Category Archives: Literature

Book Review: A A Dhand ~ Streets of Darkness (2016)

Posted on January 20, 2020 by odeboyz

The ever popular maverick Detective Inspector genre attracts some of Britain’s best writers. I suppose they’re like bank robbers: they go where the money is. Dhand’s creation is the Sikh Harry Virdee, who’s married to a Muslim. His brother, Ronnie, … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Leslie Thomas ~ Virgin Soldiers (1966)

Posted on January 13, 2020 by odeboyz

Spike Milligan wrote his brilliant war autobiographies1 to considerable acclaim but he was building on this autobiographical novel by Leslie Thomas. Unlike Milligan Thomas took part in one of a series of grim colonial wars, which are now forgotten. The … Continue reading →

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Book review: Annie Duke ~ Thinking in Bets (2019)

Posted on January 6, 2020 by odeboyz

Gambling fascinates me and I like stories associated with gamblers. Kerry Packer is an endless source of pleasure for me. He was famously irritated by a braggart in a Las Vegas casino who wanted everyone to know he had a … Continue reading →

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What gambling really is

Posted on December 19, 2019 by odeboyz

…world-class poker players taught me to understand what a bet really is: a decision about an uncertain future. Duke, Annie. Thinking in Bets (p. 3). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Chris

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Book Review: John le Carre ~ Agent Running in the Field (2019)

Posted on December 16, 2019 by odeboyz

Do octogenarians write as well as they did in their pomp? On the evidence of this book they don’t they write differently. This novel is almost a satire. La Carre rails against western ‘values’, which he traduces as a mass … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Paul Theroux ~ O-Zone (1986)

Posted on November 21, 2019 by odeboyz

This book fizzes with ideas based around fear. The wealthy fear the poor and erect buildings which are fortresses inside sealed cities. Travel is by helicopter as ground level movement is hazardous as well as being slow from endless checkpoints. … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Garrison Keillor ~ Lake Woebegon Days (1985)

Posted on October 14, 2019 by odeboyz

Garrison is a radio star in the mid-West of the USA. His show is a slow conversational series of supposed memories. He speaks in a drawling and yet compelling voice and once hooked…. If you’ve heard his voice then the … Continue reading →

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Len Deighton on Etonians

Posted on October 10, 2019 by odeboyz

Eton, Oxbridge, Buddha class: sadistic, self-sufficient apparatchiks who controlled Whitehall by stealth, wealth and consanguinity and — no matter how friendly — inevitably closed ranks against intruders like me. Len Deighton. Hope (1995) (Kindle Locations 1945-1947). HarperCollins UK. Chris

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Book Review: Laurent Binet ~ The 7th Function of Language (translated Sam Taylor) (2018)

Posted on October 8, 2019 by odeboyz

Binet wrote the brilliant historical novel HHhH (2013) about the assassination of Heydrich in Prague in 1942. Naturally I bought this new book, without reading a review, and found myself engaging with a French intellectual. It was very bracing. The … Continue reading →

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Ten Golden Oldie books for Christmas, 2019

Posted on September 26, 2019 by odeboyz

Christmas is the book buying season with shelves full of celebrity cookbooks, autobiographies, star novelists and so on. They’re all sold at premium prices. Meanwhile there are millions of books which are superb and can be bought for a fraction … Continue reading →

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