If on a winter's night a stranger

If on a winter's night

Here's an unpromising outline for a novel:

• Write in the third person.

• Start each chapter with that third person (you, the Reader) on the trail of a book.

• Conclude each chapter with the first chapter of the next book you start, then (for various reasons) fail to read.

• Repeat.

So, for example, your first read is a misprint, that leads you to the publishers. You come away from there with another copy. But it is, in fact, another book altogether, and you read the first chapter of that before the same thing happens. The publisher sets you on the trail of all manner of dodgy goings on and off you go, around the globe, for a variety of reasons, never getting past the first chapter.

It would take genius to make it work, to make it readable. That's what Italo Calvino has done. Not just made it work, but made it race along.

Bleeding Edge

Up next, the new Pynchon.

Fire in Babylon

MM hadn't seen it, so I watched it again with him. A great documentary film, whether or not you like cricket, but obviously better if you do. There's a lot of (in a good way) madness:

• Bunny Wailer is 100%, certifiably, insane. I couldn't understand much of what he was saying. I suspect that if I did, I'd be even more convinced of his insanity.

• Viv Richards was a terrifying bat.

• Andy Roberts is also mad: “I didn't bowl to hit batsmen. I bowled fast and short, and they got in the way”.

• Both the groundsmen interviewed could earn a living in stand-up, were they not totally barking [MM: “he's absolutely bats**t”].

• The history professor interviewed was indistinguishable from the reggae musicians.

• Motivating your opponents (or doing their management's job for them): that whole 'grovel' thing Tony Greig came out with? Bad idea. Very, very bad idea.