John Lanchester – Riots, Terrorism etc.
The 6th March edition of the London Review of Books includes Riots, Terrorism etc. a review by John Lanchester of what appears to be a fantastic book – Flat Earth News by Nick Davies. John Lanchester has been writing some excellent articles for the LRB over the last year, including Warmer, Warmer about climate change, and Cityphilia about the current crisis in the financial markets.
Essentially Riots, Terrorism etc. is a précis of the entire book, with some observations along the way – and it makes both fascinating and depressing reading. Hyperbole generally disgusts Lanchester, but he starts the review with a bold claim:
‘Important’ is a cant word in book reviewing: it usually means something like ‘slightly above average’, or ‘I was at university with her,’ or ‘I couldn’t be bothered to read it so I’m giving a quote instead.’ Very occasionally it might be stretched to mean ‘a book likely to be referred to in the future by other people who write about the same subject’. Nick Davies’s Flat Earth News, however, is a genuinely important book, one which is likely to change, permanently, the way anyone who reads it looks at the British newspaper industry.
