Books by William Somerset Maugham

4. Somerset Maugham, Up at the Villa .  Great fun at first, and very short.  It ends up “overinvesting” in plot, but still for me a worthwhile read.  It is best when at its most psychological.

Elizabeth Gilbert and Donna Tartt produced decent plane reads, but I wouldn’t call them favorites.  The new Thomas Pynchon I could not stand more than a short sample of.  I sampled many other novels but didn’t like or finish them.  I read or reread a lot of Somerset Maugham, which was uniformly rewarding. The Painted Veil may not be the best one, but it is a good place to get hooked.  I reread quite a bit of Edith Wharton and it rose further in my eyes. Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence are m...