Showing posts with label Bret Easton Ellis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bret Easton Ellis. Show all posts

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Where to start with Martin Amis: The style, satire and the savage beauty of language


With writers you grew up reading, their departure leaves a space in your life that is as close to an ache as books and literature can get. That’s how I feel about Martin Amis.

Amis, who died in 2023 at the age of 73 from cancer, was one of Britain’s most distinctive and dazzling literary voices. The son of Kingsley Amis, author of Lucky Jim, he forged his own reputation as a bold stylist and razor-sharp satirist, chronicling the absurdities and moral disintegration of late 20th-century life with wit, intellect and a signature swagger.

Thursday, 12 June 2025

From Sylvia Plath to The Smiths: The ultimate bookish playlist


If you're like me, and you love books and music, you probably get the same unique thrill in hearing a favourite book or author woven into a song lyric. It's like a secret handshake between readers and musicians. Whether it’s a simple name-drop or a full-on homage, these songs remind us that the worlds of music and literature are always in conversation. 

Here are twenty-two songs that celebrate books and writers, featuring artists such as Kate Bush, Vampire Weekend, Nirvana, Radiohead, the Smiths, and Black Star.

Sunday, 1 June 2025

The BookTok Effect: Why is The Secret History still so popular?

One of the most talked-about books on TikTok is Donna Tartt's The Secret History. More than 30 years after its publication, it remains a novel that continues to attract readers and spark debate. Not to mention attracting a new generation of readers. 

It’s a campus novel, a murder mystery, a character study, and a cult classic all in one — and it’s particularly resonant for a generation obsessed with aesthetics, identity, and the allure of darkness.

So what makes The Secret History so enduring?

Thursday, 15 May 2025

Whatever happened to Douglas Coupland?


Douglas Coupland’s novel Generation X didn’t just name a demographic—it captured a mindset. His fiction defined the detached, drifting, hyper-aware sensibility of 1990s youth culture. Generation X was also published 34 years ago. 

He gave us slackers before they were memeable, office ennui before The Office, and a sense that we were all increasingly plugged in and alienated. 

He was prolific for many years, publishing thirteen novels between 1991 and 2013—six of them in his first ten years.

But it’s now been more than a decade since his last novel, Worst. Person. Ever. It was published in 2013. So… what happened?

Thursday, 1 May 2025

Why you should read Joan Didion: five unforgettable quotes and the best books to start with


Joan Didion didn’t just write essays and novels, she rewired what prose could do. Her work is surgically precise and emotionally raw, offering a style that has inspired generations of writers and captivated readers for over half a century. 

She helped shape the New Journalism movement in the 1960s, bringing a personal, literary sensibility to reportage. She created some of the most arresting portraits of American life in the second half of the twentieth century.

Wednesday, 12 March 2025

The art of the campus novel – what makes them work, and which are the best?

The rules of Attraction by Brett Easton Ellis, The secret HIstory by Donna Tartt, Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, The art of Fielding by  Chad Harbach are all examples of campus novels included in this list of 12 of the best campus novels.

Writing about Donna Tartt last week and The Secret History got me thinking about the campus novel.  

I’ve always been fascinated by this sub-literary genre, from what makes it work to why it continues to captivate readers and how it manages to be both intensely specific and universally resonant. 

The best campus novels transport us to a world of intellectual ambition, youthful recklessness, and, often, profound disillusionment. They capture a moment in life where identity, relationships, and ambition collide.

But what exactly makes a great campus novel, and which books best define the ever-growing genre? 

Thursday, 6 March 2025

A guide to reading Joan Didion – the five books you should start with

Joan Didion on May 1, 1977. Her 1993 New Yorker essay “Trouble in Lakewood” still resonates.

I’m a big fan of Joan Didion. I’ve read most of her published works, with her novel Play It As It Lays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, and The Year of Magical Thinking among my favourites. What I’ve always appreciated about her writing is the precision and emotional depth she brings to her words. Few others come close. She possessed an unmatched ability to distil complex emotions and cultural shifts into sentences that feel both effortless and weighty.

Joan Didion's writing is a masterclass in precision and insight. Her distinctive style, marked by pared-down, rigorous prose, captured the nuances of American life and personal introspection. As a leading figure in the New Journalism movement of the 1960s, Didion's work blended literary flair with journalistic integrity, offering readers a profound lens through which to view the world.

Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Whatever happened to Donna Tartt?


I found a box of books in the attic yesterday, and a signed copy of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch was buried there. I added it to the bookshelf alongside a signed copy of The Little Friend.

I’m a massive fan of Donna Tartt, particularly (like many people) The Secret History, which I wrote about recently. It got me thinking—whatever happened to Donna Tartt?

It has been more than a decade since Tartt published her last novel, The Goldfinch (2013), which won the Pulitzer Prize and cemented her status as one of the most celebrated literary figures of our time. But since then? Silence.

Tartt has never been a prolific writer. She famously takes a decade (or more) between books, crafting intricate, deeply atmospheric novels that become instant modern classics. The Secret History (1992) and The Little Friend (2002) were each published with long gaps in between, setting a pattern of meticulous, slow-burn literary output. But now, more than ten years have passed since The Goldfinch, and there’s no official word on what comes next.

So, where is Donna Tartt? And why is the wait for her next novel taking even longer this time?

Thursday, 31 October 2024

The new bookshelves are finished


It’s taken a long time, but finally, books are out of the loft and up on the new bookshelves. Reading chair also very comfy.

It makes me very happy to have these bookshelves. I now need to start organising my bookshelves into an actual system.