Product Description
With brilliant wit, idiosyncratic intelligence, and a bold grasp of intricate political realities, the celebrated author of Flaubert's Parrot turns his satiric glance homeward to England, in a sparkling collection of essays that illustrates the infinite variety of contemporary London life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Brilliant, though slightly dated by now.
Julian Barnes was London correspondent forThe New Yorkerfrom 1989 to 1994. This book is a collection of columns written during that period.

And it's terrific. Barnes is extraordinarily smart and unfathomably erudite, qualities which - oddly enough - don't always serve him well in his fiction (he can't help showing off, which distracts the reader and detracts from the writing). But in a collection of reportage pieces like this one, his intelligence and breadth of knowledge add to the quality of the essays.

He is also hilarious. This list of sub-entries under the index entry for "clothes" gives an indication of how funny he is -

Queen's jodhpurs
shabbiness of MPs
reduced shabbiness of MPs
Nonna Longden's knickers
tantric influence on Mrs Thatcher's wardrobe
John major's grey suits
John Major's underpants
Glenda Jackson's wardrobe
positive smartness of Labour MPs
badnews cufflinks
Queen's clothing allowance
coat-folding at Buckingham palace
more badnews cufflinks
regal aspect of Mrs Thatcher's frocks
incineration of Chanel dresses
Queen's fuchsia ensemble
British underwear
Tony Blair's jacket
Pirie knot for bow ties

The list of sub-entries under the index entry for "Margaret Thatcher" is also side-splittingly funny, but too long to include in this review, alas.

Though the material is slightly dated by now, the brilliance of the writing still makes this book worth reading.

Clever, neat, articulate, dated
A primary limitation with most journalism - even writing of the highest quality, is an inbuilt transience. These are Julian Barnes's Letters from London 1990-1995, written for the New Yorker magazine. Certainly they reflect Barnes's obvious talents as an astute and witty essayist, political commentator and shrewd social observer. There are enough jokes here and apposite observations of various aspects of British life during this era to enlighten and entertain. But I can't quite picture who exactly would want to purchase such a collection of journalism now, ten years after Barnes finished his phase as the New Yorker's London correspondent. The essays cover themes such as Margaret Thatcher's resignation, the early years of the Fatwa imposed by the Iranian Government on Salman Rushdie in 1989, the televising of the House of Commons and a 1993 World Championship Chess match between Nigel Short and Gary Kasparov. Most of these issues are now not only finished but sufficient time has now elapsed that the roller of history has imprinted them firmly into the ground. In other words, they are dead. So who would be interested in reading essays written contemporaneously with the events they cover? - avid Julian Barnes fans? Hobbyists of social history? People who merely hold a wistful nostalgia for British public life during those years? Julian Barnes continues to write intelligent and perceptive journalism on current events these days, so unless you are particularly interested in reviewing the views of a liberal left winger of a curiously transitional stage of British politics (fittingly, the book starts with an essay on Thatcher and ends with one on Blair), I would recommend reading either Julian Barnes's novels or his more recent essays.

Seemed like a decent chap at the time
But it is hard to take Barnes' outrage about the fatwa against his friend Salman Rushdie seriously when you know the dreadful leftwing bilge he spouted about George Bush and Tony Blair before the liberation of Iraq ("not worth a single child's finger," he said, conveniently ignoring that children and their fingers were always in considerably more danger from the regime than from bombs).Barnes is another dedicated follower of political fashion who can express solidarity with another trendy writer of his class, but can't conjure up sympathy for ordinary Iraqis if it would mean, oh horrors, letting brute America use its military to save them.

Blithe & Cheeky
Julian Barnes is never cowed by the seeming smallness of subject; he turns it into a tiny gem. Conversely, he is willing to go all sails unfurled into vast global matters.There is a great deal more politics in the collection than I expected.Mr. Barnes must be former Prime Minister Thatcher's bête noir for he ever so elegantly lacerates her at every turn.However, since the political letters are highly topical and they were written between 1991 and 1994, it is a bit like reading yesterday's newspaper.

He fares much better when musing over a small happenings or events.Somehow he sparks our interest and amusement in such unlikely subjects as Building Mazes or the First World Championship Chess Match Held in Great Britain.I think he is at his best and wittiest when discussing traits of his fellow Englishmen.In his letter "Froggy, Froggy" talking about the lack of understanding between the average Brit and the French cast of mind:"The bickering legacy of history is exacerbated on the British side by the poverty of geography.Britain has only France as its obvious neighbor, while France may divert itself with three other major cultures-Spain, Italy, and Germany.Beyond France's southern shore lies Africa; beyond Britain's northern shore lie the Faeroe Islands and many seals.Small wonder, then, that we think about the French much more than they think about us.The British are obsessed by the French, whereas the French are only intrigued by the British."

"Letters From London" can be enjoyed in small parcels, a letter at a time or read straight through.Highly pleasurable for anyone who is even a minoranglophile.

Not Like Any Letters I have Read
This collection of "letters" by Mr. Julian Barnes, are actually a collection of articles that he wrote during his 5 years as the London Correspondent for The New Yorker Magazine. His predecessor held the position for over half a Century. However if judged by the quality of this collection of work, tenure is in no way related to talent. A book's preface is rarely mentioned as a great piece of writing. This preface is, and that's before the true collection begins.

If you have never read a work by Mr. Barnes, this would be a great place to begin. I have read almost all of his work, and this series of articles or short stories are really tremendous. I don't know how writers feel about the topic, but it would seem to be more difficult to be constrained by actual events, than having the ability to let their imaginations fill their books. Mr. Barnes takes some topics that are truly mundane on the surface, and transforms them into extremely clever pieces.

One of the comments on the jacket commented the table of contents alone justified the price of the book. A bit of hyperbole perhaps, but they are clever and more often than not lead to subjects that are very distant from what a first glance may suggest. "MPTV" gives his take on how one of the older operating institutions of Democracy is changed when cameras put the MP'S on public display. "Britannia's New Bra Size" has nothing to do with undergarments, but is full of his unique wit on the peculiarities of British Bureaucracy and the imaginative ways it consumes years.

His pen strays From England to France, The United States, and the Nation's Leaders. He is even handed with his crisp wit, but he never sinks to levels lower than his subjects have generally sunk before him.

I also enjoy the writing and humor of Christopher Buckley. If you do as well you will enjoy Mr. Barnes. He is certainly a British Practitioner of the art of satire, and while I never have heard a satisfactory explanation of what "British Humor" is, this man excels at it. ... Read more

Product Description
Literature often reflects societal change, but it can also effect change by inspiring people to think in new ways. Four authors who encourage readers to question traditional boundaries are Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Jeanette Winterson and Angela Carter. This book takes an in-depth look at the works of these authors with specific emphasis on how they challenge fundamental ideas about religion and its intersections with history, politics, gender and sexuality.

The study notes both differences and similarities among the four authors, whose writings broadly represent the major themes in contemporary British literature. Divided into two primary sections, the volume first takes a look at Rushdie and Barnes and their stance regarding historical and political issues. The second section concentrates on gender and sexuality in the writings of Winterson and Carter. Among the works examined are Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and Midnight’s Children; Barnes’ Flaubert’s Parrot and A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters; Winterson’s Boating for Beginners and Written on the Body; and Carter’s The Passion of New Eve and Heroes and Villains. The final chapter includes a brief survey of other significant figures in postmodern British literature, including Ian McEwan, Fay Weldon and Emma Tennant. ... Read more

Product Description
The story of the title deals with a little boy named Larry and his feelings towards his father. When his father returns home from World War II, Larry is resentful and jealous of losing his mother's undivided attention, and finds himself in a constant struggle to win back her affections. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

World War 2?!
If indeed Mr O'Connor had written the title story (as the product description above states) about his experience with his mother during his father's absence in World War 2, we would be dealing with a spectacular oedipal complex. Since it was in fact a description of the time when his ftaher was away fighting in the Great War (WW1), we are only dealing with a spectacular story, written with elegance and restrained hilarity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Heart of Darkness
You come upon pure evil between book covers as rarely as in real life. This is one such case. In this novel, the writer presents the proposition that the the true villains of the Liberation of 1989 were the dissidents, the true heroes the communists. That's right--Havel and Walensa are fiends, Ceaucescu, Andropov, and the rest giants. Imagine a serious literary figure publishing a book praising Hitler in say, 1950, and you've got the picture. That no such novel was ever published reveals how far the intellectual has deteriorated in our time.

I'm glad I read this book, since it provides a facet of the Depths not to be found in Celine or Burroughs. But I would recommend it to no one.

Witty but scary look at show trial phenomena
If theatre, politics, philosophy are an interest then this short novel will appeal to you.Trials can be fascinating theatre and the purpose ofpolitical show trials is partly to provide some relief or satisfaction for the suffering public out for revenge.Mr Barnes is outstanding at getting inside the heads of the protagonists, and some of the funniest moments are the monologues of the accused Petkanov.But he also provides witty asides into fashion, folklore, and history.A great read.

