Piers Paul Read
The most astonishing book that I read during the year was The Way of Paradox (Darton, Longman & Todd, £4.95) by the Benedictine monk, Cyprian Smith. It pre- tends to be no more than an introduction to the mystical writing of Meister Eckhart but is itself a guide to the spiritual life written with the pace and lucidity of a good detective story. My only criticism is that it does not define the heresies for which Eckhart was condemned. However, those prepared to risk error and curious about the mystery of our being should read it perhaps in conjunction with Stephen W. Hawking's A Brief History of Time (Ban- tam Press, £14.95) which I would also recommend in so far as I understand it.
The English novel I liked best was David Lodge's Nice Work (Secker, £10.95) which was as witty as his previous works but also a serious comment on social and economic conditions in the West Midlands — our heartland or backyard, depending upon one's perspective. More exotic but finally about nothing at all was Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera (Cape, £11.95), a compulsive evocation of luxuriant life in the Caribbean at the turn of the century: a masterpiece of Latin- American rococo.
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