Book of the Week

The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

Recommended by Seb Thomas

The Book of Illusions, by Paul Auster, is a powerful drama that follows the life of Professor David Zimmer, forced to adjust to a new and painful reality, after his family is tragically killed in a plane crash. After spending much of a year in a hive of depression and self-pity, he finds his way out by discovering Hector Mann, a silent film comedian. The book is narrated in the first person by Zimmer but switches focus between him and Mann as the actor's past is gradually uncovered.

The characterisation in this novel is excellent, and Mann's character is especially interesting. We come to truly understand his motivations, and his story is perhaps what most makes the book compelling. Zimmer's character is far more mysterious to the reader, due to his mixed motives which stay obscure to the reader for most of the story.

My favourite part of the book is near the beginning when Zimmer first discovers Mann in a documentary about silent film. It is the second most important turning point in Zimmer's life, after his family's death, and, in a moment of inspiration, he breaks out of his death-like trance and transforms into a completely different character, one with a renewed sense of meaning and purpose.

Paterson

Recommended by Miss McLaren

If the triumph of Donald Trump has dented your faith in America, Jim Jarmusch’s latest film, Paterson, might give you hope. The picture it paints of the USA is the antithesis of Trump’s: sensitivity and warm-hearted kindness against bullying petulance; diversity and tolerance against bigotry; integrity and honesty against swaggering untruths. If Trump is about building walls and closing minds, Paterson is about keeping them open.

Book of the Week

Carry on, Jeeves by P G Wodehouse
Recommended by Felix Kwok

Carry on, Jeeves by P G Wodehouse is one of the earlier books in the Jeeves and Wooster series. I say earlier due to the fact that it is actually debated which book is first.

We

Recommended by Faris Firoozye

We is the most renowned work of Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin and one of the most influential dystopian novels of the twentieth century which foreshadowed the worst aspects of Soviet culture. 

In a glass-enclosed city composed of absolute straight lines and ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives empty of passion and creativity until D-503, a mathematician, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and influenced works such as George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. 

It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a loud cry for individual liberties, yet is also a powerful and exciting work of science fiction. We criticises the tendency of government in general to repress dissidents and promote stability over human freedom. 

Many critics consider We a response to H G Wells and his 'brand of scientific optimism'. Zamyatin translated several of Wells’s works into Russian; his criticism of Well's utopianism can be found in his repressive depiction of a 'perfect' society.

Book of the Week

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Recommended by Yuval Weiss.

Oryx and Crake is a dystopian novel by author Margaret Atwood, who also famously wrote The Handmaid’s Tale.

The novel deals with various environmental and ethical issues about genetic modification and is told within two parts.

Book of the Week

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevksy
Recommended by Nicholas Heymann

When I first decided to read Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment I approached it not without some trepidation. I had always considered it to be a dense, difficult to read book that might feel more like work than enjoyment. Although to a certain extent that is the case, on tackling it I found the book to be perfectly readable - even when taking into account its philosophical nature.

One of the key features of Crime and Punishment is undoubtedly the philosophy that lies behind the decisions taken by the main character Raskolnikov – for me that added a lot to the book as a whole as it gave a new dimension to the characters.

Look

Look

Rolling slow and late, London bound,
The coach, turning, gives me briefly
A dozen seagulls judder hectic
In a pinch of air between a post-war
Semi and a Methodist church.

In that concrete channel, beaks blunted,
They trampoline the air, rhythmless
Over a thin, shit-strewn pathway,
Like shook sand at a beach bombing
Or the egg timer of a furious cook.

A wild breach, awkward and stunning,
The mute music of their jolting scales.
Dancing with incommunicable knowledge,
Incautiously caught and locked white hot
In a lonely spot they briefly bloat.

Then, a refuse lorry, blocking all, passes.
Green sacks slump, lavishly stuffed and
Wind-whipped, heaving like a load of lungs.

But I saw a dialect scattered on the air,
And am sewn silent now, in passing.

                        Christian Anthony

Book of the Week

The Circle by Dave Eggers 
Reviewed by Mr Copeman

The eponymous corporation in Dave Eggers’ dystopian novel is a thinly veiled amalgamation of Google and Facebook, two companies described by The Guardian this week as ‘the most powerful and secretive empires we’ve ever known.’

First published in 2013, Eggers’ prescient novel portrays a social media obsessed world; a scenario which requires little imagination today.

Book of the Week

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Reviewed by Alexander Kwang

The book begins with an opening sentence, ‘There was a hand in darkness, and it held a knife’: like all of Neil Gaiman’s books, the language is oddly simple. Yet he manages to create an effective blend of suspense and the supernatural in the story.

A bit creepy, but likeable nonetheless, Neil Gaiman quickly establishes a relatable protagonist - a young infant, of unknown name - and a dangerous antagonist known as Jack.