Mirror Image Show Trials
The elaborately choreographed show trials of Stalin are as well known, as they are infamous. There are few examples in History when one, malformed creature, both mentally and physically, could rule as a dictator for so long, and without challenge. Even Kirov cannot be considered more than a potential challenge, as the murdered do not compete. The number, who rules a Country that they were not born to, narrows the numbers further. Hitler did come from Austria, but in any measure of terror, killing, and longevity, he is not even close to Stalin.

In, "The Porcupine", by Julian Barnes, it is the tyrant that is on trial, not Stalin, for the country of this Dictator's origin is never mentioned. Much historical detail is used, and the quandary the Prosecution faces would have been the same if Stalin had ever been tried. Some of the circumstances that span from the beginning to the end of the book, in a manner of speaking, can be witnessed today. What was "The Evil Empire" when viewed from here, is a way of governed life that would still be welcomed back by large portions of not just Russia, but members of the former union as well. Life may not have been ideal, but if "the two words" have not made them better, why not go back?

Who charges the dictator, who can sit in judgement when those passing a verdict were a part of the machine themselves? Who is qualified to prosecute, what can the charges be, and what is the punishment to entail? Crimes Against Humanity as tried in Nuremberg, placed the defendants before those that had defeated them. The crimes were appalling, but even bringing that trial to the point of beginning was anything but certain, and certainly not with precedent.

Mr. Barnes pens a great Counter Factual bit of "what if?" History. That it has not happened as described does not detract from the fascination the idea provokes. The issue seems easy in theory, the outcome preordained. But wishing and wanting don't just make it so, or does it?

don't miss it
I discovered this book accidentally, just because I love Barnes' way of writing. I had no idea what it was about, no idea if it were good or bad, truthful or not. I'm from Bulgaria, the country so well depicted in this book, and I'd never imagined that a foreigner could've observed and captured so well the difficulties and sufferings that were endured during the changes. The book is quite objective and gives you a realistic view of our capital, our people, our lives. If you want to know anything about Bulgaria, this is where you should start.

Takes you into the experience of the collapse of East. Eurp.
You've heard about the economic and political difficulties faced by people in Eastern Europe following the great collapse. You've seen some of the people on the evening news. How often have you thought that being in the midst of it for a week would be a much more profound experience than a "City Slickers" vacation. Julian Barnes' book, "The Porcupine" is your chance to have that adventure. Go far beyond a tourist excursion into the heart of the experience. ... Read more

Product Description
Perhaps no one loves France as much as the English, and Richard Cobb, the incomparable Oxford historian, was a passionate admirer of the country. He was a connoisseur of the dive and the flophouse, as well as a familiar of the quays of Paris and the docks of Le Havre and Marseilles. Paris and Elsewhere, collecting memoirs and portraits of favorite haunts, shows us a France unglimpsed by tourists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

You had to be there.
Apparently, Paris was perfect when the author was young (in the 1930s to 50s), but has steadily gone downhill ever since. Admittedly, book was written at a Paris low point, at least architecturally, the 1960s, but it is VERY curmudgeonly, if still making a point about the ravages of gentrification. But this business of the picturesqueness of the old Paris types--he never asks how these people really lived, and in many cases, I'm sure it was a very hard life, if nice for author to experience from his point of view.

Bittersweet chronicles of a now lost Paris
This collection of Cobb's essays is another book in the NYRB series which I did not want to finish reading.These essays are about more than Paris or Normandy or even Europe; here is a record left by an Englishman who passionately loved a place, a bi-cultural historian and writer who grew his soul between the rare archived records of France and the living streets he loved.

Richard Cobb has shown me that writing a memoir of place is a sensory experience.His essays are so rich in textured intimacy that I feel "le Cobb" is living still.One can find him strolling down an avenue observing every alteration of the weather, every change in the pavement, in the passersby, their clothing and language.I imagine Cobb still sitting in his favorite haunt, the late night and early morning caf?, sipping the 4:00 a.m. calvados, or apple brandy, as he watches the barges come up the river.From his youth, to his late travels, Cobb had found that one cannot write history without knowing the living.Le Cobb called himself a "prisoner of habit" (301), and this, I believe, is the key to the depth of detail in his writing.He frequented the same places, the same towns, kept in touch with the same French and Belgian friends.But there is also something exquisitely lonely about Cobb, the solitary observer, that appeals to the wounded romantic in every traveler.

