Having read and enjoyed The Birthday Present by Ruth Rendell’s alter ego Barbara Vine while in Madrid a couple of months ago, I took Rendell’s new novel PORTOBELLO on the plane with me to Mexico. It’s a darker story than the previous book but I found it less engaging. A group of characters, all connected through a sum of money lost on the Portobello Road, I felt it lacked the intrigue and complexity of the earlier political story.
Politics was at the fore, however, of Ann Patchett’s RUN, a novel set over the course of a day following a traffic accident. It’s an interesting story – a former mayor, his two sons, and a young girl whose life intersects with theirs – but perhaps not strong enough to sustain a full novel. Some of the characters felt a little redundant (Uncle Sullivan, for example, and his nephew also called Sullivan) or underdeveloped but the young girl, Kenya, was lively and the best thing in the story.
Next up was Zoe Heller’s debut novel, EVERYTHING YOU KNOW, published originally in 1999. I’m a huge fan of Heller’s second and third novels and went back to her first to see could it possibly be as good as they are and while it’s not up to their level, it’s still a terrific novel. Narrated by one of the most loathsome men I’ve ever read about, it’s probably helpful that the book is short, as there’s only so much misanthropy one can stand. But it certainly shows the great talent that Heller would bring to her next two books.
I had never read JL Carr’s A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY but am glad I picked it off my shelf this month. A tremendously moving story about two former soldiers shortly after the First World War, there’s so much heart and emotion to the writing that one can’t help but be affected by it. After this, I read Christopher Buckley’s SUPREME COURTSHIP, a comedy set around the US Supreme Court, which was disappointing. Flat dialogue, unfunny jokes, and clichéd characters add up to a very amateur piece of writing.
There’s been a lot of talk about Tom Rob Smith’s CHILD 44, an upmarket thriller set in Stalinist Russia and I found it an absorbing read. Exciting and well-paced, this story of a serial killer being chased by an officer of the State Government deserves all the praise it’s been given. Reminiscent in a way of Thomas Harris’ Hannibal books, there’s a sequel on the way next year and I look forward to reading it.
And I ended the year with two short books, Roddy Doyle’s HER MOTHER’S FACE, a moving and beautifully illustrated story of a child who has lost her mother and Philip Ardagh’s THE SCANDALOUS LIFE OF THE LAWLESS SISTERS, a very witty work which uses some old illustrations from Punch to create a history of a tribe of criminal women. The prose which accompanies the drawings is clever and often hilarious. A terrific book to end the year on.
All 31 stories and essays from the Amnesty series in the Irish Times marking the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights are available online now at the 
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I’ll be teaching a creative writing course at the Irish Writers’ Centre in Dublin from mid-January. The course – Writing Short Stories – will take place every Monday evening over 10 weeks, beginning January 19th and is aimed at aspiring writers who already have some experience of writing stories and would welcome the opportunity to have their stories workshopped. It’s been a couple of years since I did any teaching so hopefully I won’t be too rusty…
My 7th novel, THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE, will be published in the UK on May 21st 2009.
Today’s Irish Times newspaper includes a supplement, FROM THE REPUBLIC OF CONSCIENCE, which reprints all 30 stories written by Irish writers over the course of ‘08 to mark the 60th anniversary of the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. This includes new work by, amongst others, Seamus Heaney, Joseph O’Connor, Claire Kilroy, Roddy Doyle, Colm Toibin, Jennifer Johnston, Maeve Binchy, Frank McCourt, Dermot Bolger, Anne Enright, Glenn Patterson, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, and myself.
My last day of work in Mexico included a visit to the University of Guadalajara to give a talk to the students about writing and my books. A hugely enthusiastic group of young people, there was a moment where it seemed as if I was going to be handed a guitar by one of the students after mentioning that I play, but fortunately for all that moment passed.
Many thanks to all the students there and the teachers for organising the event. Thanks too to everyone at the Book Fair for making my stay in Guadalajara so enjoyable. It’s been an interesting week with some surprising moments along the way – a man taking my photo in the toilet at the hotel bar; someone at the Q&A following a reading asking me whether or not I had taken drugs – but experiences like this are part of the great privelige of being a writer who gets to travel and meet readers. Plus I made some new writer friends as a small group gathered for drinks on Thursday night. And every one of them is to be valued.
interviews I’ve been doing in Guadalajara, some of them are available online:
