John Irving’s latest novel, Last Night in Twisted River, thrusts another unforgettable character into his reader’s imaginations. Like Garp and Owen Meany, Ketchum, a grizzly […] Read More
Category: Books
Appropriately described, Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides makes myth of “suburban middle-American life” (back cover, paperback edition). This brilliant debut novel is from the author […] Read More
Jennifer Donnelly’s A Northern Light is a book I would have loved when I was 12. I obviously wasn’t paying close enough attention to all […] Read More
I think I liked it BETTER than The Time Traveler’s Wife!…Identical twins are sole heirs of their aunt (whom they’ve never met), move into her London flat (which she is now haunting) and develop relationships with the two men who also live in the building – one of whom is OCD and the other is their aunts former lover.
While I’ve said I’m not going to participate in any challenges for 2011, I don’t want to leave any loose ends hanging for 2010 & […] Read More
Here’s the short take. It was too long – the 500+ pages could have easily been cut to 300. I felt he tried to repeat many of the things he got right in Prince of Tides. He hates his father, is conflicted over his mother – maybe even has a little of the Oedipus thing going. He loves the south, and wants (maybe needs?) to prove his southern-ness.
Hey, folks (if anyone’s out there)… Yes, it is one month in to 2011, and I’m just now posting for the first time. Some personal […] Read More
You know that feel of wanting to devour a book? Of wanting to put off everything – work, sleep, food – in order to just have a few more minutes to read a few more pages? This was what Sarah Water’s Fingersmith was to me.
It is edgy Victorian. A darker version of a British Annie. A novel for a female Dickins. And, it is delightful.
Seventeen year old Susan Trinder has been raised in a house of thieves by Mrs. Sucksby, who often takes in orphans. Unlike other orphans, Sue has been doted on her whole life. When Mr. Rivers, or the Gentleman as Sue knows the frequent visitor, arrives at the house late one evening, the story begins – or so Sue says.
I would venture to guess that of those who have read this book, Owen Meany would make a top 10 list of memorable characters.
While WG Sebald’s Austerlitz won’t be among the top five favorite reads of 2010, it will be among the top books that I’m glad I read. Using stream-of-consciousness narrative, Austerlitz is the title character’s story as he tells it to an unnamed, first-person recorder. And while this style isn’t my favorite, it is profoundly appropriate in this instance.