As we move towards the end of the financial year short term chaos looms, but order is on the horizon. Gordon is kindly, happily building new IT systems for Chez Coode Street. Anne is on her way to visit. Ipods beckon, as do Melbourne and Continuum. A visit to the accountant today, some painful check writing and things should once again be on a reasonable level, at least until October.

With that in mind, let me point you towards John Clute’s review of Brad Denton’s scathingly brilliant Laughin’ Boy which, as Clute points out “rubs our ears in the junk noise and anguish of America” and is “one of the funniest novels of the past decade”. The comedy was so dark that one of Locus‘s reviewers was unable to read it, but I loved it. Magnificent stuff, and one of the novels of the year.