William Leith15 June 2012
Driving Home
by Jonathan Raban
(Picador, £9.99)
In these essays, which are superb, Raban shows his range. He’s great on Seattle (“a city of newcomers”) where he moved at the age of 47. He writes well about writers, too — his analysis of Philip Larkin’s lines about death is lovely. But the essay that stands out is a wonderfully forensic piece of crime reportage. Remember Neil Entwhistle, the English computer geek who married an American woman, had a daughter with her, and then killed them both? Raban reconstructs the crime with a peerless eye for detail; it’s horribly creepy.
