Sharply Critical

In this wide-ranging collection of essays and reviews, the novelist and short story writer Ellis Sharp analyses the work of novelists, poets, historians and film makers, including Ian McEwan, Paul Celan and David Lean. Topics covered include the hidden meanings of Jane Eyre, the problems involved in establishing Shakespeare’s identity and the reputations of Angela Carter, Douglas Haig and Orde Wingate. Sharp scrutinises in detail Ian McEwan’s response to the invasion of Iraq and the politics enshrined in his novel Saturday, as well as attitudes to Israel exemplified by critical responses to the novelists Aharon Appelfeld and Amos Oz. Other subjects covered include Rimbaud, Robert Mitchum, a favourite film of Stalin’s and Ann Quin’s final novel Trypticks. Sharp is sui generis. At times he comes across as if he were a compound hallucination dreamed up by Iain Sinclair, William Burroughs and … well, himself. This might sound like an unappealing mix but I am delighted to have read him. You can trust him because beneath the zaniness, at the level of the sentence, he is very good indeed. This is not magic realism. These are the bad dreams of the twentieth century. THE GUARDIAN