A Year in Reading: Bill Morris

The highlight of my reading life this year was, no contest, the new novel from the Irish volcano . His was short-listed for the Booker Prize, and it provides all the pleasures his fans have come to expect, including pyrotechnical language, a delicious stew of high lit and low slang, lovable bunged-up characters, rapturous storytelling, and a fair bit of the old U(ltra) V(iolence), in the form of a knife. But Barry told me in an interview that while writing the book he was actually much more under the sway of ’s early plays from the 1960s, especially and , with their sneaky undertows of menace. Don’t bother trying to parse the influences. Do yourself a favor and read , then go to Barry’s earlier, equally brilliant work.