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Most reviewed: The Sorrows of an American

27.05.08 Anna Richardson

The most reviewed on the literary pages last weekend (23rd to 26th May) was a trio of books: a posthumous collection of stories from Kurt Vonnegut, Armageddon in Retrospect (Cape); novel The Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt (Sceptre); and, for a second week in a row, Cherie Blair’s memoirs, Speaking for Myself (Little, Brown).

The latter, which received further publicity from a headline-generating appearance by Blair at the Guardian Hay Festival, took another barrage of negative criticism from reviewers, with Jenny Diski in the Sunday Times concluding: “it was stupid to hope for anything original or interesting from Cherie’s book when Tony’s memoir has yet to come out.”

Hustvedt’s novel was much lauded, coming “warmly recommended” by John Harding in the Daily Mail, and Sarah Emily Miano in the Times described it as “by turns abstract and realistic, intimate and alienating, effulgent and bleak, straightforward and elusive - but the author couldn’t have it any other way”.

Tom Deveson, in the Sunday Times, found that Hustvedt “switches gracefully between characters”, but that “for all its factual ballast, the book feels more trivial than it should”.

On Vonnegut, Iain Finlayson wrote in the Times that “the wry, rueful tone of these 12 short pieces is wrought with the perfect pitch of a man who has rarely been too surprised by the reflex violence of life”, and Tim Martin in the Daily Telegraph stated that Vonnegut’s stories were “as startlingly timely as the best of his output”.

Most reviewed (23rd to 26th May):

Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut
(Cape 9780224085397 £16.99)
“Grimly funny short stories” Daily Mail
“Disappointing” Financial Times
“Wry, rueful” Times
“A very mixed bag” Sunday Telegraph
“Satisfying” Daily Telegraph

The Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
(Sceptre 9780340897065 £16.99)
“Warmly recommended” Daily Mail
“Am authorial indulgence” Financial Times
“A masterful semi-self-portrait” Times
“Almost certainly the best American novel you will read this year” Sunday Telegraph
“Writers enjoy this; readers may be less enchanted” Sunday Times

Speaking for Myself by Cherie Blair
(Little, Brown 9781408700983 £18.99)
“Scotches for ever any notion that she is a weighty figure” Daily Express
“The nearest she can get to being the public, political woman circumstances cheated her of the chance to be” Daily Telegraph
“You can’t help but admire her for kicking against the pricks” Sunday Express
“Can be refreshingly blunt” Guardian
“Expect nothing here but banality and warmed-over phrases” Sunday Times

Media Anna Richardson hay festival Kurt Vonnegut Cherie Blair Most Reviewed Siri Hustvedt

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