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From: Max Porter Category: Books Date: 20 May 2007 Time: 12:48 PM Review: Marias' Your Face Tomorrow is a vitally ambitious sequence of novels that utterly shames most of contemporary British fiction. Mediocre offerings from 'our best' (Chesil Beaches etc), are revealed as hopeless, flailing wet failures when read alongside a single page of Marias in full stride. He has massive novelist-balls. He always addresses our condition, our history and the dangerous possibilities that exist between people. He fully revels in the novels' obligations to philosophy, but beneath the surface, like a big clever Spanish whale, is a thumping love of plot. I know it can be pretentious, but I find it delightful because he's tidy and skilled enough to pull it off. I feel mentally engaged when I read it, which is good. I also feel perversley pro-European and wish I was a member of the London Library with loads of time on my hands. Thankyou Worldwidereview, what a super facility you have here. Having read a few offerings I see people are welcome to contribute personal musings. Does that make you an up-market blog? I'm not sure. I don't know much about blogging. If I say "I'm off now to make my sarnies for lunch because I spent so much money on posh baguettes last week" I'm sort of saying that my plans are up-market ideas, good enough for cultural folks to read, and I think that would be self-indulgent. I wonder if you email people saying "Please make your reviews less blog-like and more up-market." But you don't have the addresses, so that wouldn't work. I admit I know more about this question than I'm letting on because I have read on here some arguments about racist and worthless contributions and the site being democratic and free from censorship. So, as I say, thank you. I feel I've gone on too long, irresponsibly long. I will keep it strictly Review material next time. Read the Marias.