A round-up of this week's paperback releases
The Complete Novels of George Orwell
Penguin, £25
Ordinarily I'm not a fan of giant paperbacks; they tend to fall apart, tragic victims of their own heft. Here is an exception, a handsome single volume containing Orwell's six novels. If most houses possess copies of the prophetic Nineteen Eighty-Four, in this its 60th anniversary year, or Animal Farm(1946), far too many homes do not have Burmese Days(1934); nor are there legions of copies of A Clergyman's Daughter(1935) or of Keep the Aspidistra Flying(1936). Orwell was such a fine journalist and essayist, as well as a superb witness, as is evident from Homage to Catalonia(1939), his fiction is often overlooked. Yet it is Orwell who most vividly brings to life the defeated England of the 1930s. Best of all in this generous, chunky tome is the inclusion of his finest novel, the heartrending, evocative and brilliantly funny Coming Up For Air(1939). Orwell was, and is, important; he is also great. Here's the proof. Eileen Battersby
Indignation
Philip Roth
Vintage, £7.99
It's hardly a spoiler to reveal that young Marcus Messner narrates Pulitzer Prize-winning Philip Roth's latest novel, Indignation, from the afterlife – the reader learns on page 54 that Marcus is dead; part of the mystery of this slim novel is learning how he gets there. There is a triumvirate of forces that Marcus battles the year before his death – his once loving father, a kosher butcher who has become manic and paranoid and causes Marcus to leave New Jersey; the Dean of Winesburg College, the pastoral Ohio school to which he transfers, who debates the values of mass for the atheistic student; and the Korean War, which in its second year of bloodshed wages in the background and threatens to pull Marcus to its front. Though Marcus attempts to avoid each by focusing solely on his studies, his attraction to a beautiful – and suicidal – coed distracts him. A story about foolishness and chance, told with the striking clarity of which Roth is a master. Emily Firetog
The Atlantic Ocean
Andrew O’Hagan
Faber, £10.99
Given that Andrew O'Hagan's fiction has garnered numerous accolades, including the Whitbread First Novel Award, readers would be forgiven for assuming his essays would constitute a mere footnote in his artistic oeuvre. However, his distinctive brand of "literary journalism" proves compelling in its own right. Beginning with a damning critique of the politics of his native Scotland, this consistently excellent set of essays (most of which were originally published in the London Review of Books)draws on an eclectic range of topics from the bittersweet existence of Marilyn Monroe to the array of social hardships routinely inflicted on British beggars. Yet it is in writing intimate character portraits that O'Hagan truly excels. The author's impassioned description of two ordinary American citizens and their attempts to help alleviate the brutal ramifications of Hurricane Katrina is arguably the finest piece here, while his investigation into the lives of two unrelated soldiers (one American, one British) killed in Iraq provides an especially poignant finale to an accomplished collection. Paul Fennessy
Vermeer’s Hat
Timothy Brook
Profile Books, £9.99
The Netherlands in the 17th century was a place of social experimentation, including huge innovations in trade. This illuminating, personal study employs Vermeer's paintings as a source of visual cues to describe a moment in world history which saw the Dutch transformed from a marginal European people into a central global power. The hat which the title mentions, worn by a soldier in Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl,is traced to the military excursions which the French had recently begun along the shores of North America's great lakes - in part, according to Brook, to satisfy a demand for the beaver pelts needed to make felt. Brook, a Canadian professor and expert in China, goes on to discuss connections between the United Provinces and the Asian Empire, whose functionaries were only reluctantly - as he shows in several amusing and shocking anecdotes - beginning to acknowledge the importance of the West. Luke Sheehan
The Long-Player Goodbye
Travis Elborough
Sceptre, £8.99
The LP is 60 years old, and though CDs and downloads have brought it to the brink of extinction, it’s not time to dance on its grave just yet. In what is more a celebration than a valediction, Travis Elborough tracks the rise of the revolutionary format that expanded the modern rock universe, enabling artists to indulge themselves over a whopping 40 minutes of vinyl time, and allowing record companies to fully exploit the sales potential of this baby- boomer-friendly product. Classical and jazz works were suddenly available for home listening, artists could parlay a hit song into a hit album, and prog-rockers could noodle endlessly over six sides of a triple LP.
Written with affection and enough arcane knowledge to fill a dozen music trivia quizzes, The Long-Player Goodbye is a fascinating journey through the history of rock as viewed through a 12-inch black vinyl prism. Kevin Courtney