By the Books

I finished Books a little over a week ago, having put it off for a while following others' less than glowing reviews. Whilst I agree that it is something of a nothing book, I found it entertaining enough and certainly not a total disaster. OK, Powell seems to be winding down in this one, and really Pamela Widmerpool carries the show - who'd have thought there could be another a character as monsterous as her husband?!? Jenkins' delicate description of the incident with the Chinese urn following Erry's funeral was a total joy. X. Trapnel, on the other hand, I found to be an oddly sympathetic character - perhaps because he represents a combination of about half a dozen other people I have known at one stage or another. The kind of friend you almost pity, except in your heart you know that they bring all their misfortunes on themselves and rarely does it actually bother themselves as much as it does you.

Well, I'm more convinced than ever that taking a break between volumes is the way to proceed... perhaps not with the War trilogy, but by separating these final three I'm at least avoiding tarnishing Books with the same brush as Hearing Secret Harmonies. Let's be honest - we all wanted to like Books because possibly alongside Casanova's Chinese Restaurant, it has the best title of the series. So yah boo! to all you Winter dislikers. This one wasn't too bad really, and I intend to reserve judgement on Temporary Kings for myself.

Happy to concede that HSH is probably a bit rubbish though.