Patrick Skene Catling
Very rarely, a novel sometimes proves to be so enjoyable that tears of sentimental pleasure ooze from the eyes of even the most jaded of readers. One such excep- tional book is Lake Wobegon Days (Faber) by Garrison Keillor, a youngish middle westerner who writes in the honorable, old American tradition of cracker-barrel philo- sophical humour. The novel is about the pleasures and displeasures of life in an imaginary small town whose civic leaders proudly delude themselves that it is 'the Gateway to Central Minnesota'. Shrewdly funny stuff; a nice mixture of idealism and cynicism.
George Melly's affectionate, perceptive- ly witty It's All Writ Out for You: The Life and Work of Scottie Wilson (Thames & Hudson) delighted me. Mr Melly writes very well about the caricature Glaswegian — 'mended spectacles, grog-blossom nose, canny expression, cloth cap, muffler, long overcoat, boots, and an habitual Wood- bine between his fingers.' The large num- ber of illustrations convincingly demons- trate the soundness of the textual analysis. Fortunately I have been able to forget almost all the books I failed to enjoy during the year. But I cannot as yet quite forget or forgive Emigrants and Exiles: The Irish Exodus to North America (OUP), a very long history which turns a tragic drama into a depressingly dull academic chore. Better luck in 1987, perhaps.
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