I'm concerned that the general reader will not pick up this book; the density of language in Paris and Elsewhere appears to be for the intimate specialist only.But the essays are about desire for a place, about human interaction in that space, how people create each other's lives, and the anger and grief one feels when a beloved city or village is altered forever--phenomena and feelings which anyone can apply to anyplace in the world.I highly recommend this book for people involved in city planning, the New Urbanists, any reader wondering why the French no longer wear berets, or any reader looking for a context or background as to how or why the recent riots and rebellions occurred across France in the past year.

Cobb loved France enough to criticize the French particularly in the decades from the Baron Haussman in the mid 19th-century to Georges Pompidou in the 1970s when so much destruction was visited upon Paris in the name of `architecture.'Cobb shows that Brussels and Paris sustained more damage after World War II than before: "The damage which has been inflicted on these two cities is not, then, the result of enemy--or Allied--action" (200).In Paris distinctive neighborhoods were destroyed by the French themselves with no concern for how people's lives were being altered or the monoculture being created.Well, Monsieur Cobb, this vandalism to intimate dwellings, social settings, tiny restaurants, private gardens, the homes and boulevards of experience, is now a global condition.Thank you so much, Professor Cobb, for such beautiful writing on such a bittersweet topic. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Atlantis, revista de la Asociación Espanola de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos, published by Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies (AEDEAN) on June 1, 2000. The length of the article is 5087 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The techniques of committed fiction: in defence of Julian Barnes's The Porcupine.
Author: Alberto Lazaro
Publication: Atlantis, revista de la Asociación Espanola de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2000
Publisher: Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies (AEDEAN)
Volume: 22Issue: 1Page: 121(11)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on March 31, 1997. The length of the article is 565 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: El humor de un afrancesado: Julian Barnes publica su primer libro de cuentos.(TT: A Francophile's humor: Julian Barnes publishes his first story book)
Author: Angel Vivas
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 31, 1997
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Issue: n631Page: p60(1)

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Word count: 3413. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Atlantis, revista de la Asociación Espanola de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos, published by Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies (AEDEAN) on June 1, 1999. The length of the article is 5378 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Nature feminised in Julian Barnes's A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (1).
Author: Daniel Candel
Publication: Atlantis, revista de la Asociación Espanola de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1999
Publisher: Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies (AEDEAN)
Volume: 21Issue: 1-2Page: 27(15)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Edicional Siempre on June 19, 2002. The length of the article is 1296 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Dos novelas inglesas: Kazuo Ishiguro y Julian Barnes.(TT: Two English novels: Kazuo and Julian Barnes.)
Author: Mauricio Molina
Publication: Siempre! (Refereed)
Date: June 19, 2002
Publisher: Edicional Siempre
Volume: 48Issue: 2557Page: 66(2)

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This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: England, England, a History of the World in 10½ Chapters, Arthur ... Read more

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This is a miniature encyclopedia of 19th-century bourgeois values, a dictionary that takes a humorous look at life in that century. ... Read more

Product Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

The most generous one-volume collection ever published of short stories, autobiographical writings,poetry, and essays by the writer Yeats called “Ireland’s Chekhov.”

Selected and arranged thematically by Julian Barnes, the rich mix of writings in The Best of Frank O’Connor starts off with his most famous short story, “Guests of the Nation,” set during the Irish War of Independence; chronicles his childhood with an alcoholic father and protective mother; and traces his literary influences in brilliant essays on Joyce and Yeats. O’Connor’s wonderfully polyphonic tales of family, friendship, and rivalry are set beside those that bring to life forgotten souls on the fringes of society. O’Connor’s writings about Ireland vividly evoke the land he called home, while other stories probe the hardships and rewards of Irish emigration. Finally, we see O’Connor grappling, in both fiction and memoir, with the largest questions of religion and belief.

The Best of Frank O’Connor is a literary monument to a truly great writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Best of Frank O'Connor
Frank O'Connor, a master of the short-story form, wrote muscular prose about war, his childhood, and Ireland. In this new collection of his work, Julian Barnes, who collected and edited the selections included in this Everyman's Library edition, lets the stories speak for themselves. He groups the stories and excerpts by theme and provides little more than a brief introduction to the book as well as to each group. Perhaps Barnes's best addition is the extensive chronology he provides at the beginning of the collection, detailing not only the author's biography but also historical references and literary events. Barnes might have added more information regarding O'Connor's long relationship with //The New Yorker,// which might be of particular interest to readers in the United States. In the end, O'Connor's work takes center stage, which is fitting given the strength of the author's writing, and Barnes has selected the included stories wisely. O'Connor's war stories are his most convincing, and as the first grouping, they are given the prominent placement they deserve.

Reviewed by Margo Orlando Littell ... Read more