Category Archives: Book and film reviews

Afterwards at home, long discussion about relative merits of various graphic novels.

Alexandra Williams, youth librarian in Alice Springs, Australia, recommended The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas. Definitely for a mature young adult, it is an honest and searing portrait of Australian society… well, I am about halfway through. Told from multiple points … Continue reading →

I love her essay! “WHAT WAS FISHING like in Cuba?” This is the very first question directed at Thomas McGuane, even before he has a chance to sit down or take a breath. It comes at him from an eager … Continue reading →

My friend Bill Sundstrom recommended it. Quite interesting to read. The style is different from the usual science fiction. Deeply moody and elliptical. The strange Area X the narrator finds herself in is like her “pool gone wild” that she … Continue reading →

I really liked this story, and enjoyed reading some comments over at Mookse, so I even posted, fearfully, my own comment, reproduced below.  Enjoy the story (which you can read online at Mookse). I’ve been a long time quiet Mookse … Continue reading →

Placid, indeed, was the right word. The old man considered, placidly. via Chapter I. James, Henry. 1917. The Portrait of a Lady. Vol. XI. Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction.

The Master by Colm Tóibín is a novel, based on the “real life” of the novelist Henry James, covering the years 1895-1899.  Tóibín mostly focuses on the inner life of James, as he travels between London and Italy, but mostly … Continue reading →

So a librarian at Santa Clara University gave me a treat this long holiday weekend.  In the “fiction browsing” section I discovered Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle from 1962, apparently her last published novel.  It is … Continue reading →

Victor Klemperer’s I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years 1942-45.  He survives.  The diary is gripping reading. He wrote practically every day and gave the pages to a trusted friend.   At the end you get all the … Continue reading →

I found this quite a good story.  Although told in a very straightforward style, with no verbal pyrotechnics, one senses early on that there is a profound ambiguity in the relationship between narrator and his distant relative Manshu.  A clever … Continue reading →

Back to light reading I guess.  Somewhere I had read this was a wonderful book. But it turned out to be a very pedestrian mystery, and I am sorry but like reading Alexander McCall Smith some of the pleasure of … Continue reading →

I’ve been doing a lot of light reading since the massively disappointing The Goldfinch.  Here are the short assessments. The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman.  I had heard of these graphic novels for years, but didn’t like Gaiman much so never … Continue reading →

Chibundu Onuzo is a young university student in London.  I am not going to say she is the Francoise Sagan or the Amadou Koné of Nigeria… but the novel The Spider King’s Daughter is an interesting young adult book with … Continue reading →

Before I went off to Puerto Rico for a too-short winter vacation, I randomly grabbed a couple of African novels at in my university library.  As usual my criteria was shorter novels.  No point investing a lot of time… so … Continue reading →

I do not normally link to the Amazon page for buying books, but I do think it worth promoting Boxers and Saints (not just because Gene and I shared a panel, and coffee, last year at a conference).  it is … Continue reading →

This book has gotten a tremendous amount of good word of mouth, and after reading it I can see why.  It is a contemporary sprawling family saga, with a little bit of magical realism sprinkled in.  Full of nostalgia, melancholy, … Continue reading →

Wow… Lynda Barry, one of my favorite cartoonists when I was a young adult, like totally agrees with me.  It’s like I’m in Duplex right now, reading this, because Lynda Barry could be standing inside me. When I finished “Duplex” … Continue reading →

Decidedly 1% upper-crust, this graphic novel of life growing up in Beirut during the 1980s civil war is nevertheless quite moving and is beautifully designed, graphically speaking, though a little repetitious.  If graphic novels like this were cheap, I would … Continue reading →

A very long story by Brodkey, “State of Grace” that I listened to while on a long run.  Interesting and precocious.  I am sure it is a fine story to teach in undergraduate classes.  Almost the same key as Catcher … Continue reading →

Another story to add to “literature about poverty.”  I found it pretty powerful, but I knew what the story was about by the third paragraph.  So it reinforces a sense of injustice and outrage at the petty abuse of authority … Continue reading →