bookshelf

House of Meetings by Martin Amis

242 pgs (c) 2007, Alfred A. Knopf
Borrowed from Broward Public Library. Read 09/15/07

The narrator recounts how he survived the brutalities of the Second World War and the slave labor camps of Russia. He is playful and creative with words in spite of the grim subject matter. The wordplay is a sleight-of-hand that both distracts and focuses the reader.

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

282 pgs (c) 1945 author, 1994 Popular Library Edition
Checked out of Broward Library. Read 10/9/08

This is a quintessential book of there'll-always-be-an-England genre, a playful amusing romp. The Radlett family lives in relative seclusion in the country home, Alconleigh. The patriarch refuses to visit other people's homes and refuses houseguests. When the odd visitor drives up, the entire family dives below the windows and the father bellows that no one is home. In spite of these difficulties, the girls must, and do marry, and start families of their own.