Stoner is one of the two books I've decided to write my thesis on, come next term. It's that rare thing, a work that perfectly encompases the full strengths of the novel as a form. It's worth deeper study. So, then, this will be a short review -- I'd hate to be caught plagiarising my... Continue Reading →
John Williams witholds the inner voice of the eponymous Augustus, born Gaius Octavius, until the very last. The first Roman Emperor remains among the most enigmatic figures in history, and Williams, too, keeps him at a hand's length, his motives obscure even as the author's other characters scrutinize Octavian's every move. And what characters they... Continue Reading →
I finished Joseph Heller's Catch-22 many months ago -- I've kept pushing the review further and further off because this is one of the classics, it's loved by many, disliked by some, downright hated by a chosen few. I find myself decidedly in the camp of the first, as this novel illustrated the absurdism of... Continue Reading →
Ah, literary realism, how thou mildly interests me. Arnold Bennett's Anna of the Five Towns is a painfully middle-class English novel, with all that entails. What's that, I hear you ask -- and I'm all too happy to provide as long-winded an explanation as some of the descriptions within the novel. Before that, however, I... Continue Reading →
Or: How many different ways can I name my reader's diary? These past few days, I had the pleasure of finishing several novels and beginning several more, as well as reading another short story by the brilliant Ursula Le Guin. A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett This is my second proper piece of historical fiction... Continue Reading →
