'Flesh' by David Szalay

This was a Christmas present that I just got around to reading. It’s funny – as I was describing the book to my partner, I realised it all sounded fairly conventional, but it didn’t feel that way as I was reading it. The main character goes from relative poverty in Hungary to London’s elite and… I don’t know… learns lessons along the way, I guess.

The writing is very sparse, which I quite like. It gave me some ideas for the thing I’m currently working on, which is always something to be viewed with suspicion.

It’s only as I try to find cover art to include here that I realise it won the Booker prize. It might be the first Booker winner I’ve ever read, as I tend to stay away from that sort of thing. It was good. I’m not sure I would call it ‘extraordinary and singular’, as the Booker judges did, but it’s all right.

These notes are supposed to be me just keeping track of what I’ve read and seen, but they do come across as quite grumpy, don’t they?

(I’ve missed quite a few books. I might have to bung them all in a round up post.)

Anyway, ‘Flesh’ was pretty good. I’d wait for the paperback, but whatever.

Buy ‘Flesh’ by David Szalay from bookshop.org