Reading List
Keith McNally
Restaurateur
Keith McNally grew up in the East End of London, acted on the West End stage as a teenager, and moved to New York at twenty, where he opened a run of restaurants that shaped how the city eats out: the Odeon, Balthazar, Pastis, Minetta Tavern. A stroke in 2016 cost him his speech for a time and he has written candidly about the recovery, most recently in the memoir I Regret Almost Everything. He reads fiction with an eye for amoral protagonists, which he freely admits is a preference rather than an accident.
01
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An American Tragedy
by Theodore Dreiser · 1925 · Fiction
“Clyde Griffiths, the son of impoverished street preachers, has blistering aspirations that spiral tragically out of control. The book is an intensely detailed and closely observed novel of greed and ambition in early 20th-century America.” — via Article
02
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The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
by John le Carré · 1963 · Fiction
“This absolutely brilliant book transcends its genre.” — via Article
03
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Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy · 2004 · Fiction
“Anna Karenina is my absolute favorite book in the world, a monumental tale of doomed passion in which Tolstoy gives a panoramic view of Russia in the 1870s, when the scent of revolution was already in the air.” — via Article
04
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The Good Soldier
by Ford Madox Ford · 1915 · Fiction
“The Good Soldier is the most intriguing book I've ever read. On the surface, it's a novel about two couples who share similar traits and who have seemingly perfect marriages.” — via Article
05
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Arabian Sands
by Wilfred Thesiger · 1959 · Memoir
“Written in clear, concise prose that reflects a life unhampered by possessions, Arabian Sands is an austere masterpiece.” — via Article
06
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Bel-Ami
by Guy de Maupassant · 1885 · Fiction
“I often gravitate to books with an amoral central character, and Bel-Ami contains one of the most compelling. Georges Duroy arrives in Paris as an innocent but opportunistic young man from the provinces who ascends several rungs up the social ladder by exploiting his charm and good looks.” — via Article