child is challenged by supermarket security it sets off a wincingly recognisable and convincing look at power dynamics in a range of relationships. The writing is deft and objective, with sharp and believable dialogue, and characters I loved and was exasperated by in equal measure. It's warm and funny and sad and a lesson about checking one's assumptions. Another of my pet hates is 'beautiful writing' as a description. It so often means, in my not remotely humble opinion, 'flowery and bathetic'. But forgive me while I describe A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry as beautifully written by which I mean distinct, descriptive, lyrical and evocative. A sequel to Days Without End, this is the story of Winona, the unofficially adopted Lakota daughter of Thomas McNulty and John Cole. In the aftermath of the American Civil War the family try to make a home and a living on a small farm in Tennessee. In the broken and resentful south, the characters, of varying race, sexuality, and complex morality, struggle with brutality, political conflict, forgiveness and love. Talking of political conflict - UnPresidented is the third book about reporting from the USA during the presidency of Donald Trump by Jon Sopel, the BBC's North America editor. This is his diary of the presidential campaign during the coronavirus pandemic. It's personal, informally written and immediate, very much a first draft of history. Sopel maintains BBC impartiality, but can't disguise how very unusual the past four years and the campaign were. All right, more than unusual: bonkers. The book ends two days after the election which as we know is before the story does. There's bound to be an extra chapter when the paperback comes out. Debby Guest |