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James Meek's latest, We Are Now Beginning Our Descent (Canongate), was the most reviewed on the national newspapers' literary pages last weekend (8th to 10th February), capitalising on the success of his previous title, the Man Booker-longlisted The People's Act of Love.
The critics made much of the author drawing on his own experiences as a foreign correspondent, with the http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/... target="_blank">Sunday Times's Andrew Holgate remarking that the book was "steeped in self-referential detail".
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/313ed3fa-d397-11dc-b861-0000779fd2ac.html" target="_blank">Toby Litt, reviewing in the Financial Times, wrote: "To say that We Are Now Beginning Our Descent is a journalist’s novel is to understate the case." He added that the book impressively depicted the life of a war journalist--it "nails this kind of embedded disconnection absolutely". Matt Thorne, in the Sunday Telegraph, noted that "this may make this book seem like something of a cheat, but it has an originality and honesty which undercuts the self-regard".
On Meek's writing style, the critics’ opinions diverged. Litt thought it was "a little stylistically uneven; but when it is good, which is most of the time, it is extremely good"; http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2254720,00.html" target="_blank">James Buchan in the Guardian remarked that it "is full of sentences whose sole purpose is to keep the narrative strands apart. These journeyman sentences make a contrast with the book’s sophisticated intention"; and Holgate believed the novel "comes unstuck" when Meek moves away from his skills of delineating the provisional life of a correspondent. He also found characterisation and plot lacking.
Thorne, however, concluded: "Meek's ability to write about such a range of subjects, and to capture the egotism of journalists and authors, is admirable, and while it's hard to feel anything other than distaste for [the main character], he is one of the more intriguing anti-heroes of recent fiction."
Most reviewed (8th - 10th February)
We Are Now Beginning Our Descent by James Meek
(Canongate 9781841959887 £16.99)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/313ed3fa-d397-11dc-b861-0000779fd2ac.html" target="_blank">"The journalist’s dream novel" Financial Times
"Compelling" Sunday Telegraph
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2254720,00.html" target="_blank">"The problem [with the narrative] is redundancy" Guardian
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/... target="_blank">"Meek is not particularly adept at characterisation" Sunday Times
Negro With a Hat by Colin Grant
(Cape 9780224078689 £20)
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2254705,00.html" target="_blank">"Grant writes with an elegance leavened by wit and cynicism that makes this book eminently readable" Guardian
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/negro-with... target="_blank">"Engrossing" Independent on Sunday
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/02/11/bogra111... target="_blank">"Scholarly, well-written account of one of the most bizarre and misunderstood figures in 20th-century history" Sunday Telegraph
Cold in Hand by John Harvey
(Heinemann 9780434016945 £12.99)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8cdf5ac0-d399-11dc-b861-0000779fd2ac.html" target="_blank">"Powerful, uncompromising, perhaps brave" Financial Times
"First-class" Mail on Sunday
Flat Earth News by Nick Davies
(Chatto 9780701181451 £17.99)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/02/10/bodav110... target="_blank">"Meticulous, fair-minded and utterly gripping" Daily Telegraph
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2254706,00.html" target="_blank">"Vibrant tirade against the sins of modern journalism" Guardian
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/... target="_blank">"Mostly indispensable book" Times