J. G. Links
My confidence in my literary judgment, usually rather frail, has had a boost this year. Five Christmases ago I introduced Spectator readers to Robertson Davies, then almost unheard of here except to those who listened to London's prince of booksellers, John Saumarez-Smith. Now celebrated, that amazing Canadian has completed a second trilogy with The Lyre of Orpheus (Viking, £12.95). It is not perhaps the best of the three (except for opera lovers) but it makes a splendid read.
I also urged readers to try to find the work of Alice Adams, my favourite Amer- ican author, and this has since become easy. Her Second Chances (Methuen, £11.95) gives intense pleasure at the time of reading but later one realises there was much more to it than that. She will write a classic one day — if she has not already done so.
I have missed the overrated books but Three Continents by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Murray, £11.95) must surely have been the most underrated by reviewers. I have been Jhabvala's devoted slave for over 30 years and found her as well able to handle the ambitious subject of this long novel as the marvellous vignettes of middle-class Indian life which first introduced us to her dazzling talents.
Previous page
