Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

 Nope, still don’t get it. A novel about an upper-class woman with no real concerns organising a party for the evening with some old flames interwoven with the story of a shell-shocked combatant. Like 'To The Lighthouse', I'm obviously missing something.

Catherine Nixey, The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Stefan Zweig, Beware Of Pity

Two books I really enjoyed, and with a rather depressing connection - both are concerned with the end days of great civilisations (the Roman Empire and Austria-Hungary) under assault from the book-burners and intolerant zealots. Horrible that this should ring so true in our era of Brexit and Trump.

Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke

We've been sleeping in that tent ever since the last update, it's been so hot here. This doesn’t include Helen, obviously, but me and the kids have been out there every night and it's lovely and cool. I need to take it down tonight though as the lawn man comes tomorrow :(

I struggled with Tree of Smoke, a sprawling epic concerning the American experience in Vietnam that blurred the line between fiction and reality. It probably would have been easier to follow if I was American and older, and had experienced the impact of Vietnam on the previously accepted certainties of American life following the heroism of WWII - that America was the good guy and was saving the world for democracy and that the American military was all-powerful. Vietnam ended that perception for millions of people as it became clear that America wasn't particularly interested in democracy or self-determination for others, were more interested in protecting capitalism than liberty, were unwelcome by the locals who considered them an occupying force, and that their military wasn't nearly as effective as they'd assumed. Quite a jolt for the top nation