Tristram Shandy

Another bad idea for someone who already has too many books waiting to be read is to subscribe to the Review-A-Day email from Powells, but as a book addict (hello, my name is Phillip and I'm a biblioholic) I did. Today's review is of a book called Things in the Night by the Estonian writer Mati Unt, which the reviewer describes as "scatterbrained" - prompting a comparison with one of those classic books I've been meaning to get round to for years...



The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
by
Laurence Sterne

Sometimes these unread books keep popping up everywhere I look. While I was not reading How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World a few days ago, I noticed that the 'P.S.' section at the back lists Francis Wheen's Top Ten books (of which I've managed to not read eight) and he names Tristram Shandy as his favourite. It is "the greatest fun fair of all novels" according to the South African writer André Brink, while Tom Paulin described it as "one of the funniest, most playful classics in the language." Sounds irresistable - and also, despite being one of the most patently unfilmable books ever written, it is currently in the cinemas as A Cock and Bull Story starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. The film looks hilarious, but I'll wait for it to turn up on TV - that will give me more time to get round to reading the book first. I understand that, while telling his life story, Tristram takes a long time to get round to being born - so I'm sure he would understand my own cunctatiousness.