SOURCE: “Near-Perfect Right-Wing Art,” in The Spectator, Vol. 274, No. 8701, April 15, 1995, p. 36.

In the following review of Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard, Taylor discusses the narrative structure and political theme of the novel.

The publishing history of Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard looks like a sad case of Martin Amis in reverse. Timothy Mo, the author of four highly-praised novels, three of them shortlisted for the Booker Prize, approaches selected publishers with the manuscript of his new work and, let us say, a certain sum of money in mind. As one, the publishers decline to match these expectations (the top bid is supposed to have been in the region of £100,000), whereupon Mr Mo takes terrific umbrage and resolves to publish it himself under the auspices of something called the Paddleless Press.

The publishers, again as one, were also supposed to have been roundly appalled by Mo’s opening chapter, to the...