The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
October 4, 2009
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
It’s literally a book of war stories. But it’s also a book about war stories.
What makes a war story true? The facts? Or the fable? O’Brien says a tall tale can be more true than what actually happened. Maybe because exaggeration better satisfies the need to communicate feelings.
O’Brien blends fiction and truth about the Vietnam war till you learn to hear the stories without caring about specific facts.
This book is about experiencing war. And telling about that experience through stories.
It’s obscene and poetic, violent and emotional. What did the soldiers carry? More than I have.
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
October 4, 2009
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
In one thread of this story, Kafka, a mature 15-year-old, runs away from home to escape a dark prophecy. He is intelligent but troubled. So he hides in a library where he meets a woman who lives in her memories.
The other thread is Nakata, an elderly simpleton, who is neither intelligent, nor troubled. Mr. Nakata can talk to cats. As he searches for a lost cat, he finds himself drawn despite himself into a courageous quest. Can Kafka run from his destiny? Or must he and Nakata act out their destinies to keep the universe from going awry?
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
September 10, 2009
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Sue Trinder was raised in a warren of thieves. Gentleman recruits her in an ambitious scheme to deceive an heiress, but once she replaces the victim’s maid, Sue is plagued with feelings of compassion. Will cold feet prevail?
The book’s atmosphere is like Oliver Twist meets Jane Eyre–complete with pickpockets, madhouses and murderers.
The cast of villains go about duping each other for selfish reasons, but Waters has a knack for making you root for the most fault-ridden humans.
The storytelling was so engrossing that at two points, I actually reacted out loud: “What?” and “Drama, drama!” The plot is twisted and fully enjoyable!
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
August 26, 2009
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
This is a book most people read in high school. I didn’t, but it reminds me of a short story I had to read back then: “The Lottery.”
Atwood’s novel carries the same tones of a heartless society and its desperate victims.
It’s a cautionary tale of a dystopian society where woman are the core–the few fertile ones have become indispensable resources–yet they are without power. Every person is contained in their role and even the captors are enslaved.
Blood red suburbia. People are cloaked and confined. There is no one who trusts in humans.
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
April 3, 2009
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
My brother gave me number 641 on the list for Christmas.
This is another novel in the detective genre, so I compared it as always to my benchmark: Agatha Christie novels. It was enjoyable but the “whodunnit” revelation was less satisfying than one of Poirot’s mise-en-scènes. Its focus seemed to be on recreating an environment (foggy and ominous) and a culture (wee British parish with a love for bellringing), in which a murder takes place, almost incidentally. What seems more important is a strained relationship between man and nature.
Note: Tailors are not “hemmers of pants,” but bells!
And Bunter rocks.
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
September 13, 2008
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone is the classic detective novel, complete with an invaluable but cursed jewel, a mysterious theft, suspicious strangers from a foreign land, rigid British social classes, quicksand, interrogations, an unassuming detective and cigars in the billiard room. It seems unoriginal. Too much of what we’ve already seen: Sherlock and Watson, Poirot, even board game Clue.
However, The Moonstone was the Apollo 11 of the detective genre. It’s not a stereotype, but the prototype. It was a launching pad for all detective fiction. As a fan of the genre, I can vouch for this stellar novel. It’s out of this world!
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
August 8, 2008
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Born in a backwards fishing village, Sayuri was sold when her mother died and sent to an okiya in Kyoto. She longs for escape, since the resident geisha mistreats her, but the only path is to become a geisha. A blue-eyed beauty in a city of dark eyes, she soon becomes famous. But love?
Sayuri wonders if she has any control over her destiny. Is she a pebble in a stream, tumbled and pulled by the current of her circumstances? Or is she a fish, using the current to swim toward the destiny she desires?
Loved it. Slightly disappointed by Sayuri’s final choice.
Christopher John Francis Boone is a 15-year-old with high-functioning autism.
Christopher likes: dogs, detecting, the colour red, math, murder mystery novels, prime numbers, the police, the fact that the universe is constantly expanding, things in a logical order, orange squash, his pet rat Toby and The Hound of Baskervilles.
Christopher doesn’t like: people touching him, real novels, metaphors, the colours brown and yellow, France, people moving the furniture around, strangers, information overload and holidays.
I liked: Getting to know Christopher, who seemed real. Mark Haddon gave me plenty of details. There were no simple sugar-coated solutions. But it wasn’t depressing either.
1 – Mrs. ‘Arris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico
June 5, 2008
I picked this novel first because the title made it sound easy to read. It was. This book is a simple souped up parable from the British 1950s. Mrs. Harris, a elderly cleaning lady who talks like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, discovers how far she is willing to go to get something she desperately wants. We root for her. The narrator shows her foibles and fortes. He teaches us a lesson: Look how heroic “insignificant” people are. Look at the drama and worth of the lives we never see on TV. And realize the high value of human friendships.
