Andrew Blackman, literary fiction writer, traveller, book reviewer and essayist

Reading

Reading Roundup for October 2022

This month, I read a dense Serbian novel, an analysis of capitalism as a snake eating its own tail, and a couple of Elizabeth Strout's latest novels.

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 10: Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

What would a world with no objective reality look like? How about a language with no nouns? Jorge Luis Borges explores these ideas in a fascinating thought experiment.

Reading

Snow by John Banville: Review

I was surprised by Snow: it's very different from John Banville's usual style. There's some beautiful prose as usual, but in the end it's quite a formulaic detective novel.

Reading

Reading Roundup for September 2022

The month started with my favourite novel of the year and continued to produce excellent reads—read on for my recommendations.

Reading

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid: Book Review

What would happen if white people started turning brown, one by one? Mohsin Hamid explores the question in his latest novel.

Reading

August 2022 Reading Roundup

My reading in August was dominated by listening to six books by the same author on a long, long road trip across Europe.

Reading

Freedom and Death by Nikos Kazantzakis: Book Review

"Captain Wildboar was his apt nickname in Megalokastro. With his sudden rages, his deep, dark, round eyes, his short, stubborn neck and that jutting fang, the heavy, broad-boned man was…

Reading

The View From Belmont by Kevyn Alan Arthur

The View From Belmont raises interesting questions of race and gender amid the barbarousness of a slave-owning society. The dual narrative was a promising technique, but it didn't feel fully realised to me. I'd have liked more of 1990s Trinidad…

Reading

June 2022 Reading Roundup

A summary of the books I read last month, taking me from Barbados to rural Montana via London and Italy.

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 9: Et Cetera

This section in A Universal History of Iniquity includes several interesting fragments, some of which could provide the basis for interesting stories but are not really developed.

Reading

Book Review: Cambridge by Caryl Phillips

This dual narrative set in a 19th-century Caribbean island is an interesting exploration of a critical period, but the narratives feel unbalanced: we spend a lot of time immersed in…

Reading

May 2022 Reading Roundup

Here's what I read this month, from a novel set in Cyprus and partly narrated by a fig tree to an exploration of the importance of disorder in cities.

Reading

Man on Pink Corner: Borges Marathon, Part 8

In this story, Jorge Luis Borges takes us into the colourful world of knife fights and gangsters on the streets of old Buenos Aires. It's a compelling portrait and a…

Living

We Are All Connected

Musings on life and feeling good while living in an interconnected and deeply unfair world.

Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman