Stephen Blanchard’s Gagarin and I (Vintage, £5.99, ISBN 0 09 954871 2) is what is called nowadays a “rite of passage” novel. Leonard, an even-tempered, sharp observer of incident and people of the 1950s, progresses through adolescence obsessed with the pioneering stages of space travel. Blanchard’s ear for common speech and conversation is acute, the stoicism of his characters impressive.
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