Author Archives: Patrick Lennon

Anita Shreve’s Resistance

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Patrick Lennon

I didn’t quite know what to expect when I started reading it, but I have to say that Anita Shreve’s novel Resistance (1995) is not half bad. There are things about it I didn’t like, but the truth is that … Continue reading →

Posted in Belgium, Fiction set in Belgium | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Michael Ondaatje’s Billy the Kid

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Patrick Lennon

Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is not really a novel and not really a volume of poetry either. It’s less than a hundred pages long and most of those consist of only a few lines of … Continue reading →

Posted in Michael Ondaatje, Novels with pictures in them, Picture novels | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Ben Elton’s The First Casualty

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Patrick Lennon

Ben Elton’s 2005 novel The First Casualty clearly advertises itself as a World War I novel. The poppy and the faded sepia photograph of soldiers wearing Brodie helmets are as clear indicators as you can get. But it really isn’t a … Continue reading →

Posted in Belgium, Fiction set in Belgium | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

On the shelf: Jack Finney’s Time and Again

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Patrick Lennon

I like browsing in second-hand bookshops. I realize that more and more. I haven’t been to a ‘regular’ bookshop in a long time. It’s not that I don’t like first-hand bookshops (if you can call them that). I do, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Bookshops, Browsing, Brussels, Jack Finney, Novels with pictures in them | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

‘My favorite book’

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Patrick Lennon

‘V[ery] happy 40th / This is my favorite / book – so you / better enjoy!’ What was he thinking? Doesn’t he know that when giving someone a gift – a friend, a relative, a lover, whoever – the thing … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Ivo Andric | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Important Artifacts etc.

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Patrick Lennon

There are good ideas that turn out to be good ideas, like the paper clip, or the safety pin. And then there are those good ideas that turn out to be not so good, like the automatic seat belt in … Continue reading →

Posted in Leanne Shapton, Novels with pictures in them, Photography, Picture novels | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Second sight: Ciaran Carson’s Shamrock Tea

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Patrick Lennon

Surprisinly enough (or perhaps not), relations between Belgium and Ireland go back a lot further than Ireland’s entry into the EEC in 1973 or than the founding of the Irish College in Leuven in 1607 when Leuven was part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Belgium, Ciaran Carson, Fiction, Fiction set in Belgium, Geel | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Lady and the Unicorn

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Patrick Lennon

There must be a long tradition of literature inspired by (real) paintings or photographs or other artworks. Two examples from among many others, I guess: W.H. Auden’s poem ‘Musée des Beaux-Arts’ was inspired by Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Belgium, Brussels, Fiction, Tracy Chevalier | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Patrick Lennon

Jonathan Coe’s Expo 58 tells the story of Thomas Foley, a rather bland British civil servant who works for the Central Office of Information, as he is dispatched to the first World’s Fair since WWII. His role? To keep an … Continue reading →

Posted in Belgium, Brussels, Expo 58, Fiction, Jonathan Coe | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

FICTION FATIGUE

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Patrick Lennon
Posted in Fiction, Fiction fatigue | Tagged , | Leave a comment