Juxtabook

Juxtabook's versions of Famous for the Wrong Book

There's a very nice piece on The Guardian by John Self called Famous for the wrong book. It points out that many authors are famous for a book that is not necessarily their best. A key example being, "why has a title like Louis de Bernières' Captain Corelli's Mandolin risen to the top, overshadowing his much better earlier novels such as Senor Vivo & The Coca Lord ?" Something with which I would agree entirely.

I am tempted to get controversial right away by suggesting that Joyce's short story collection Dubliners is far better than anything else for which he is better known, but that might be my anti-modernist prejudices so let's not go there. Mrs Gaskell however is so very much more than Cranford - Wives and Daughters is my favourite though as she did not finish that maybe it does not count. North and South is superb too.

At the other end of the literary scale, fond though I am of Stephenie Meyer's sparkly vampires, The Host is a better book than any of the Twilight series. It is psychologically fascinating and deals with the problems caused by a society being too perfect, not Stepford Wives exactly, but lacking the anger and selfishness that makes the human world interesting. Where would fiction be without conflict? The Host would make a great holiday read.

The premise works with poetry too. Whilst Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" is great for a dramatic reading to a class of 15 year olds it is by no means her best work. I much prefer "Morning Song" (the one that begins "Love set you going like a fat gold watch".) Similarly Larkin's much quoted This Be the Verse is far from his best, though as I have a reputation to maintain as Larkin's most ardent disliker I daren't offer an opinion on what is his best. If anyone would like to recommend something really, really, really good by Larkin you could ruin my 20+ years loath-affair with his work, a loathing which has given me enormous pleasure. Disliking Joyce's best known works, by comparison, is quite boring!

It occurs to me that, as many of us are put off an author after reading the best known work, perhaps we could share some lesser known highlights from well known authors. For me Anita Brookner fell dismally with Hotel du Lac. Is this really her best or can you recommend something else? Similarly I've twice read The Ghost Road by Pat Barker trying to get the point. Is there a better Barker than her Regeneration triliogy? Any thoughts there? And which writers do you think suffer for being famous for the wrong book?

Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

I am new to Tom Rob Smith's Russian thrillers. The initial subject matter, the murder of children, had put me off but once I got past the opening scenes in Child 44, Smith's opener to this trilogy, I was hooked. The conundrum is how you investigate a crime when officially that crime cannot exist. In Soviet Russia such violence was something that might occur in the uncivilised west but not in the equitable USSR. The hero Leo is initially involved in the cover-up of a child's murder but as events crowd round him he moves on and discovers the unthinkable. His transformation from willing agent of the state to unofficial-detective-on-the-run is philosophically fascinating and without doubt is one of the most exciting books I've read. That was Child 44 but the book I am reviewing here is Agent 6, the last in the trilogy which came out last week.

Agent 6 is set some years after Child 44. Leo and his family live a settled life. Leo has put his morals before his career and as a result his wife, a teacher, is the one whose career has taken off. In the early chapters of the book something terrible happens to Leo that shapes the rest of the book. This is less of a page-turner than Child 44, it is more studied and less driven as we watch Leo almost anaesthetised by the shock. To find peace he must find Agent 6 and to find Agent 6 he will have to get to the USA. How's an ex-secret service officer to do that during the Cold War? Well, it takes him decades. The central section of the book is set during another European attempt to invade Afghanistan. The Russians in the 1980s found the local Afghan population very hard to subdue. Can Leo get out of Afghanistan to the west before the Russians or the Afghans kill him?

This central setting is the strength of the book. Afghanistan in the 1980s is nicely realised. The tensions for the locals between the demands of their religion and those of communism are effectively realised through Leo's side-kick, a junior officer being trained by Leo. In the end Leo must save them both before at last getting Agent 6 in his sights.

Agent 6 is about different kinds of totalitarianism, about fanaticism on all sides, and what the west turns a blind eye to in its dealing with non-democratic regimes. Stylistically it is very different to Child 44 and the style suits the subject. Leo is not the handsome career soldier he once was. He is older, slower, suffering from mental health problems, but experienced in the manoeuvrings of governments and secret service departments like a chess grandmaster. Agent 6 is not so much a thriller (and I think you might be disappointed if you read it as such) as an intricate game, a history lesson, philosophy in action.

Agent 6 is quiet but truly engaging where Child 44 merely excites. It is a more mature work with a more mature hero, and a very brave ending. I loved it.

An Awfully Big Blog Adventure Online Literary Festival

This weekend sees the third birthday of An Awfully Big Blog Adventure and to celebrate they're having a literary festival with a difference.

"July 9th and 10th will see us celebrating the third birthday of An Awfully Big Blog Adventure in a big way! We will be hosting the very first online literary festival organised entirely by children's authors."

They do have a good line-up and I am particularly looking forward to Lucy Coats and Adele Geras
 on the Saturday and Kath Langrish on the Sunday. You can see for yourself here. You can also follow comments on twitter using the #ABBAlitfest hashtag.

Round and About

Juxtabook is moonlighting over at the Faber blog on The Good of the Novel  (a collection of essays). There's debate from Elizabeth Baines and Paperback Reader too.

Book lovers may well be dismayed by the apparent purchase of The Book Depository by Amazon. Jane Badger has written two excellent blog posts on the subject which you can read here and here. The Bookseller reports that the OFT are inviting submissions about any competition or public interest issues and if you're concerned about the shrinking of competition you might like to comment.

lastly for lovers of children's books Peakirk Books have a 25% off code for you to use at the checkout on their own site. A good way to support an indie bookseller and have some summer reading for yourself, your children or your grandchildren. They also specialise in books on the poet John Clare.