How many good (and at times great) novels has Beryl
Bainbridge managed to write? I don’t know, but surely enough to force me to
remove some of my favourites from my bookshelf because I can’t have ten books
by her if I’m just allowing myself the space of an IKEA Billy for my books.
Injury Time to me
ranks among her very finest works. It is different from most of her other works
in that the arrival of the criminals in the second half is a plot twist that
the reader doesn’t see coming, and Bainbridge’s humour flows freely without
ominously bleak premonitions.
As usual, all the characters are troubled no matter how
normal their lives look, and as usual the book develops perfectly over just
over 200 pages (has she ever written anything of a different length?). And, as
usual, it makes me wonder how she never won the Booker prize despite being
shortlisted five times.
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