September reads

Jonathon: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman—Is this a story about witches? I think it’s a story about witches… Or perhaps just beings from some primordial moment of creation, tearing and suturing reality as they go. Well, it’s really about belonging and finding your place in the world… being a child, becoming an adult, looking back at being a child… or of discovering that the way that you see the world isn’t necessarily the way that others do. And a wormy thing in a kid’s foot. It’s about that too.

James: Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith—is full of the things that I love about Zadie Smith. Compassion, cleverness, and a wry sense of humour about the idiosyncrasies of modern life. As she turns her pen to the pandemic, her sly wit oscillates between suggesting that ‘there is no great difference between writing a novel and [baking] banana bread’, and reminding us of what we all need to hear right now; There is no substitute for love. I can’t recommend it enough for turbulent times.

Stef: One of the best things about reading is how a whole new world can be opened up to your imagination—and this is exactly what Polly Samson has done in her novel A Theatre for Dreamers. She is like a magician conjuring up the Greek island of Hydra before your eyes—along with its inhabitants, Charmian Clift and George Johnston, a young Leonard Cohen and his muse Marianne, along with a cohort of bohemian writers and poets and artists all there to make their mark and create the work that will bring them fame and fortune. Erica, deep in grief after the death of her mother, comes to Hydra in the hope that her mother’s old friend Charmian can help her find the answers to her mother’s past. Erica, her boyfriend Jimmy and brother Bobby step into the heady and intoxicating world of Charmian, full of writers, lovers, booze and drugs—and as summer moves into winter relationships unravel and friendships are tested. This is a gloriously evocative read and has whetted my appetite to learn more of the life of Charmian Clift.