A startling achievement in a first novel, the work seems to have already touched a chord since it has taken Italy and Europe by storm and sold copies in the millions. It was undertaken by a young Italian physicist at age 27, who tells a haunting story. Better yet, he’s a natural, adept with characterization, knowing how to captivate and hold his readers.
Fiction Reviews
The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
by Julia Braun Kessler
March 17th, 2010
A Separate Country by Robert Hicks
by Katie Cappello
March 16th, 2010
A Separate Country tells the story of Confederate General John Bell Hood, who moves to New Orleans after the war and marries a Creole debutante. Hood is a haunted man who has been physically marked by the war; he has lost a leg and the use of an arm. In addition, he can only excel militarily, and his life as a businessman is a resounding failure. Nevertheless, he finds love with the young beauty Anna Marie and they have eleven children together.
Book Review: The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry
by Katherine Tomlinson
March 10th, 2010
The Extinction Clock is counting down. Time is short—10,800 minutes (just seven days)—and if the clock zeroes out, billions will die.
Ex-cop Joe Ledger and the DMS (Department of Military Science) are assigned the mission to stop the clock and the men behind it, a pair of freakishly brilliant monsters who intend to commit genocide on an apocalyptic scale.
Book Review: The American Girl by Monika Fagerholm
by Elinor Teele
March 4th, 2010
It’s a radioactive fairy tale, with adults known only by nicknames (the Black Sheep, the baroness) and facts twisted into fantasies. Ever seen Heavenly Creatures? There’s a bit of that in here – the overheated imaginings of two girls on the edge of puberty.
Book Review: The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer
by John R. Guthrie
February 22nd, 2010
Garrity is an archetype, an ill-understood and imperiled hero who after overcoming every obstacle, exits hand-in-hand with the alluring heroine. It is part of the fun for our heroes to be bigger, somehow, than life, and for villains to be so brilliantly inventive and evil as to rival Satan himself. This fictional world of good and bad provides the reader with a comforting temporary escape from the real world with all its pesky shades of gray.
A Dark Matter by Peter Straub
by Katherine Tomlinson
February 15th, 2010
Novelist Lee Harwell is having breakfast at his favorite Chicago diner when a hostile homeless guy shouting a single word—obstreperous—interrupts his meal. He’s unsettled by the encounter and finally realizes why. The homeless man reminds him of his childhood friend Hootie who has been confined to a mental hospital since the sixties and communicates only in single words and literary quotations.
The Last Reader by David Toscana
by Katie Cappello
February 4th, 2010
The stream-of-consciousness style and lack of quotation marks seen here is indicative of the entire novel. These techniques project to the reader the type of seamlessness in which Lucio and the other characters live. Violence and love, reality and myth, abundance and drought, life and death; these dichotomies mingle and mate, creating an alternate world extreme in its gorgeous, frightening possibilities.
Fables: The Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 by Bill Willingham
by Ryan Van Cleave
January 21st, 2010
But without a doubt, it’s the series that he began seven years ago, Fables, that has captured the imaginations of so many readers. The premise of this story is clear and simple—familiar characters from fairy tales and folklore escape after an army of creatures led by the mysterious Adversary has come to conquer their home worlds. Where do all these exiled creatures go? New York City, of course.
Small Wars by Sadie Jones
by John R. Guthrie
January 19th, 2010
The conflict becomes a war in which, “…there was no truth. It was a nothing, laughable Mickey Mouse conflict; it was a sinister time of terror and repression. The British were misguided and ignorant; the Cypriots were lethargic and foolish. The Cypriots loved the British; the Cypriots hated the British. The British were torturers; the British were decent and honourable. EOKA were terrorists; EOKA were heroes.”
The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
by Elinor Teele
January 12th, 2010
Oliver won’t socialize. He won’t even speak. He simply spends his days wrapped in his obsession, a pattern that is only slightly modified when he is given painting materials. For then he takes to painting a dark-haired woman over and over again.
