Malibu Rising, Silverview and The Only Problem

This was my third book by this author and I thought the least convincing. Taylor Jenkins Reid has her tongue crushed against her cheek as the characters become less and less believable. So I read it in the same way, utterly preposterous enjoyment. Everyone seems to be the best at what they do, flawed but amazing. We do get to know the surfing Riva family as the book concentrates on their relationships with each other and their "friends". You can just feel the warmth of the sun and the pitch of the waves.

A typically fabulous plot from the last book from John Le Carre. Wonderful characters and clever prose "He followed her up the steps and with a sense of trespass entered the cavernous hall of a house that, in the language of estate agents, had long been awaiting modernisation". In the Afterword, the author's son, Nick Cornwell, describes how it came to be published after Le Carre died. He says "Silverview" does something no other Le Carre novel ever has. It shows a (secret) service fragmented: filled with it's own political factions etc etc". Nick's few pages does real justice to his father. Thanks Nick. I now have no more of his books to read, so some time will have to start again.

How can a story so trivial be so riveting. This is the class of Muriel Spark. I just could not understand the main character, wealthy Harvey Gotham, leaving his beautiful wife Effie for a run down cottage in France to study The Book Of Job. Then he is in a quandary when Effie's almost attractive sister Ruth turns up with Effie's baby. She has left her husband Edward, an actor who has recently left his religious calling.

I wasn't thrilled by all this Book Of Job stuff, others who are familiar with it will probably find it an intellectual delight. But for me it's the simple yet formidable prose that I love. And the story that in the second half takes an almost surreal turn of events. The penultimate part is crammed full of fast and furious dialogue with the French police that is a wonder. There is the trademark wit and moral conundrums that define these short novels. Brilliant. Just don't start me on Job.