September 2026 Reads

September 2026 Reads

 Movements

(Only two books for September! Ah, back to school. 

This post completed in November 2026, in the interests of timeline repair.)

The Books

Cocaine Nights - J.G. Ballard 

Lean Fall Stand - Jon McGregor 

 Cocaine Nights - J.G. Ballard

 Our narrator finds themself drawn into a world of semi-gated communities of expatriates on the south coast of Spain, who are, it emerges, being stirred from SSRI-induced torpors by a messianic sociopath. That figure is fixated on a theory that crime stimulates the arts and keeps people alive. Ever more damaging thrills sought, what are the sacrifices that might be made to sustain a dream of engagement? 

Given that premise, Cocaine Nights frequently came across somewhat disappointingly coy. J.G. Ballard is one of the great untouchables of modern literature. Man's got an adjective. However, given the gap between concept and execution, the lavish praise on the blurbs seem to be trying to talk themselves into it. 

I think mainly Cocaine Nights has not aged well. Dialogue is often horribly lumpy and unconvincing. Characters talk ideas at each other in a kind of clipped public school tone. Our unreliable narrator is an ageing lothario whose points of reference are obvious politics, sex, international travel and alcoholism... kind of a post-war throwback. Maybe all that was intentional? It just came across as awkward. All the apparent debauching is wafted at, described stiffly by the would-be detective and white knight, perpetually baffled and hopeless, and increasingly seeking complicity. 

That kind of obvious character arc, and a 1990s self-consciousness, marred any effect the book might have had. Maybe Ballard wasn't actually taking any of it seriously. I was trying to think if it would have seemed to be saying something profound about society when it came out, but found myself instead continually interrupted by myself going "Oh come ON", at unlikely scenarios of theatre companies, sport and and arts springing up thanks to a campaign of graffiti and robberies, or the implausible business machinations of monied criminals, or yet another conversation in which cardboard cut-out characters articulate perfectly various notions of social constructs and contracts. There was one section towards the finale of the novel that was just preposterous:  

"But Paula was no longer listening to me. She stepped to the window as the last of the floats arrived, bearing a mock-sunset of pink roses on which was superimposed 'The End'. A boisterous party was in progress on the float, and a dozen younger residents of the Costasol complex performed a dance medley to music played by a three-piece band. Knees and elbows scissored through a few bars of the Charleston, arms whirled in a forties jitterbug, hips gyrated through the twist." 

Ballard dancing along behind, waving a straw boater and cane. The-ah-The-ah-That's all, folks! I had already given up on trying to actually believe any of the book, but this bit at least made me giggle.

Significantly, it did not have nearly enough cocaine in it to justify the cover art.

  Lean Fall Stand - Jon McGregor 

Following on from Ballard, this was altogether more convincing and human. McGregor deals with ice actual and metaphorical in this account of the relationship between veteran Antarctic researcher "Doc" and Anna, also a researcher, who finds herself in the unexpected position of having to become Doc's carer after he has a cataclysmic stroke while at the South Pole.

The opening scenes in and around the research station on the icecap set the story up in a way that anticipates something quite action packed, almost thriller-ish. However, the next part of the book shifts perspective to Anna and her experience, then shifts again to the claustrophobic return home for the couple, and their adult children. Through all of this the text moves gradually away from notions of a simple narrative of personal recovery, until we recognise that McGregor is uncovering the workings of relationships, and the complexes of ways people subsume themselves.  

It is a hopeful book, in an understated way, and has great moments of pathos and humour in the scenes of rehabilitation that form the final part of the book. This has definitely put Jon McGregor on to the "Find more of this writer" list.

Next time

October 2026 had more books in it. But did that post get finished before the end of November? Find out by clicking through!