Books on Monday: Beginner's Greek
James Collins’s new book is not perfect, but it is very good and, even more, very promising. The novel is extremely well-written and its wit most welcome. Its failing is the most forgivable fault that an author can have: Mr Collins is a little too easy on his hero, Peter Russell. Peter is a great guy, and deserves only the best that life as to offer even if he is an investment banker. If you don’t like Peter, you need a pill of some kind. As the protagonist of a novel, however, it is Peter’s job to be tried and tested a bit more rigorously than the author — a softie? — seems to have the stomach for. Assuming that Peter is something of an alter ego, we may assume that Mr Collins has got his tender-hearted anxieties out of his system, and will be appropriately merciless (up to a point!) to his next bunch of characters.
¶ Beginner’s Greek.