War with the Newts, by Karel Čapek

A great writer of the past who speaks to the present in a voice brilliant, clear, honourable, blackly funny and prophetic. (Kurt Vonnegut)

My thoughts (hastily scribbled on a postcard):

A fascinating tale, wittily and well told. One feels part of the new history being created, what with all the newspapers and so on. The satire is immaculate. A thoroughly good read.

The Land of Green Plums, by Herta Müller

A novel of graphically observed detail in which the author seeks to create a sort of poetry out of the spiritual and material ugliness of life in Communist Romania. (New York Book Review)

My thoughts (hastily scribbled on a postcard):

A good book. Beautifully orchestrated. It should be read again, I think, in order to appreciate its symbols… But what I find interesting is that in the end it seems so easy to emigrate, and the guards can do nothing about it. So why didn't they emigrate before? But that's part of the point, I suppose.

Children of Darkness and Light, by Nicholas Mosley

In Children of Darkness and Light, Mosley's fiction reaches a stunning, final maturity that raises the game of the novel itself. (Independent on Sunday)

My thoughts (hastily scribbled on a postcard):

A strange book - one that demands a second reading. Perhaps it says too much, perhaps too little - the overall message seems much the same as Hopeful Monsters, only less developed. And more confusing - I’m not quite sure what happened in the end.

The Cement Garden, by Ian McEwan

A disturbing book, beautiful but bothersome, full of raw animal instinct and passion. (Boston Globe)

My thoughts (hastily scribbled on a postcard):

An enigmatic book. The author seems to stand back and take Wilde’s advice, that art should reflect the audience and not the artist… Does it pass judgements on the events within, such as incest? I don’t think so: one thing seems naturally to lead to another. But do we end up with the reasonableness of, say, incest, or the corruption of reason which leads to it seeming natural?

Or is it about me, who just can't make up his mind?