From the Editor: Tuesday 4th April

What books have you enjoyed recently? I’m trying something different at the moment in reading two books at the same time, for two reasons. Firstly, I’m considering joining a book club so need to read The Green Road before the meeting.

The second reason is that the other book I’m reading is Infinite Jest, which is far and away the longest book I have ever embarked upon. Bleak House is probably second place in my tome experience, but Infinite Jest is something else: coming in at approximately 200,000 more words on 900+ thinly-margined pages of tiny font, plus about 150 pages of footnotes.

A dip into something more accessible time-wise is therefore welcome, although I’m worried I won’t be able to hold all the information if I divide my attention too widely.

Had I seen Infinite Jest before getting it I might have felt too daunted, but I’m glad I’ve dived in now. It’s a bewitching book, switching between a huge cast of characters with precious little hand holding, and some of the vignettes have been a startling and refreshing mix of humour, melancholy and absurdity. The book is written in wildly different styles, ranging from the esoteric eloquence of Nabokov, to Irvine Welsh-type phonetic head wrangling or the parlance of like, American teens. One small section of only six pages solely devoted to a drug addict in dire straits was a particularly vivid, entertaining passage for example.

I thought I’d ask you for book recommendations, since they are often shared personally in my experience as opposed to other art forms I’m used to hearing more about in magazines, online, TV and the radio etc. I’m a fan of Nabokov, Chabon, Franzen, Salinger, Tartt, Austen, Rowling and many more so if you have any recommendations for me (or would like some!) then send me an email.

Joe Fuller
editorial@thelatest.co.uk