Paul Johnson
Island Hotspots
Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder and the Cold War in the Caribbean
By Alex von Tunzelmann
Simon & Schuster 320pp £25 order from our bookshop
There is a famous passage in Jane Austen’s Persuasion in which Admiral Croft’s wife makes an important geographical point about the Caribbean area: ‘We do not call Bermuda or Bahama, you know, the West Indies.’ At this, ‘Mrs Musgrove had not a word to say in dissent; she could not accuse herself of having ever called them anything in the whole course of her life.’ Austen’s joke on the ignorance of the English about the Caribbean holds good today, though some have a confused notion of tropical islands derived from cruises. Americans used to know rather better, for Cuba was a holiday resort for millions of Americans of quite modest incomes. Since Castro took it over in 1959 they have shunned it, and now the Caribbean is just a blur for them too.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
‘"I feel", Lowell told Hardwick ... "as if I were pulled apart and thinning into mist, or rather being torn apart and still preferring that state to making a decision."'
Richard Davenport-Hines on the letters of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/yours-unfaithfully-2
'To me, Elmore Leonard is as comforting in extremity as Pym, and as safe, in the last resort, as Wodehouse. The guys with the best lines are going to come out the other side; the dumb fucks are going to get it in the head or chest.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-spoonful-of-elmore
'As we read, we know that in a short time the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and colour television will sweep that age over the balustrade and into the sea, but for now everyone is happy.'
Simon Baker is charmed by Graham Swift's new novel, 'Here We Are'.
http://ow.ly/uDL050ylh80