A word that came to mind as I finished this book is kaleidoscope. I'm hoping that thinking and writing about the book will take me to an explanation for that word rising to the surface. At the outset we learn that six tenants and the landlord who live in a formerly grand old house turned into apartments perish one night when it goes up in flames. What the author tells about the lives or one...
Kristin Lavrinsdatter by Sigrid Undset. Jen is enjoying it. Audiobook. Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg. Coming of age novel set in Poland in the 1970s and 80s. Man Booker long list. Described here. Ties by Domenico Starnone. Trans. by Jhumpa Lahiri. NYT review. If the Oceans Were Ink by Carla Power. Nonfiction about Islamic faith. Available at the public library. The Refugees by Viet Thanh...
I recently read James Woods' 2014 piece in The New Yorker about Elizabeth Harrower and made a note to read her work. I began with the one he called her masterpiece, written in 1966. She wrote only six novels and shortly before publication of the last one in 1971, stopped the presses. Her work is now in print, including that last one, thanks to Text publishing. She...
I came across this book on a list called Good Reading for Hard Times but I’m afraid it didn’t work well for me. It is set in in 1997 at a company of scientists called High Tech; the narrator is trying to isolate how fads spread. Each chapter begins with a brief description of fads through the years, from tulips (1600s), mesmerism (late 1700s), dance marathons (1920s), mood rings...
"Pale Horse, Pale Rider" is the name of the collection of three novellas as well as the name of the third one. The phrase, from the Book of Revelation (King James version) is "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given to them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger...
This is the story of William and his two sons: William fought in World War II, Robert fought in Vietnam, and Jimmy went to Canada. Eventually the story reaches back to William's father in the Great War and Robert's grandson who wants to enlist to fight the jihadists, leaving no doubt that the author is writing about the many ways war affects those who wage it. After Robert...
Robin Dalton is a renown literary agent (four of her authors won Booker prizes) and movie producer (Oscar and Lucinda). She was born in 1920 in Sydney and moved to London in 1946. This short book that she wrote about her eccentric family was first published in 1965 and again recently with an introduction by Clive James. It opens with this irresistible bit: My great-aunt Juliet was knocked over...
Cora, the main character of this book, is the granddaughter of Ajarry, born in Africa, sold multiple times until she lands at a cotton plantation in Georgia. In this way the story begins with the horror of those brought from Africa. Ajarry died in the cotton field. Liberty was reserved for other people, for the citizens of the City of Pennsylvania bustling a thousand miles to the north. Since the...
Having been moved to read Trespass by Tony's review of this book, I decided it was time to read this one. So I must say thank you again to Tony. We meet Gustav as a little boy living in a small town in Switzerland with his perpetually angry and unloving mother. He takes her advice and masters his emotions and gets on with life with kindness for others. He is never able to teach his mother to...
I can't say when I last read a book of essays, but based on this Australian author's novel The Spare Room that I read in 2009 and Reading Matters' review, I decided to give it a try. It's so good that all I can do is fill this post with quotes. One essay is called Eight Views of Tim Winton, thus combining a reference to Japanese woodblock prints, e.g., Thirty-Six Views of Mt...