“Mania feels mechanical and, worse, predictable. It stretches its points: if you want to read a satire about the inanity of believing everyone is equal, Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Harrison Bergeron’ gets it done in seven pages.”

Me on Lionel Shriver’s latest:

telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-…

Gorging on eggs I missed this typically sharp review by John Self spot-on abt Headshot/Rita Bullwinkel It MUST win debut fiction prizes. HT Marigold Atkey Paul Martinovic
theguardian.com/books/2024/mar… on The Guardian

“Mania feels mechanical and, worse, predictable. It stretches its points: if you want to read a satire about the inanity of believing everyone is equal, Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Harrison Bergeron’ gets it done in seven pages.”

Me on Lionel Shriver’s latest:

telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-…

If you're looking to get nostalgic about how other lit cultures still believe in reviews and criticism in a way we don't (and never did):
German publisher wants to sell a novel. Does it mention the Booker shortlisting in its online ad? Puh! All you need is John Self's quote.

“This is not a ‘feelgood’ book, but it did make me feel good—feel joy, in fact, at its pursuit of its vision, at its grownup complexity and at the way Deidre is such a perfectly realised fictional creation.”

Me on Karen Jennings’s brilliant CROOKED SEEDS

theguardian.com/books/2024/apr…

“This is not a ‘feelgood’ book, but it did make me feel good—feel joy, in fact, at its pursuit of its vision, at its grownup complexity and at the way Deidre is such a perfectly realised fictional creation.”

Me on Karen Jennings’s brilliant CROOKED SEEDS

theguardian.com/books/2024/apr…

This is a stunning roundup of translated fiction. Huge thanks to John Self for his words on THE TIME OF CHERRIES by Monsterrat Roig (tr Julia Sanches).
🍒'Jubilant – fitting, given that the title means “the springtime of joy”'.🍒
theguardian.com/books/2024/mar…

'When every single scene hits a significant note the book feels cramped, and it reminded me of Victoria Wood’s observation that scripts can contain too many jokes as well as too few.'

Me on Andrew O'Hagan's bonfire of the 2020s, Caledonian Road:

thetimes.co.uk/article/caledo…

A Catalan novel that opens with Harold Wilson and ends with a Tupperware party; tales of sentient lifts and cannibalism; holidays spent shaking hazelnuts from trees; and more.

My latest round-up of translated fiction:

theguardian.com/books/2024/mar…

'What a pleasure it is to find a novel that’s unlike anything else out there, that succeeds on its own idiosyncratic terms and leaves the reader’s head ringing.' John Self brilliant words on Rita Bullwinkell's HEADSHOT.
Thank you.
theguardian.com/books/2024/mar…

Sebastian Barry and Emma Donoghue shortlisted for €100,000 Dublin Literary Award 2024. Unusually varied list also includes Jonathan Escoffery’s debut, If I Survive You, writes ⁦John Self⁩

irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

John Self Bookalikes

'If the end felt a bit too sudden to me, that’s because I would have been happy to keep reading for ever.'

I loved Alba Arikha's TWO HOURS, a novel of scope and precision that 'doesn’t do much new in terms of plot, but does it exceptionally well.'

theguardian.com/books/2024/mar…

Delighted that Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of This Book has won the 2024 Wingate Literary Prize:

wingate.org.uk/literary-prize…

'If the end felt a bit too sudden to me, that’s because I would have been happy to keep reading for ever.'

I loved Alba Arikha's TWO HOURS, a novel of scope and precision that 'doesn’t do much new in terms of plot, but does it exceptionally well.'

theguardian.com/books/2024/mar…

Gabriel Gárcia Márquez is not the first writer to be ‘betrayed’ in death. The list of literary treachery is long. Many authors have been published despite their last wishes. The Colombian novelist has become the latest, writes ⁦John Self⁩

irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

“I read the exceptionally moving last 40 pages rapt, emotionally drained, repeatedly putting down the book to settle myself.”

I reread Lolita and was relieved to find it still a flat-out masterpiece:
thetimes.co.uk/article/379129…

“I read the exceptionally moving last 40 pages rapt, emotionally drained, repeatedly putting down the book to settle myself.”

I reread Lolita and was relieved to find it still a flat-out masterpiece:
thetimes.co.uk/article/379129…