E.M. Forster's The Longest Journey (1907) When I started reading The Longest Journey, I was reading Keith Oatley's novel, Therefore Choose, which also opens with a scene at Cambridge. He writes: "If one were to go back a hundred years, the clothing would no doubt be different but the young men would
Louise Doughty’s A Novel in a Year (2007) Pocket Books - Simon & Schuster 2008 Feeling indecisive about where to jump in with Louise Doughty's fiction (news about her appearance at the festival this year brought her work to my attention), I gravitated towards her one non-fiction book. If you're
Michael Winter's This All Happened: A Fictional Memoir House of Anansi, 2000 Gabriel English was also the protagonist of Michael Winter's short story collection One Last Good Look. I realized this after I had finished this novel and felt a little badly. As though I'd arrived significantly late for an
Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall's Ghosted Random House 2010 Reasons (Not necessarily good ones) that I didn’t expect to like Ghosted: 1. These words on the flyleaf: gangster, hotdogs, suicide, heroin-smoking, tragedies (bit redundant, eh); 2. Ray Robertson’s blurb beginning with “Lean and mean and...” (though ending “with a surprising amount of heart”);
William Kotzwinkle The Bear Went Over the Mountain Henry Holt, 1996 This one came my way via a recommendation from Corey Redekop when I was chattering about bookish fiction. At first I was really excited about it, but, when I got my copy and saw the blurb on the back
