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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Rereading Martin Amis’s The Rachel Papers made me think about something bigger. We have more opinions about books than ever. More ratings. More recommendations. But do we still have literary critics? Whatever happened to the literary critic tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/09/mart...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Joan Didion warned us that “writers are always selling somebody out”, and the Year of Magical Thinking turns the question around. What if the person being sold out is the writer herself? tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/09/joan...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

What happens when a writer spends years trying to understand someone and still can’t? Emmanuel Carrère’s *The Adversary* suggests that sometimes the most honest answer a writer can give us is: I don’t know. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/09/can-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Imagine trusting a writer with your story. Then the book comes out and you realise they never believed you. Janet Malcolm’s *The Journalist and the Murderer* asks whether betrayal is built into nonfiction. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/09/what...

The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm and Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss, exploring trust and betrayal in nonfiction

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Hunter S. Thompson wasn't a reliable narrator. That might have been the point. Can journalism distort the facts and still tell us something true? Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the strange truth of Gonzo journalism. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/09/can-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Donna Tartt hasn't published a novel in 13 years. The Secret History: 1992 The Little Friend: 2002 The Goldfinch: 2013 Book four: ??? This is officially the longest we've ever waited for a new Donna Tartt novel. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/08/what...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Joan Didion sat quietly and watched. Norman Mailer walked straight into the story. Two literary opposites, one uncomfortable question: can a journalist ever really be objective? tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/08/joan...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Truman Capote turned murder into literature. Norman Mailer tried to get the writer out of the way. The Executioner’s Song shows why that might be impossible. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/08/can-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

If you consume true crime, there is one book you should read: Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Not because it's always trustworthy, but because almost everything we argue about true crime today is already there. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/08/can-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Joan Didion warned us that “writers are always selling somebody out”. Rachel Cusk’s Life of M raises an uncomfortable question: what happens when you recognise yourself in somebody else’s fiction? tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/08/can-...

Rachel Cusk’s Life of M has prompted speculation about Natalie Portman. But when does inspiration become betrayal, and can you ever really trust a writer?

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

When did we stop expecting protagonists to be likeable? tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

When did we stop expecting protagonists to be likeable? tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Have we accidentally turned reading into another productivity challenge tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/07/are-...

Are reading goals helping us read more, or turning books into another productivity challenge? A reflection on Goodreads, BookTok and rediscovering the joy of slow reading.

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

England's match against Argentina has renewed interest in the Falklands War. If you're looking to understand what happened in 1982, here are the three books I'd recommend first. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Can a disappointing ending ruin an otherwise brilliant novel? I've been thinking about books that hooked me completely, only to stumble at the finish. From The Goldfinch to Prophet Song, why do great novels so often fail in the final pages? tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/07/why-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

At what point did making books harder to read become a sign of literary quality? I've been reading King Fisher & Prophet Song, & it got me thinking about literary fiction's affair with missing quotation marks and unconventional punctuation. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/07/at-w...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The greatest writer of the American West isn't who most people think. For me, it's Annie Proulx. Here's why her Western writing is unmatched. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/07/why-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The greatest writer of the American West isn't who most people think. For me, it's Annie Proulx. Here's why her Western writing is unmatched. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/07/why-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

I've finally written about one of my all-time favourite novels. Frank Herbert's Dune isn't just a masterpiece of sci-fi. It's a novel about climate, religion, power, AI and the dangers of charismatic leaders. It's more relevant than ever. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/06/why-...

Why Frank Herbert’s Dune remains the greatest science fiction novel ever written, and why its themes of ecology, AI, power and messianic leadership feel more relevant than ever.

A desert landscape evoking Arrakis from Frank Herbert’s Dune, with rolling sand dunes under a vast sky.

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Beautiful prose can make a worldview feel inevitable. This essay asks whether literary admiration can survive closer scrutiny. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/06/beau...

Headline: Beautiful writing and difficult reputations
Description: A literary collection featuring Monsters, The White Album, The Year of Magical Thinking, The Sun Also Rises, Money and The Ballad of Black Tom.

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Start with a forgotten crime writer. End up with Orwell, Cornford, the International Brigades and an entire lost literary world. That is the joy of a reading rabbit hole. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/06/down...

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Copies of Studies in a Dying Culture by Christopher Caudwell, Death of an Airman by Christopher St John Sprigg and Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell.

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Three essential books for exploring Christopher Caudwell’s world: his cultural criticism, his Golden Age crime fiction and Orwell’s first-hand account of the Spanish Civil War.

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

One hundred years after The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published, its most famous trick still works. Why it's always worth revisiting Agatha Christie. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/06/read...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The difficult woman in fiction was never really unlikeable. She was inconvenient, and that is what made her interesting. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-...

Why difficult, messy and so-called unlikeable women in fiction matter, from Jane Eyre and Austen to Moshfegh, Ferrante and Emma Cline.

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The difficult woman in fiction was never really unlikeable. She was inconvenient, and that is what made her interesting. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Campus novels are rarely about education. They are about ambition, reinvention, class anxiety and badly behaved clever people. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/06/why-...

Why we keep returning to campus novels -- seven campus novels to read.

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

BookTok, Goodreads and Substack have made reading more visible. The question is whether visibility has made it deeper. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/06/is-l...

An image based on Andy Warhol that says: How many books did you read this year? A reflective look at BookTok, Goodreads, Substack and online book culture, asking whether the literary internet deepens reading or performs it.

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

BookTok, Goodreads and Substack have made reading more visible. The question is whether visibility has made it deeper. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/06/is-l...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Are novels really getting shorter and simpler, or is fiction adapting to a culture where attention has become harder to defend? tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/05/why-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Are novels really getting shorter and simpler, or is fiction adapting to a culture where attention has become harder to defend? tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/05/why-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Writing live news can be tough, as MPs all become ministers.

The front page of The Times where mistakenly reported 80 ministers have asked Keir Starmer to go

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Some novels comfort. Others ask to be endured. This post considers *A Little Life*, the debate around its relentless sadness, and five challenging books to read next. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/05/when...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Why are unlikeable characters often the most compelling in fiction? From Yesteryear to Yellowface, a look at the messy, difficult people we cannot quite stop reading. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

For anyone curious about where to go after Dostoevsky’s shorter works, these are for me the top five Russian novels that matter most. It is part reading list, part invitation to stop circling and dive in. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/04/why-...

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

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Gordon MacMillan @gordonmacmillan.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

The Capture makes no sense whatsoever. Plot completely lost. The killings, the Pocahontas cultural appropriation blackmail thread. It’s like the whole plot has been run through correction.

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