Tuesday 8 February 2011

Open City

Have you ever been to a wedding - you were there when the couple met, or you saw them one day when they were first going out, and you thought to yourself, oh yes, yes, this is a lovely relationship that's going to last, so at the wedding you feel ridiculously satisfied and proprietorial? It's a sweet, if unfounded and self-referential feeling, and it's rather how I feel as a novel called Open City is published in the US today. 

I'd encountered a brilliant and surprising writer, Teju Cole, in one guise and another, from when I first started reading blogs. One day he blogged a bit of something that seemed to be fiction.  And it was wonderful, as beautifully written and compelling as any novel I had ever read, and not at all like anything I'd ever read. Those first early intimations were a good while ago. He stopped blogging, and was much missed. But now a novel hits the streets, already garnering great praise and rave reviews like this and this.

I'll try and write about it properly, of course, as many people will be, and there'll be much to say. Today, though, I just want to jump up and down and cheer.

4 comments:

litlove said...

It sounds wonderful, Jean! I will have to try to get hold of a copy. How fortunate to have been there at its genesis.

Jean said...

Litlove, it's a wonderful novel. You must, must read it. It's not been published in UK yet, but is avaiable from Amazon UK, Book Depository etc.

Dale said...

:-) Yes, that's exactly how I feel about it, too.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

I'm waiting for my pre-ordered copy from Amazon UK - they take longer than the US branch. Can't wait to read it! The reviews are certainly fabulous.