Toby Lichtig
The Boy Is Back In Town
From Ancient Greece to Mills & Boon, the turbulent return of the love child has been a fertile literary motif. In Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy, Spurio cuckolds his father and eventually contributes to his murder; in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, the king's bastard son Mordred foments a civil war. The afterlife of past dalliances may not be as ruinous in Jonathan Buckley's new novel, but it is no less gratifying for it.
Contact tells a deceptively simple story. Dominic Pattinson, a successful businessman in his late fifties, married but childless, is approached by Sam, who claims to be his son. Sam is a labourer and ex-squaddie,
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
'The trouble seems to be that we are not asked to read this author, reading being a thing of the past. We are asked to decode him.'
From the archive, Derek Mahon peruses the early short fiction of Thomas Pynchon.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/rock-n-roll-is-here-to-stay
'There are at least two dozen members of the House of Commons today whose names I cannot read without laughing because I know what poseurs and place-seekers they are.'
From the archive, Christopher Hitchens on the Oxford Union.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mother-of-unions
Chuffed to be on the Curiosity Pill 2020 round-up for my @Lit_Review piece on swimming, which I cannot wait to get back to after 10+ months away https://literaryreview.co.uk/different-strokes https://twitter.com/RNGCrit/status/1351922254687383553