A profoundly moving book. ( )

This was a great book. I have not read anything by William Boyd in a long time and this only reinforced my high opinion of him.

I had no problem in general with the way in which Logan met and interacred with the principal literary and artistic talents of his generation, although bumping into Hemingway in war-torn Spain was a bit of a stretch.

The suddenness of Logan's loss of his wife and daughter during the war was very cleverly done. Having been focused on the misery of Logan's time in captivity it was quite a wrench to realise that the real tragedy had taken place on the home front. I live not too far from where Logan and Freya lived in Battersea, and a bomb destroyed the house opposite mine - all very real. ( )

A very special book, because you experience the (very interesting) life of a person called Logan Mountstuart (LMS) reading his personal diary. William Boyd writes exceptionally great. Loved this book. ( )

When you start out, you'll think you might not like this book. The main character is arrogant and, well, young. Brash. But keep going through this fictionalized journal that keeps track of seventy years of a man's life, including his heartbreaks and strongest loves. Other reviewers bash it for its "Forest Gumpness," yet to me it's not all that unbelievable that an upperclass intelligence officer might have contact with influential persons during one of the world's most tempestuous and active periods in history. I've read several William Boyd titles now and he has repeatedly shown his ability to invent worlds I like inhabiting. It's a good winter read, fully sad, sweet, and satisfying. ( )

First of all, just to say the main thing, it's a really good read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It made me laugh a lot at the beginning (especially in the school years) & then gradually it made me sadder & sadder. At the end I cried a bit.

What was most poignant for me in the book was the relationship with Freya & Stella, and how there can be this moment / time of happiness in someone's life, only for it sometimes to end ever so soon. It was absolutely devastating when Freya & Stella died, & it wasn't made easier by the fact that so many people died in the 2nd world war. It still seemed tragic to me. I have to say, after that the book depicted Logan's life as going from disaster to disaster, just going downhill really. Especially the bit where he was living in London & was completely broke & living on dogfood... oh my god, that was so so sad especially after he had lived those happy years with Freya. I did think at that point in the book that this was quite disappointing; Logan went from an initially promising life, to a peak when he met Freya, to everything going downhill after that. And yet at the end Boyle actually 'saved' the whole thing, with Logan's last few years in France, which actually felt like a very good ending to a long & turbulent life.

The one thing that left me a bit puzzled- I didn't know what do with it!- was the fact that Logan kept bumping into famous people: Ernest Hemingway, Picasso, Joyce, Virginia Woolf, the prince of England & many others. That particular strategy felt a bit 'gimmicky' and Forest-Gumpy to me... but I guess the book was (among other things) trying to document what happened during the 20th century & not just Logan's life, so in that sense it made sense as a strategy.

Anyway, in general- very well written, very enjoyable. ( )