Which was your favourite book of the past year?
The Guardian, Saturday 1 January 2011
Kate Anderson, Sheffield
Yes, Franzen's Freedom (Fourth Estate) is wonderful but even more so is Philip Roth's Nemesis (Jonathan Cape). Bucky is one of the world's decent men and is portrayed with profound sympathy and without mawkishness. During a 1944 New Jersey polio epidemic this nice, uncomplicated young man, who has avoided the draft because of poor eyesight, is overtaken by events and makes decisions for which he ever after blames himself. The modern terms of "closure" and "moving on" are not available to Bucky, for whom the perceived failure of duty and honour must be paid for in a denial of any possible happiness.
Steven Bailey, Bognor Regis
I found myself rereading Kenneth O Morgan's Michael Foot: A Life (Harper Perennial) in the year of its subject's death. This illuminating authorised biography of 2007 details an interesting career that was set against many of the key moments in 20th century British political history – the second world war, the creation of the welfare state and the rise of Thatcherism. What I liked about it most was its intellectual honesty; it does not seek to deify Foot. Instead, it portrays him for what he was: an honourable, if flawed, politician with an elegant turn of phrase and strong socialist convictions. It provided a refreshing contrast to the self-obsessed offerings put out by key members of the New Labour project in 2010.
More at The Guardian.
And Best Books of 2010 over at The Independent.
While at The Australian......
And at The Telegraph they look at the literary year 2011.
The book that grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and made me laugh and cry and wish I wasn't a writer because how could I measure up to such brillance was 'One Day' by David Nicolls. Jealous much.
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