What if you were diagnosed with incurable leukemia. What books would you read in the time you had left? That’s the question Clive James faces in what will be one of his last books, Latest Readings because that’s the situation he found himself in when diagnosed with the fatal disease in 2010. James, one of my favorite reviewers and literary critics, finds himself rereading some favorites–Conrad, Hemingway, Anthony Powell–yet finding new writers to get excited about, chiefly Olivia Manning’s two trilogies that I simply must read now (of course, they’ve be on my shelves for years). In his last days, Clive James pursues his life-long interests in World War II and Hollywood. These short essays are full of Clive James’s wit and graceful prose. James doesn’t give in to any sense of doom. He just goes on reading. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Hemingway in the Beginning
Revisiting Conrad
Novels in Sequence
Patrick O’Brian and His Salty Hero
War Leader
Sebald and the Battle in the Air
Phantom Flying Saucer
Under Western Eyes
Treasuring Osbert Lancaster
American Power
Kipling and the Widow-Maker
Speer in Spandau
Shakespeare and Johnson
Naipaul’s Nastiness
Movie Books
Women in Hollywood
Extra Shelves
Always Philip Larkin
Villa America
Angles on Hitler
Stephen Edgar, Australian Ace
John Howard Extends His Reign
Hemingway at the End
On Wit
Richard Wilbur’s Precept
When Creation is Perverse
Conrad’s Greatest Victory
Coda
On the last night of her life, my wife began re-reading JANE EYRE.
Dan, JANE EYRE was a fine choice.
If I had a dollar for every time I meant to start the Olivia Manning books I’d be rich as Patrick Kelley. I may have to read this to push me into starting them.
Jeff, my vacation is almost over so Olivia Manning’s books will have to wait until next summer (they are Big Fat Books). But Clive James’ rave review will motivate a lot of people to read them.
I have the Anthony Powell DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (12 volume) series in paperback for rereading Some Day. Back in 1975 I raced through the 11 books that were out then in three weeks.
Jeff, Clive James had a lot to say about Anthony Powell and his DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME series, most of it laudatory.
Apparently there was a British TV series. I put it on my Netflix queue.
Jeff, I have that Olivia Manning mini-series on DVD. I planned to read the books, then watch the mini-series. But, typically, I’ve done neither.
Oh Dan, what a poignant sentence!
I think it was Heidegger who said, “We buy books in the hope we’ll live long enough to read them.”
Deb, great quotation! I know when I acquire books (too many, perhaps) it’s my intention to read them all before I depart this existence. But the math is cruel: I doubt that I’ll read 10,000 books before my time is up. Yet, there they sit waiting patiently.
I’ve seen the Olivia Manning series. I meant A Dance to the Music Of Time, which was apparently broadcast in 1997.
Jeff, I’ve seen that A DANCE IN THE MUSIC OF TIME DVD box set but I don’t own it…yet.
I am so sad about Dan’s comment, I can’t go on.
Patti, my eyes got misty when I read Dan’s comment.