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

Reading

Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos

When I moved to New York City as a 22-year-old, I immediately loved the chaotic, frenetic energy of the place. I’d grown up in London, another big city, but this was something else. Manhattan seemed like a place where it…

Reading

November 2022 Reading Roundup

It was an all-fiction month for me in November, involving a 17-year-old sex worker in the US, a novelist seeing her stolen manuscript come to life, a young woman fleeing…

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 11: The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim

Only Borges could get away with writing a book review of a book that doesn't exist.

Thinking

It’s Just a Few Bad Apples

Welcome to another of my occasional rants about the use and misuse of the English language. Previous entries have included people who talk about their bandwidth and the irritating habit…

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…

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.

Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman