Lucky us. Peter Cameron has made public his book blog, Extreme Legibility, collecting brief thoughts on recent readings since January 2011. Much to his credit, he posts even his disappointments. But the biggest thrill is seeing a great novelist assess his equals. Naturally, the other thrill is discovering unknown books. Beyond her NYRB Classic The Vet's Daughter, Barbara Comyns makes two appearances here with Mr. Fox and
The House of Dolls. And Peter finds another extremely intriguing work by G.F. Green. Of The Power of Sergeant Streater
he writes:
"An amazing book. Beautifully written, first of all -- as atmospheric and lush as Green's In the Making, but with a stronger narrative and more clarity. A novel in three distinct parts, set somewhere in southeast Asia during or after WWII. Malaysia? Ceylon? I'm not sure. The book concerns three British civil servants who are all almost fatally attracted to the beautiful, sweet, sarong-wearing local boys who are their servants and/or catamites. The men are also attracted to one another, but unable to act on these desires, and so channel this repression into foiling one another's romances. The frankness of homosexual attraction and desire in this nearly all-male world, which seems to permeate everyone and everything, is both startling and tremendously exciting and erotic. It is never questioned or judged, and in this way this book seems revolutionary. I can think of no other book that is so overtly and unapologetically queer."