Contemporary Writers: J.G. Farrell

I stumbled across Contemporary Writers: J.G. Farrell (1986) by Ronald Binns at a convenience store in Bangkok of all places. I had just finished Farrell's impressive tour de force, The Singapore Grip and was interested to learn more. Farrell's influences were wide ranging and among some of my favorite writers and books: Malcom Lowry's Under The Volcano, Tolstoy's War And Peace, Conrad, Nabokov, and Stendhal among others. It seems much of Farrell's fiction sprang from his family history as an Irishman whose father served in India. Of course his political leanings and literary inspirations provided much inspiration as well. I think Binns did a great job in analyzing and putting Farrell's work into context. I was especially interested in his discussion of the previous two installments of his empire series, The Troubles and The Siege Of Krishnapur. These are two books that I plan to read in the near future.