A reading list for April.

Cormac McCarthy. In the past month I have read The Road, Blood Meridian, Outer Dark and Child of God. Never before has anyone written about murder, cannibalism, incest, filth and general human depravity with such grace and beauty. I am smitten.

Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game. Card is certainly a visionary; the kids at the academy are using iPads and Ender's sister is blogging on the internet, and Card was writing in the seventies. As a piece of literature the book falls short.

Paul Auster, Invisible. The book is great but in the end it does not deliver the toe-curling postmodern climax one expects from Auster. Lots of steamy and, ahem, unconventional sex.

[As an aside, incest has been a recurring theme in many of these books. Outer Dark is the biggest offender but Invisible comes close. Ender does not get with his sister but there is some sense that he wants to. Child of God has only a little bit. There isn't room for incest in Blood Meridian among the mass murder and rape, and no one in The Road is feeling much amorous.]

I am currently reading: Gary Jennings, Aztec; Roberto Bolano, 2666; Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men.