"The Best Minds of my Generation," by Allen Ginsberg

Non-fiction, 2017

Write up of 1977 university course, surveying some of the Beat Generation's most celebrated practitioners. A curious, patchy, though ultimately rewarding mixture of biography (which is great) and literary criticism (a little less so - though probably something which would best work in an actual lecture). Sections on Jack Kerouac are particularly good, although the overall sense is of a serious look at a period of great creative energy and excitement, with boundaries pushed in fiction and poetry.

"Wonder Boys," by Michael Chabon

Novel, 1995

A cracking paced novel involving grown-up academics behaving appallingly, with some very amusing set pieces and dialogue, which build and build, generating mayhem and anarchy and involving more and more characters. The trouble I find with the book is that although this pace is wonderfully sustained, and although there are moments when some of his characters threaten to have an epiphany - not least Grady Tripp, first person narrator and main protagonist - they don't. The book rather splutters to an end often tripping over itself, one last time. Really entertaining, though a little unsatisfying.