Tuesday, 22 March 2016

Cormac McCarthy, The Road, Michael Frayn, The Tin Men

Two fiction books in a row? What is happening? 'The Tin Men' was read as some light relief a third of the way through Robert Caro's magisterial biography of Robert Moses, which weighs more than Bibs. 700 pages to go, including a world war and a state-wide  freeway building programme, as well as the inexorable descent into corruption of an idealist faced with the realities of power. 'The Road' was a very good read, set in a dystopian future where America is a wasteland, and a father and son are trying to survive and escape to a better future. The love and sacrifice of the (unnamed) father for his (unnamed) son was choking. Helen's having a read of it now. 'The Tin Men' is over 50 years old, but seemed so relevant - programming computers to carry out roles traditionally performed by humans, including producing novels, newspapers and resolving ethical dilemmas, and the boredom and ennui of office life. 

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