Franny and Zooey book review In his dedication at the beginning of Franny and Zooey, J. D. Salinger appeals to William Shawn, his "editor, mentor, and (heaven help him) closest friend", to accept this "pretty skimpy-looking book". It is, in fact, rather skimpy, being a short story and novella under one cover. Both appeared [...]
The Line of Beauty book review Not having read anything by Alan Hollingurst until now, it took me a while to get into the rhythm of his 2004 Booker Prize-winner, The Line of Beauty. Quite a while, actually. It wasn't until halfway through that I began to see the point of 438 pages devoted [...]
The Namesake Book Review A baby boy is born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Bengali immigrants, recently arrived from Calcutta. The child is given a pet name while his parents wait for his proper name to arrive in a letter from home. The letter never arrives, and the boy grows up resenting his pet name, [...]
Week 64: The Portrait of a Lady book review Having posted a review of The Master last week, it seems fitting to go to the source this week, and take a look at the classic novel that gave rise to Henry James's reputation as "the master". The Portrait of a Lady, first published in [...]
Week 63 - The Master Book Review Colm Tóibín's 2004 novel is a hybrid - not totally fiction, not purely biography. The proper name for it, I think, is creative nonfiction, although there are so many interpretations of that genre that it's difficult to categorize. The Malahat Review awards its Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction [...]
Week 62: American Rust Book Review Since his debut novel was published in 2009, Philipp Meyer has been likened to Steinbeck and Salinger, Faulkner and Hemingway. In 2010 the New Yorker rated him one of the 20 best novelists under 40. The accolades are appropriate, keeping in mind that Meyer, writing at the tail [...]
The Virgin Suicides (on CD) I can't absolutely confirm it, but as it's been told to me over the years, I was taught to read at the age of three by my mother. She was tired, it seems, of my constant demands: "Read me a story." And so she taught me to read to myself. [...]
Week 60: Veronika Decides to Die In 1999, Paulo Coelho wrote an essay for the London Telegraph Review in which he discussed the time he spent in mental institutions in the 1960s, during Brazil's military dictatorship. At the time, he wrote, "the word 'artist' was synonymous with homosexual, communist, drug addict, and layabout." Coelho, who [...]
Week 59: The Vicar of Wakefield Book Review "I was ever of opinion, that the honest man who married and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single, and only talked of population." And so, from the very first line of his narrative, Dr. Primrose, the vicar of Wakefield, [...]
SWEET THURSDAY By Margie Taylor Fifty-three minutes before she’s due to meet the others at the departure terminal, Indira Rasmussen, who has had two days to get used to walking without a filtersuit, stands transfixed in a shop at the corner of Robson and Thurlow. She’s holding a book. Not quite square in shape, [...]
