All That I Am by Anna Funder, Alistair Darling's Back from the Brink and The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex by Mark Kermode
"Have you ever wanted a book to be better than it actually is, stayed with it, even as it turned into a bit of a slog, promised yourself that any moment it was going to become the novel you always knew it could be, but then, at the end, surrendered to a resigned 'oh well'?" Simon Schama was disappointed in Anna Funder's "claustrophobic" novel All That I Am, set in the 1930s: "What went wrong? The ball and chain of history can hobble the gait of the imagination, if the novelist isn't ruthless about knowing when to cut it loose ? there are points where the research somehow clots the blood flow of the plot rather than transfusing it with vitality." For a more admiring Ian Brunskill in the Times, "All That I Am paints a convincingly detailed picture of what exile meant for Germans fleeing Hitler ? The real drama here is more personal than political. The strengths of Funder's writing are emotional and imaginative." The Independent on Sunday's Rachel Hore, too, felt that "the book is far more than 'faction'; she has successfully transformed the material into a narrative of individual endeavour and survival, that examines universal human themes. Above all, it is a book with a strong moral compass."
"It is a sad reflection on the condition of British politics that Alistair Darling's gripping account of his three-year period as chancellor has been characterised as an act of vengeance against his former friend and boss, Gordon Brown," wrote Anatole Kaletsky in the Times, reviewing Back from the Brink. "Darling's book is, in fact, the opposite. Its author is clearly an honourable, if rather wry, person ? Far from vindictiveness, Darling's main motivation seems to be a sincere desire to guide his former colleagues on how they could rehabilitate Labour's economic reputation." The FT's Philip Stephens suspected that the former chancellor "would not claim his memoir to be a work of great intellectual heft or insight into the forces that took once proud banks such as RBS to the brink of collapse ? It is a gripping tale told well, forsaking the guile and hyperbole that is a more familiar trademark of political memoirs ? Darling makes some useful corrections to received wisdom." "I have always liked Darling's dry wit," wrote John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday, "and my own unfounded assumption is that the best lines in the book are his own ? it has some nice observations of the absurdities of high politics."
"Catching Mark Kermode in full rant is like witnessing an irate bloke slagging off an unfaithful mistress. Only funnier. That mistress is the movies ? a fickle one, these days, doing so many things wrong to get an ardent critic foaming at the mouth." Tim Robey in the Daily Telegraph liked the "rant compendium" that is The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex: "Disagreeing with Kermode is just as much fun as agreeing with him, and this book affords plenty of opportunities for both. He's at his best on the lost pleasures of moviegoing." According to Jonathan Dean in the Sunday Times, Kermode "despite his reputation as a loudmouth ? is never snide. In fact he's strangely caring, writing about his obsession much like a parent would of a wayward child." His deviations into music and politics, however, "feel incoherent". Lloyd Evans in the Spectator considered Kermode "a bracing, witty and charming companion. There's plenty of anger in him too but it's tempered by humour and an off-beat, self-mocking magnanimity. His book is a horror story with a heartening moral: do not go to multiplexes."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/16/critical-eye-reviews-roundup
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