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“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into a giant insect.” – Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis (1915) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz I didn’t finish it, I’m slightly ashamed to say. It’s sort of a Dominican version of Catcher in the Rye. Four or five […]
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – George Orwell, 1984 (1949) A Most Wanted Man, by John le Carré You know what you’re going to get with a John le Carré novel, much as you know what you’re going to get with an Elmore Leonard novel . […]
“A screaming comes across the sky.” – Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) Ritual, by Mo Hayder Okay detective thriller with a written-for-TV feel, entertaining but ultimately forgettable. I was far more impressed with Mo Hayder’s The Devil of Nanking. Pig Island, by Mo Hayder Still under the influence of The Devil of Nanking, I went […]
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.” – Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers Someone on Facebook tagged me with a literary poll. One question I couldn’t answer was: David Sedaris or Dave Eggers? I read and enjoy David Sedaris but had not read Dave Eggers, […]
“Outside of a dog a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” — Groucho Marx Neuromancer, by William Gibson I’ve been working my way through William Gibson’s novels. This is my least favorite to date, but only because it’s so dated. Reading it, I kept flashing on Tron […]
“Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.” — P.J. O’Rourke The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume !: The Pox Party, by M.T. Anderson An astonishingly rich historical novel, right up there with the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. I am […]
The Garden of Last Days, by Andre Dubus III. A novel about people at the ends of their ropes. The characters are well-developed, the story line vividly gritty and believable, but I felt let down and sleazy afterward, because apart from a secondary older-cop character no one is happy or good or has any real […]
Army of the Republic, by Stuart Archer Cohen For the past two years I’ve been seriously thinking about what American working people might do if the government allows employers to destroy labor unions and cancel pension obligations. I’ve been entertaining fantasies of assassination teams, composed of unemployed and retired auto workers, picking off high-profile CEOs […]