How do you write a plot when the main character has lost the plot? The answer is as you would expect. Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore starts off with a lost plot. The main character, a 36-year-old portrait painter with artist’s block (who remains mysteriously unnamed), begins his story with the unexpected separation from his wife, whom he suspects is sleeping with another man. Following a long … Continue reading Book Review: Killing Commendatore

Imagine PG Wodehouse and Agatha Christie working collaboratively in mid-2005 on a comical crime mystery novel that involved an eccentric yet polarising group of characters and a structured yet outlandish plot. It sounds bonkers, but that’s the best way to describe The Writing Class by Jincy Willett. Here’s the brief: Amy Gallup, a washed-up novelist and reclusive widow, starts another semester teaching various humans how … Continue reading Timeless Book Review: The Writing Class by Jincy Willett (2008)