John Baker’s Blog

‘That guy you used to be married to? What was his name?’
‘Carl?’ Sheila said.
‘Carl. Yeah. There’s a new woman at school; cleaner, used to know his sister. What happened to him?’
‘He’s in Warsaw. Dunno what he’s doing, whether he’s still with whatsherface.’
‘Warsaw. In Poland?’
‘Last I heard, yeah. He always did go in the wrong direction.’
Sheila [...]

Although originally published as a series of short stories, Go Down Moses is, in fact, a novel. Like much of Faulkner’s work, it deals with issues of slavery and race, the relationship between man and his environment, stewardship and ownership of land, the vanishing wilderness, and property and inheritance.
The novel plays with the concept of [...]

Two items of good news this week. I don’t usually rate literary prizes, and the announcement of their winners often elicits a groan of pain from me. But both of these were deserved.
1. Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe won the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction. Other nominees for the prize included Philip Roth, Margaret [...]

How I envy the novelist! I imagine him - better say her, for it is the women I look to for a parallel - I imagine her, then, pruning a rosebush with a large pair of shears, adjusting her spectacles, shuffling about among teacups, humming, arranging ashtrays or babies, absorbing a slant of light, a [...]