Gil Hates Everything

“Something To Answer For”, P. H. Newby.

So yeah, I thought a few months ago that I should read some more ‘literature-y’ books, so I thought for a bit and landed on this as a mission. The Booker’s been around since 1969 so we’re talking something comparable to the Stephen King pilgrimage, although I’m guessing the total page count will be lower. And so I began.

“Something to Answer For” is a novel set in 1956 about an Englishman called Townrow who is called to Cairo by a widow who wants him to prove that her husband was murdered. Townrow is the epitome of an unreliable narrator, uncertain about everything, hallucinating like crazy, unable to recall whether he’s British or Irish, and stuck in Egypt as the Suez Crisis happens and rioters threaten everything. It’s… well, it’s not very good. Or, I dunno, this is my first Booker book, maybe it *is* very good and I just don’t know how to read. It felt samey and annoying, like a not-very-good attempt to imitate Thomas Pynchon, although coming from 1969 it might have been an inspiration for Pynchon, who knows. It was one of those books where you can’t really predict what’s going to happen because the characters don’t seem to act by any particular logic. I hope this isn’t a deciding factor in how the Booker is awarded.

So I would not hugely recommend this novel, but I may come back with additional comments after I’ve read half a dozen of them and have a better idea of what the Booker is considered to be ‘for’.

Next: “Troubles” by James Gordon Farrell.