"Do we still know how to Read a novel?" John Sutherland, Chairman of the 2005 Booker Prize Committee, asks.
On one level this is a book about novels but at a deeper lev.
With acerbic wit and intellect, he traces the history of what it used to mean to be well-Read and tells readers what it still means today while reminding readers how the delicate charms of fiction can be at once wonderful and inspired and infuriating.
His answer is an unequivocal, "No." But Sutherland has not given up hope. "Do we still know how to Read a novel?" John Sutherland, Chairman of the 2005 Booker Prize Committee, asks