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
While 2010 hasn’t shaped up to be as wonderful for the blog, it has been a great year for me personally. My reading and this […] 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.
Thanksgiving hadn’t even come & gone when a referb’d Amazon box arrived addressed to me. The return address was unfamiliar, but bore the auspicious “SS” […] Read More
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.
Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book is like a beautifully wrapped gift.
Approximately 500 girls age 14 or younger are raped for profit every month in Atlanta. This is one of the facts that, according to Brandon […] Read More
If you’re a fan of Gothic literature, be sure to pick up Kate Morton’s The Distant Hours. It could have been used to teach my college class on the genre.