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Best Books Chosen by Susie Boyt
 HANGOVER
SQUARE,
by PATRICK HAMILTON
Patrick Hamilton's celebrated tale of doomed love charts the
romantic career of George Harvey Bone, a kind man quite at sea
amidst the
seedy pubs and boarding houses of Earls Court in 1939. Bone's
negotiation of his unrequited love for Netta Langdon-possibly
the nastiest female character ever created-is so acute with its
shaky rationale that it's sometimes quite painful to read, but
the writing is always delicate, atmospheric and intensely emotional.
Buy
from Amazon.co.uk
THE USES OF DIVISION,
by JOHN BAYLEY
This book of essays on poetry by England's best literary critic
always inspires me-I read it when I cant quite think of any words
to use. Reading Bayley's prose really makes you think about how
the best kind of writing works. The chapters on Keats are almost
as good as Keats himself.
Buy
from Amazon.co.uk
 THE
CONFUSIONS OF YOUNG TORLESS,
by ROBERT MUSIL
A novel about young men in a Prussian military school which is
brutal and terrifying, and its evocation of the drama of adolescent
preoccupations and passions stays with you.
Buy
from Amazon.co.uk
 THE
DREAM SONGS,
by JOHN BERRYMAN
I never go for too many days without picking up John Berryman's
epic poem in which he pries open the heart of his crazy, darkly
humourous hero Henry. Henry's high hopes, his imperiousness, his
fragmented outlook and surprisingly feminine instincts are always
rich and deep, just as his despair is. He's come to seem almost
like a friend.
Buy
from Amazon.co.uk
 MORE
DIE OF HEARTBREAK, by SAUL BELLOW
I read this book every year and it always feels new. There's little
Bellow doesn't know about the world and his wife. My favourite
sentence in it occurs when the mother of the narrator's estranged
girlfriend proposes marriage to him suddenly in a hotel bar and
he muses, 'And what stunning offers you can get from the insane!'
Buy
from Amazon.co.uk
 STORY
NUMBER 1, by EUGENE IONESCO
I was given this book by my father as a child. It's a crazy, 70s
picture book about a man with a hangover who tells his daughter
stories in which all the characters are named Jacqueline, even
the little chamber pot.
Buy
from Amazon.co.uk
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