Beyond the Book: Background information when reading The Ninth Life of Louis Drax

Beyond the Book

This article relates to The Ninth Life of Louis Drax

Liz Jensen has written four books before this, but she describes The Ninth Life as her first 'grown up' book.

• Egg Dancing (1996): 'Yes, the story is often overwhelmed by delusions, hallucinations and trips through altered reality. But Jensen has a real gift for wickedly black humor - and enough stylistic panache to hold a reader's attention firmly through the thicket of her excesses.' (Publishers Weekly)
• Ark Baby (UK 1998, US 1999): 'Strained would-be satire, with its intellectual and narrative punch diluted by very obvious foreshadowing.' (Kirkus Reviews).
• Paper Eater (2000 in UK, apparently not available in the US): 'Funny and richly imagined, this is as timely a warning about rampant consumerism as Orwell's 1984 was about state control'
  (Sunday Express)
• War Crimes For The Home (2002): 'The term "dark humour" doesn't do Liz Jensen justice ... You will laugh aloud at the beginning — and probably weep at the end.'  (The Daily Telegraph).

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This article relates to The Ninth Life of Louis Drax. It first ran in the January 18, 2006 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.