“I have never been as intelligent or as introspective as I was when I was seven years old. After that it was all downhill, I’m sorry to say”, writes Any Tyler in Clock Dance. For better or for worse—for worse, right?—I am afraid I can only relate. My son is a year and a half short of that age. Then what? I guess at best he’ll have lots of great books to read, at worst he’ll become a great novelist himself.