I’m currently ploughing my way through the Parade’s End novels by Ford Madox Ford (far left in this picture, with a few moody-looking nobodies). I didn’t think it could possibly be as good as The Good Soldier, but it might actually be better. The absurd machinations of the plot are almost impossible to understand without resorting to some kind of spider diagram, and that’s before he starts screwing around with the chronology - but somehow none of this is a bad thing. It draws you in. Ford’s style is beautifully chameleonic. It’s very clever and funny, but mostly it’s just so very sad.
