The Occasional 7

Andrew O'Hagan, George Saunders, Natalia Ginzburg, Othello with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, Sarah Churchwell on Gatsby & our current moment, Irish libraries.

One for paid subscribers, with my ongoing gratitude. The Fortnightly will be back next term on May 3rd.

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Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan

A long weekend recently was a good time to read Andrew O’Hagan’s Caledonian Road. A 641-page novel, it’s a pacy and immersive story set in London in May 2021 - what is sometimes called a ‘state of the nation’ book. The central character is Campbell Flynn, a ‘celebrity academic’ in his early 50s, whose life starts to run further and further out of control. His story is intertwined with many others, so much so that there’s a two-page Cast of Characters list at the start.

Inevitably not all the strands are equally successful or convincing, but there is still lots to enjoy. I’ve also recommended his previous work, Mayflies.

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Liberation Day

is the most recent short story collection by George Saunders, and there is a haunting story in it called ‘Love Letter’, in which a grandfather writes to his grandson about a society which has become steadily more sinister and authoritarian.

On ‘Liberation Day’ (the day when all those tariffs arrived), Saunders shared his tariff-free copy of ‘Love Letter’ in Story Club, and prompted us to share it widely.

Do read it, below.