Reasons to
buy this book, which is officially published on January 28th (
Penguin Press) but will probably start appearing in bookshops late this week:
0) The author is a friend. Most of my friends are writers. Doesn't mean I'm given to hopping up and down in public about their work. However:
1) This is a piece of genius by
John Lanchester, who has a giant brain in a normal-sized head and is constitutionally incapable of writing a duff, unengaging or unoriginal sentence.
2) It explains what went wrong in a way that is completely accessible to those of us who struggle with basic maths and throw the Business section away first. I don't mean that it's some sort of idiot's guide - it's full of ideas and anger and moral insight - but that the author is unusually good at breaking down complicatedness, which makes him the definition of a generous writer.
3) It is full of jokes and extremely funny (the finished jacket has a quote from
Will Self on it, saying 'Devastatingly funny,' so there you are - not just me honking away).
4) It tells a proper story, like a novel, and we're all part of it - which means it is *gripping*. Yes! Gripping! A book about money! I know! But it's true.
5) It is necessary, particularly - but not exclusively - if you're somebody who thinks, 'Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Iceland, um, mortgages, er...' and doesn't want to keep thinking it until the end of time, amoeba-stylee.
6) I humbly posit that it is a masterpiece.
7) And I don't say that lightly.
Also: Lanchester is doing a talk at the London Review Bookshop on 11 Feb at 7pm - tickets and details
here.
I write books, and things for The Sunday Times. But I wanted a place to stick other stuff I like, and Posterous is unbelievably easy to set up. So here we are. Yet another work-avoidance strategy by me. You can follow me on Twitter, too - I'm @indiaknight. I know, right? The interwebs: where the fun never ends.