Oxygen, So Late in the Day and The Predicament

 

A very early Andrew Miller novel that was actually shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001. I have no idea why. There is hardly any story. Two brothers, Alec and Larry, and their terminally ill mother Alice. Larry (a washed-up actor from a soap that everyone remembers) travels home from America with his young daughter Ella, and there is one interesting part when Alice is allowed home after they arrive. The "perfume she sprayed as a kind of luxurious air freshener".

I did like the description of the boy's father, Stephen Valentine, 'living uninhibitedly as a drunkard" and £everything that it meant". And "brooding, drinking, dreaming up new enemies for himself, building his own elaborate hell". There are some alternating (but boring) chapters about an almost unconnected Hungarian playwright (I think that Alec is translating his latest effort) called Lazlo Laza, who is living comfortably in Paris. There is so much superfluous stuff that the critics probably liked. Of the other three books by this author that I have read, "Pure" was by far the best.

Probably the shortest book I have ever read. It is actually a short story of forty-five pages that could have been twenty if it were in normal typeface. Before it starts there is an extract from the Philip Larkin poem "Aubade". The whole poem is better than these three lines. But it's about someone contemplating death so far too morbid for me. The story is about Cathal and a failed relationship with Sabine that is distilled into these devastating sentences. Is the fact that he is not a nice person the reason? Maybe this episode will change him, or maybe not. Or does the author think that poem is how it will end?

We are in 1963 (and I'm just finishing sixth form), and here again is Gabriel Dax. We met him first in "Gabriel's Moon", which I thought was the writer-on-top form. Gabriel is now a double agent, which seems very tiring, given that he is trying to finish writing his book on Rivers. He has not only to listen to instructions from his boss, Faith Green, but also the Russian agents that seem to monitor his every move.

However, Gabriel is off to Guatemala (typical of the writer, exploring all these different countries). Apparently, the possible new leader will only talk to him. But things do not go to plan, and Gabrile is soon back home before leaving for Berlin. The story moves along at a decent pace; all the cities are very well described in their sixties setting. The book is entirely written from the view of Gabriel, the closest to the first person that you can get. In Berlin, it's all about a visit by President Kennedy (note 1963), and Gabriel is on the task force to make sure it all goes to plan. MI6 are on the trail of possible assassins, but they have all disappeared. Should we be worried?