Charles Elton / Features / Untitled Books

What I'm reading: The Abstinence Teacher, A Book of Common Prayer, and Blade Runners, Deer Hunters & Blowing The Bloody Doors Off

Charles Elton

Mr Toppit is the first novel by the former literary agent turned television producer Charles Elton.

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

I read this because I'm on a radio show with the author. Although I've seen the movies based on his books 'Election' and 'Little Children' I'd never read one of his books. I thought it was wonderful - funny and sad and true. Like Anne Tyler and Alison Lurie, Perrotta is brilliant at describing the struggle of good people to lead decent lives against the odds and their own dysfunctional personalities . And there's a brilliant description of Born-Again Christian sex manuals which is hilarious.

A Book Of Common Prayer by Joan Didion

I re-read this every year or so. It's my favourite book. Some people find Didion too 'mannered', but I think that's the point. She manages to be both elliptical and razor-sharp at the same time. Everything happens under the surface and her story of a woman's strange journey to a corrupt Caribbean island in search of her daughter who has been kidnapped and - like Patty Hearst - 'turned' by her captors is heartbreaking without appearing to have any sentimentality at all. On her way there, travelling with her drunken ex-husband, she stays with a grand family in the Deep South and the description of how they try to get rid of these difficult guests who have overstayed their welcome without ever letting their fine Southern manners drop is brilliant.

Blade Runners, Deer Hunters & Blowing The Bloody Doors Off by Michael Deeley

I have an insatiable appetite for books on show-business and my special subject on Mastermind would be the beleaguered British film industry. This is a memoir by the producer of 'The Deer Hunter' and 'The Italian Job' and spares no detail of the nightmare of putting films together and the personal toll it takes. For those of us with a particular fascination for show-business monsters, the description of working with the duplicitous Michael Cimino, director of 'The Deer Hunter' is wonderful and is almost equal to Steven Bach's description in 'Final Cut' of working with him on the next film he made, 'Heaven's Gate'.

Monday, 9 February, 2009