Matt Thorne
Surf, Sport, and Auto-Asphyxiation
Tim Winton’s new novel begins as an exercise in macho lyricism. His narrator, Bruce Pike, isn’t much of a talker and likes books that deal not with human interaction but with ‘plants and the formation of ice and the business of world wars’. When Pike and his best friend Loonie meet an older man named Sando, the latter’s own library gives another clue to the nature of this novel: Jack London, Conrad, Melville, Hans Hass, Cousteau, Lao tzu, Carlos Castaneda.
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
For #InternationalTranslationDay, a poem from @Lit_Review earlier in the year.
This 'jaunty narrative raises fundamental questions about the role of popular history. Should this just be a matter of telling tales, as the general public often seems to think?'
@DrLRoach weighs up Charles Spencer's account of the White Ship Disaster.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/wholl-take-the-helm
'Amis clearly belongs to the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do school of pedagogy. More or less everything he says is demonstrably contradicted by elements of his own work, be they here or elsewhere.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/never-without-a-hitch