CLR's most popular articles
- Movie Review: The Crazies (9,595 views)
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett (6,847 views)
- Movie Review: Shutter Island (3,437 views)
- Photo Essay: North Korean Propaganda Posters (2,920 views)
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (2,550 views)
- Movie Review: The Lovely Bones (2,255 views)
- Erotic Art of Ancient Pompeii (1,416 views)
- The Strange World of Quantum Entanglement (1,058 views)
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy (848 views)
- Frida Kahlo at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (697 views)
- Photo Essay: North Korean Propaganda Posters (77,627 views)
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (44,550 views)
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett (37,189 views)
- Erotic Art of Ancient Pompeii (30,509 views)
- The Strange World of Quantum Entanglement (23,993 views)
- Images from How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb (19,350 views)
- Frida Kahlo at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (18,419 views)
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy (17,331 views)
- Architecture and Modernism (13,583 views)
- Who Killed JFK? - An Interview With Lamar Waldron (13,526 views)
Get The Latest California Literary Review Updates Delivered Free To Your Inbox!
Powered by FeedBlitz
Recent Comments:
- Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America: anoymous notes: Meet you in hell! It is so bad! (title is bad but not the book). It affects...
- Is There a Doctor in the House?: Sandy Dickson notes: I just found a book in some of my mother’s things called The Contemplation of Christ that formerly belonged to Ann Werner/Annie...
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows: norma notes: I just finished reading this book in the new digital format offered by the Library of...
- The Argumentative Indian: Writings On Indian History, Culture and Identity by by Amartya Sen: Aseem notes: Very good quality writings of prof. Amartya sen.It’s a genuine identification of...
- The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell: Lesley notes: I am so disappointed in Patricia Cornwell. Her books have progressively become more and more depressing, weird-character based, and unreal....
- Movie Review: Shutter Island: Anne notes: Leonardo DiCaprio is finally settling down into his Jack Nicholson 2.1 destiny.
- The Great Dinosaur Discoveries by Darren Naish: DK Fennell notes: This book deserves a far warmer review than the one given by Mr Guthrie, if for no other reason than it lacks the irritating,...
- What happened to teen movies?!: Marina Gipps notes: I like Breakfast Club, Lost Boys, Valley Girl, Ferris Buehler’s Day Off,, Outsiders, Sixteen Candles, Clueless, Napoleon Dynamite, Risky...
- Susskind Quashes Hawking in Quarrel Over Quantum Quandary: Sci-Fi-Si notes: There is no ’singularity’ there is no ‘infinite density’ (infinite anything does not and cannot...
- Sudden Onset: Kat notes: I was diagnosed with TM when I was 8 years old (I’m not 22, so 14 years ago) and none of my doctors had ever heard of it. All I remember was having trouble doing my...
topics
- Africa
- African American
- After Image
- Agriculture
- Animals
- Anthropology
- Archeology
- Architecture
- Art
- Art & Design
- Australia
- Balkans
- Belgium
- Best Books
- Best Movies
- Biography
- Business
- Canada
- Caribbean
- Children's Literature
- China
- Classics
- Crime Fiction
- Dance
- Death
- Denmark
- Design
- Disability
- Economics
- Education
- Egypt
- Environment
- Espionage
- Food
- France
- Games
- Gay and Lesbian
- Germany
- Graphic Novels
- Great Britain
- Historical Fiction
- History
- Horror
- Humor
- India
- Iran
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Linguistics
- Literary Themes
- Mathematics
- Medicine
- Mexico
- Military
- Movies
- Movies & TV
- Music
- Mystery
- Mythology
- Native American
- Nature
- Netherlands
- Pakistan
- Performing Arts
- Philosophy
- Photography
- Poetry
- Politics
- Psychology
- Religion
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Science
- Science Fiction and Fantasy
- Sex
- Short Stories
- Sociology
- Southeast Asia
- Spain
- Sports
- Television
- The Fourth Wall
- Theatre
- Thrillers
- Travel
- True Crime
- Turkey
- Video Games
- Vietnam
- Westerns
- Writers
Follow the California Literary Review on Twitter: @calitreview
