Timelessness trumps timely

What we have is pure storytelling delight, a page-turner that works forwards and backwards as the reader fills in the gaps

THE LITERARY CRITIC John Carey in 2000 published Pure Pleasure: A Guide to the 20th Century’s Most Enjoyable Books. In it he warned of those who associate reading with “swank and false refinement” and argued for “pure reading-pleasure”. Crucially, for his list he rejected “books that gain their power from their subjects more than their writing” — a sentence which made me realise that if Carey ever set up a cult, I’d be down the front slurping the Kool-Aid.

In a year more interesting than most, it seems commoner than ever to be assured by publishers and critics — yes, I have indulged, but I can quit any time I like — that every new book has designs on our times. (Pity poor Don DeLillo, whose