Reflecting on DEAF SENTENCE, the reader can hear the echoes of awful laughter — that silent cacchination encountered everywhere in Beckett’s writing — which characterizes our present lot, with its extended, often forcibly prolonged, old age. Lodge’s transparent prose plays out in a sophisticated informal, everyday voice; his is artful writing that succeeds in that most difficult literary genre, Comedy.
Fiction Reviews
Deaf Sentence by David Lodge
by Jascha Kessler
October 7th, 2008
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Saša Stanišic
by Elinor Teele
October 2nd, 2008
Yet it is no accident that Aleksandar begins with an account of death, nor is it an accident that he wishes himself a magician, able to wave a wand and make things okay again. For tucked in the lines of his narrative we hear ominous rumblings, like shellfire in the distance. Communism is discredited, nationalist sentiment is on the rise.
T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. by Sanyika Shakur
by John Holt
September 30th, 2008
Shakur seems lost in a prison-induced dreamland where people can blow away countless others with impunity, cause the deaths of innocent bystanders, deal drugs, break any law they want then get arrested only to have all of the charges magically disappear. Not content with this far-fetched fantasy, the author then has Lapeace getting married barefoot and immersed in the natural world as though none of the murderous mayhem ever happened. Bad cops and snitches are killed. All is right with the world in Shakurland.
Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
by Garan Holcombe
September 23rd, 2008
The novel is narrated by August Brill, a writer, a widower, an old man. Brill is recovering from a car accident and sharing a house with his daughter and granddaughter, who are both grieving their own losses. Brill can’t sleep and so tells himself a story about a man called Owen Brick, who wakes up to find himself in another America, an America at war, but with itself rather than Iraq. An America in which the Towers stand while all around them falls apart.
The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III
by Elinor Teele
September 17th, 2008
Of course, the reason the affable Dubus was feeding strippers $20 from his writing fellowship becomes a little clearer when one reads the book – the tale of an exotic dancer in Florida whose life intersects with one of the hijackers of 9/11.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
by Julia Braun Kessler
September 2nd, 2008
Such a pity Mary Ann Shaffer is not around to enjoy her celebrity! Shaffer died in February of this year and thus missed her own miracle—best-sellerdom for a first book written by an already “mature” librarian, former bookseller, and unpublished, aspiring writer. The good news, however, is that her opus is engaging, ingenious and ahead of the publishing game.
The Count of Concord by Nicholas Delbanco
by Elinor Teele
August 18th, 2008
Sir Benjamin Thompson, a.k.a. Count Rumford, is probably most familiar to modern ears as the inventor of the Rumford Fireplace. Yet that honorarium does not begin to cover the career – tinkerer, teacher, soldier, and spy – of this poster child of the Enlightenment.
Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
by Elinor Teele
June 24th, 2008
Ogres are like onions, the great philosopher Shrek once said. Onions have layers, ogres have layers. And, one might add in an irrational syllogism, ogres and onions are a lot like Odd Hours by Dean Koontz.
The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
by Elinor Teele
June 16th, 2008
If you’re going to mix brains with bosoms, however, you have to be very careful stylistically. Readers don’t mind sex, we’re very fond of it in some cases, but we do mind when it’s over the top. And what jars in the racier bits jars overall. Underneath the adjectives and adverbs, there’s a streamlined, engaging book in here. It just needed a firm editor on passages like these
The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
by Julie Ellam
June 14th, 2008
Jeanette Winterson’s latest novel, The Stone Gods, is a science-fiction novel-within-a-novel adventure and might come as a pleasant surprise to the fans who have seen her through the days of feast then famine.
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- Images from How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb: Pete notes: Amazing pics! Does anyone have an idea when another test is being done. Hopefully never.
- Collapse: How Nations Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond: Sam Ogbonna notes: Virtually the entire non-Western world is a genocidal time bomb.
- Images from How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb: Simon notes: I believe the photos are absolutely stunning! Perhaps it would be wise to not introduce politics into a photgraphy site?
- Christine MacDonald on the Corruption of the Environmental Movement: Jim West notes: Courageous, yes, Christine. Audubon Society has major polluters on its board of directors. Rachel’s...
- Images from How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb: Baskin & Cabins notes: Yeah, there definitely is a strange beauty to nuclear test photos. Obviously every one is aware of them and what they are...
- An Interview With James Hollis: Jean Joseph notes: For me, “The Middle Passage” has become like a Bible on my night table. I read from it when I need encouragement and am fighting...
- Images from How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb: jez notes: @andrew reed: i think you’re getting a bit hysterical about - and missing the point of - this series of photographs. “the...
- Photo Essay: North Korean Propaganda Posters: Chris bennett notes: what the heck is wrong with north korea why do they hate america i tell you why because we have the freedom and the power to do...
- Christine MacDonald on the Corruption of the Environmental Movement: Rini Sucahyo notes: I am currently the External Relations Coordinator for Conservation International - Indonesia. I don’t...
- T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. by Sanyika Shakur : Shakier Dohou notes: Whoever wrote the article dissing the book is just a hater. We know the book is ficition with much truth injected in it. Such as the...
- Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter: Yehuda Draiman notes: NO PALESTINIAN STATE – No land concessions R4. Imagine that the various people who settled in the United States for the past...
- Alfred S. Posamentier on the Fibonacci Numbers: chachiksin notes: he US House of Representatives has voted by 263-171 in favour of a $700bn (?380bn) plan to rescue the US financial sector.More..
- Christine MacDonald on the Corruption of the Environmental Movement: Magne Karlsen notes: I don’t know what you’ll make of my comment here. It’s just something I wrote about the...
- Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior, Conservative Statesman - by Walter Brian Cisco: Kelly Hampton notes: I am also related to Wade Hampton. I would like to know anything about my...
- Christine MacDonald on the Corruption of the Environmental Movement: sanjita notes: I will tell you what is wrong Kabuki- its hypocritical. The messaging of green orgs is sustainability and...
