Berta Isla - Javier Marias

  

Javier Marías is one of those authors who can get away with pretty much anything and, despite what most critics seem to think, I found Berta Isla to be quite a self-induldgent project. 

Marías remains - regardless of him pump and ego - one of the best writers in the world (one doesn't just lose talent after all!), but I found this novel to be, well, uninteresting. I can do with unlikeable and/or unrelatable characters. I mean, after all some of my favourite books are full of unlikeable and unrelatable characters. 

Then again, had I not just finished John Banville's The Untouchable, I would have probably had a lot ore time for Berta Isla.

Every Man for Himself - Beryl Bainbridge

  

This was a book I got in my last Fopp run, a couple of years ago at this point. Prices had gone up a wee bit (it was then 2 books for £7), but most of all I think by then I had read all the books that had been remaindered in the UK. Perhaps I should go back and check if the stock has changed much in recent times. 

I am yet to read a Bainbridge novel that I didn't like; though I've probably written that before. This felt like a slightly longer read than most, and the setting (the sitting Titanic) definitely felt different from most of her other novels. 

After reading it I mentioned it to someone who loves all things Titanic and proceeded to sneer at novels on the topic as the real story is itself so fascinating. Needless to say, I disagree. Not so much in post-modern terms (what's a real story?), but mostly because this is a good book, full stop.