CHRISTMAS BOOKS II
Books of the Year
A further selection of the best and worst books of the year, chosen by some of our regular contributors
John Fowles
I thought one novel this year thoroughly exceptional. It will make 1997 a year to remember. This was Thomas Pynchon's Mason and Dixon (Cape, £16.99). Quite remarkably rich and allusive, I really could not fault it except perhaps in that it justifies those adjectives so completely (it is very long, as delicate as an ornithology, and needs complex magpie learning in both history and language, so it is not easy to read). As a fellow-novelist I could only envy it and the culture that permits the creation and success of such intricate masterpieces. This almost feels like the last great fiction of our dying era. Though I'm sure it won't be, I must admire its sense of the bright farewell, the clear passing over- seas of the torch that Peacock, Dickens, Lawrence and Conrad bore. You'll not find a better, this next time round.
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