Short and sullen - book reviews
August 21st 2008 14:08
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
A slow burn and probably one exclusively for literature fans. This won't win you over with clever one-liners or flashy descriptions. Hemingway's story of ex-pats caught up in the nothingness in post-WWI Europe is subtlety defined and one of the more heartfelt, well-written and genuine reads available.
* * * *
For any serious reader or writer alike.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Pure and bare bones storytelling, Hemingway claims this work to be metaphorless and simply a story about a man, a boy and a fish. Whether you believe this or not, this is an essential read for those who want to understand Hemingway or want to write concise.
Simple, beautiful and worthy of its Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to the writer receiving his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. A fine writer in fine form.
* * * *
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
"A 21st century comedy in the presence of death" just about sums it up. For the most part, inventive and told in a rollicking voice, Vernon is wonderfully real and very funny.
A good spin on American society in this first novel by an Australian author who lived in Mexico.
Says a lot very well.
* * *
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
A fairly accessible classic, Lawrence's damnation of Victorian English society drew me in - an array of euphoric aphorisms and laugh-out-loud bitterness.
Lawrence's female characters are startlingly true, even today.
Ran out of steam a little towards the end (or perhaps I did) but was a great read nonetheless.
* * * 1/2
The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Haunting suburban tale examining the paradoxes of the American Dream through sisters Emily and Sarah Grimes over four decades of their lives. Like Lawrence, he writes female characters with masterful attention to detail. Yates opens the book with a promise - "Neither of the Grimes sisters would never have a happy life" and delivers it without self-conciousness in a devastating, slow-burn. Do not read if on Prozac. Moody and startling.
* * * *
A slow burn and probably one exclusively for literature fans. This won't win you over with clever one-liners or flashy descriptions. Hemingway's story of ex-pats caught up in the nothingness in post-WWI Europe is subtlety defined and one of the more heartfelt, well-written and genuine reads available.
* * * *
For any serious reader or writer alike.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Pure and bare bones storytelling, Hemingway claims this work to be metaphorless and simply a story about a man, a boy and a fish. Whether you believe this or not, this is an essential read for those who want to understand Hemingway or want to write concise.
Simple, beautiful and worthy of its Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to the writer receiving his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. A fine writer in fine form.
* * * *
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
"A 21st century comedy in the presence of death" just about sums it up. For the most part, inventive and told in a rollicking voice, Vernon is wonderfully real and very funny.
A good spin on American society in this first novel by an Australian author who lived in Mexico.
Says a lot very well.
* * *
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
A fairly accessible classic, Lawrence's damnation of Victorian English society drew me in - an array of euphoric aphorisms and laugh-out-loud bitterness.
Lawrence's female characters are startlingly true, even today.
Ran out of steam a little towards the end (or perhaps I did) but was a great read nonetheless.
* * * 1/2
The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Haunting suburban tale examining the paradoxes of the American Dream through sisters Emily and Sarah Grimes over four decades of their lives. Like Lawrence, he writes female characters with masterful attention to detail. Yates opens the book with a promise - "Neither of the Grimes sisters would never have a happy life" and delivers it without self-conciousness in a devastating, slow-burn. Do not read if on Prozac. Moody and startling.
* * * *
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