OCTOBER 2011

October 2011........5 books read

Charlie Williams – Stairway To Hell

James Frey – A Million Little Pieces

Donald Westlake – The Hot Rock

David Morrell – The Fifth Profession

Malcolm Pryce – Aberystwyth Mon Amour

2 x ok, 2 x disappointing, 1 x superb

Williams and Pryce were okay, in a not annoying, but not totally satisfying way either.

Westlake’s first Dortmunder book, I had high hopes for and felt a bit let down  by the time I finished. Maybe I prefer him with his Richard Stark head on?

Morrell has written much better books than this one, unfortunately I haven’t read any of them for a while.

 

Frey’s Million Little Pieces – fact, fiction or fantasy?

Don’t really care I was totally absorbed by it.

Blurb....... James Frey wakes up on a plane, with no memory of the preceding two weeks. His face is cut and his body is covered with bruises. He has no wallet and no idea of his destination. He has abused alcohol and every drug he can lay his hands on for a decade - and he is aged only twenty-three.

What happens next is one of the most powerful and extreme stories ever told. His family takes him to a rehabilitation centre. And James Frey starts his perilous journey back to the world of the drug and alcohol-free living. His lack of self-pity is unflinching and searing.

A Million Little Pieces is a dazzling account of a life destroyed and a life reconstructed. It is also the introduction of a bold and talented literary voice

Looking forward to more of him in the future.