Philip Womack
Untying The Knot
Chick Lit is a much derided genre, yet its snazzily packaged offspring nestle comfortably at the top of the charts. People accuse these books of being tired and formulaic. But here is a new contender on the scene: Karina Mellinger works within and subverts that formula to depict the myriad nuances of marital breakdown, and achieves something well sculpted, sharply written and bitingly amusing.
The action is confined to a Saturday in the Denver-Barrettes’ (‘Barrette with an e’) six-bedroomed mansion on Cheyne Walk. Laura Denver-Barrette awakes next to her distinguished lawyer husband David (‘blah blah judicial review, blah blah Queen’s Bench writ’). Their marriage is the envy of London. Laura is eye-wideningly beautiful, David
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
'Two things prevent [this book] from collapsing under the weight of its own wayward ambition. Colin Jones, one of the finest living scholars of early modern France, is no ordinary historian. And the day in question, 27 July 1794, was no ordinary day'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/night-of-the-guillotine
The Anatomy of Melancholy 'has never quite become a widely recognised, bona fide "classic". For long stretches, the bulk of its readership has been restricted to bibliophiles and scholars. It has had an air of murkiness and desuetude'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/phantoms-of-the-mind
'Don’t think of Watergate as being about a break-in, but about what the break-in exposed: dirty ops, dirty tricks, dirty money.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/all-the-presidents-mendacity