Blind Faith and Black Dogs (From Swindon Advertiser)

Blind Faith and Black Dogs

5:55pm Saturday 3rd January 2009

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WELL my passion for an early night with a good book has taken a bit of a knock over the festive period - and not, as you'd expect, because of the late-night frivolity and boozing.

Sadly, like a large proportion of the population it seems, I've had flu. So early nights have involved a couple of Night Nurse and some very disturbing nightmares.

Therefore it seems a very long time ago that I finished Ian McEwan's Black Dogs. Therefore my thoughts on it will probably be brief. So here goes...

I think there's a coldness in McEwan's writing that I can't quite put my finger on. It took me four or five attempts to get going with Atonement (once I did, I was unstoppable and now rate it as one of the best books I've ever read) and although Black Dogs proved less troublesome, it was somehow unsatisfying.

It tells the story of a man who lost his parents when young and therefore, when he marries, he becomes fascinated with his wife's parents. You learn of his relationship with his in-laws through a series of rendez-vous with them, and eventually, you are told the story of what happened on their honeymoon shortly after the end of the Second World War, which gives the novel its title.

It felt as though the whole novel was building up to this central point - what was the terrible and disturbing thing which befell this loved-up, communist couple while on holiday in France? Well, it was quite a good tale and worth reading - but I felt as though the rest of the book could be axed and you could just stick with the tale of the black dogs as a short story. Or perhaps, if the book had begun with the honeymoon tale and then told you what happened to the couple in the ensuing years, it might have been of greater interest.

I don't know - I not being very coherent (I blame the flu) but I felt very much that I had missed the point. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

Anyway, having felt slightly disgruntled by Black Dogs, I moved on to an easy read in the form of Ben Elton's Blind Faith. And annoyingly, I had issues with this book too. It tells the tale of a couple living in post-flood London, when everyone believes blindly in the Lord and science, fiction, privacy and independent thought are all illegal.

It has its moments and some nice touches - but it was like a poor man's 1984. And I loved 1984. And so I was predisposed to hate Blind Faith. Sorry, but I appear to be getting cantankerous in my old age.

In a nutshell, it's an easy, pleasant read, with, as I say, some nice touches. So I enjoyed it, but it didn't make me want to go to bed early to read it. I decided as I read the last few chapters this morning that it was like one of those made-for-TV movies they show on Channel Five: entertaining enough, but it's no Casablanca.

I'm going to take a few days off before I make my next choice as I feel the need to read a book I truly love this time.