Book of the week: Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit
This curious, meandering book restores ‘something missing’ from the popular perception of Orwell
The appearance of what is billed as John le Carré’s “last complete masterwork”, less than a year after his death, “seems almost suspiciously opportune”, said Andrew Rosenheim in The Spectator. Yet whatever the publishing expediency involved, Silverview makes for a “very fine finale”.
Set in an East Anglian coastal town, it centres on Julian, a 33-year-old bachelor who has “fled the City” and now runs a bookshop. One evening, an “exotic foreigner” called Edward comes in, claiming to have been a friend of Julian’s late father. Soon afterwards, an MI5 agent shows up, asking questions about Edward – who is clearly not what he seems.
“Thematically, this is classic le Carré,” said Jake Kerridge in The Daily Telegraph: an exploration of betrayal and moral expediency, written in “unshowily superb” prose.
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There’s certainly little here we haven’t seen before in “late-period le Carré”, said Dominic Sandbrook in The Sunday Times. Still, “perhaps it’s the privilege of a great writer to repeat himself”. And aficionados will enjoy “seeing the old formula given one last runout”.
Viking 224pp £20; The Week Bookshop £15.99
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