28/03/15: Carrie Fisher – Shockaholic (2011)

Considering all the electro-shock therapy she endured to combat depression (detailed, unflinchingly, in the first chapter), it's incredible how sharp and witty this (sort-of) memoir is. What a great writer. As with the previous book, Wishful Drinking, it details a series of episodes and recollections from Carrie Fisher's professional and personal life. It's far from a full, chronological memoir, and reading the reviews on Amazon, it seems many were disappointed by that brevity. I thought it worked well, as the prose is so rich with wit and anecdotes. There are chapters on her relationships with her father, her stepfather, her one-time stepmother Elizabeth Taylor and so on. There's a very insightful reflection on her friendship with Michael Jackson: she shows real understanding of his problems without taking the easy tabloid route of portraying him as either monster or saint.

The topic she keeps returning to is that of her father, and how she came to know him better in his final years. She recalls him with much humour and love, and never lets sentimentality get in the way of realism: her father was hardly ever there for her, but she adored him anyway. It's touching stuff.

15/03/15: Albert Cohen – Her Lover (Belle du Seigneur) (1968)

This is a novel of such richness that it is hard to describe. Across 974 pages Albert Cohen builds an astonishing creation. All human life and emotions are here, and yet the story is a simple one. There are many stream-of-consciousness passages in which you get one character's thoughts. There are no paragraphs in these sections, just a continuous flow of flitting ideas. Don't let this put you off: these passages are insightful indeed, and highly readable. Cohen is superb at capturing the way the restless mind works. There's also comedy in the antics of Solal's pompous but well-meaning uncles. And there's tragedy, too. He moves so well from the farcical to the profoundly poignant (and often back again). But at the core of this book is a study of the life-span of a relationship: attraction, seduction, obsessive love and what happens afterwards.

As soon as I finished the book, I wanted to start it all over again. It takes time to read, but it's worth the effort. In fact, the real story doesn't begin until about a third of the way in. Before this, there are brilliant satires on those in pursuit of upward mobility at the expense of all else, and a close look at what Alain de Botton called "status anxiety". The chapters dealing with Deume and his family are priceless: it was a surprise when these characters then dropped out of the novel. The use of language is dazzling, so full credit to David Coward for his translation from the original French text. This book resonates with truth. Bear with it and you will be rewarded with real glimpses into the human soul.