Lager and Pernod 
Frank Kermode
- The Man Who Walks by Alan Warner
Reviewers rarely feel it prudent to begin by confessing bafflement, but the admission may sometimes be unavoidable. This is my sentiment as I contemplate the four novels of Alan Warner. He has been highly praised (‘dazzling’, ‘classic’, ‘significant’, ‘vastly gifted’, ‘a genius’, ‘one of the most influential literary mould-breakers ever’), and I’m sure none of these eulogies, understandably preserved on the covers of his books, is entirely unmerited. But it is one thing to praise, and another to describe, the work that earned these compliments.
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Frank Kermode’s books include The Sense of an Ending and The Uses of Error.
Other articles by this contributor:
Retripotent · B. S. Johnson
Writing about Shakespeare · Frank Kermode has his say
Here she is · Zadie Smith
Maximum Assistance from Good Cooking, Good Clothes, Good Drink · Auden’s Shakespeare
‘It’s the way people like us don’t talk’ · Andrew Motion’s Boyhood
Our Muddy Vesture · Frank Kermode watches Pacino’s Merchant of Venice
The Savage Life · The Adventures of William Empson
At Tate Britain · William Blake
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