Stephanie Jane reviewed London overground by Iain Sinclair
London history and gossip
3 stars
I'm not really sure what to make of this book. For a flaneur's memoir, there's little about walking and for a book inspired by a railway line, there's not much about trains either! Sinclair uses the London Overground line as departure point for reminiscences and musings about a variety of subjects, but mostly themed around his own artistic and literary past and friends. I did enjoy diversions into London history and gossip, but for me reading London Overground felt like being a spouse at the annual company dinner. I recognised names of people and places, but mostly felt excluded from the conversation. If you're familiar with Sinclair's previous writing and work, or that of his accompanying friend Andrew Kotting, you might well get a lot more out of this book than I did. As it is, I have noted a few potential books for my TBR list, but am ultimately …
I'm not really sure what to make of this book. For a flaneur's memoir, there's little about walking and for a book inspired by a railway line, there's not much about trains either! Sinclair uses the London Overground line as departure point for reminiscences and musings about a variety of subjects, but mostly themed around his own artistic and literary past and friends. I did enjoy diversions into London history and gossip, but for me reading London Overground felt like being a spouse at the annual company dinner. I recognised names of people and places, but mostly felt excluded from the conversation. If you're familiar with Sinclair's previous writing and work, or that of his accompanying friend Andrew Kotting, you might well get a lot more out of this book than I did. As it is, I have noted a few potential books for my TBR list, but am ultimately more disappointed than inspired to follow in Sinclair's footsteps.
