Homework: a Memoir by Geoff Dyer (2025) 276pp
Dyer is first and foremost a writer and at times this rollicking (do they rollick in the UK?) coming-of-age memoir reads like Dickensian fiction. I keep expecting Miss Havisham and Estella to make an appearance. But Dyer would put Havisham in a caravan and Estella would be dressed in a mini skirt and drive a Mini Cooper. A literary polymath, Dyer can write about anyone and anything and he does not disappoint here. Certainly, an argument could be made that he is too stylish and too detailed, but the writing is snappy and his ability to put the reader in the setting is uncanny (of course this is not autobiography, it is memoir, much license given). Fair warning – once you read a book by Dyer you will read another and another and another.
Dyer is first and foremost a writer and at times this rollicking (do they rollick in the UK?) coming-of-age memoir reads like Dickensian fiction. I keep expecting Miss Havisham and Estella to make an appearance. But Dyer would put Havisham in a caravan and Estella would be dressed in a mini skirt and drive a Mini Cooper. A literary polymath, Dyer can write about anyone and anything and he does not disappoint here. Certainly, an argument could be made that he is too stylish and too detailed, but the writing is snappy and his ability to put the reader in the setting is uncanny (of course this is not autobiography, it is memoir, much license given). Fair warning – once you read a book by Dyer you will read another and another and another.
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