Thursday, January 22, 2009

Not a Review

I have sworn off reviewing other Macmillan New Writing titles: in many cases I know the writer, and even where I don't my objectivity may well be questionable. I'm not, therefore, going the review the latest one I've read, Restitution by Eliza Graham. It's not a review, is it, to say that the book is every bit as good as its predecessor, Playing with the Moon, and that anyone with a taste for good fiction is likely to enjoy it?

Neither is it a review to state my admiration for the way in which the writer weaves the personal destinies of a handful of ordinary characters into a backdrop of events leading up to and during World War II; the unobtrusively excellent prose with which the story is retailed; or the satisfying way in which each chapter unfolds into the next.

And it is certainly not a review to say that I am delighted to hear that Eliza has a deal with PanMacmillan for another two novels.

I go back to my editing fully satisfied, then, that I have held fast to my rule not to review Macmillan New Writing titles.

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