I’ve only read The Elementary Particles, which I read in, hmmm, Winter 2001. It struck me at the time as being a very European book – roughly their version of Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Kid on Earth, with which I was reading it in tandem. Looking at it now, it seems a very Clinton-era book – the political critique it’s trying to make is based on assumptions that seem a long way away from Bush’s America.

I haven’t read any of the other ones mainly because the American editions are so staggeringly ugly (and I include the McSwys thing in that). Vaguely tempted to read the Lovecraft biog but I’m not sure that I see the need; I remember reading somewhere about ten years ago that his politics were reactionary & a lot of his writing suddenly snapped into place for me.