The Extinction Club by Robert Twigger, Hamish Hamilton, £12.99, ISBN
0241140676
HALFWAY through The Extinction Club, Robert Twigger maintains that a
“bookhead” develops the ability to judge a book’s quality by flipping through a
few of its pages. Any bookhead flipping through Twigger’s book will give it the
thumbs up at once. It’s remarkable, enjoyable—and difficult to
categorise.
The first surprise is a dust jacket that makes it look like a well-used
second-hand book, but you learn that, to Twigger, second-hand bookstores are a
sign of humanity’s saving recalcitrance. The second is that there is no
conventional form: no…
