In his own words
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My Ántonia
Review: One of the last “best known” books by Cather. So now I can say I have read all of her most recognized books. Beautifully written, like all her novels. Now where is the however pivot? However. <– there it is! Nothing happens throughout the novel. I mean, people live and grow old and have…
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The Elected Member
Review: This one took home the Booker Prize in 1970. Not sure why. Not going to say a lot about it, lots has been written on it over the years. I just didn’t like it. One can’t love every book, even the prize winners. This book made me want to: finish it and move forward…
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The Ghost Road
Review: What an extraordinary book. A tour de force from first to last. Set in 1918 and with retrospectives to an earlier time prior to the war. A gritty, even shockingly brutal look at life in 1918. Imagine all the old codgers you see at the cenotaph on November 11 being young and fucking each…
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The History of the Blues
Review: This was excellent. Not too technical, no “augmented for the syncopated declension on the minor chord.” When needed the author spelled it out musically, but in such a way as to be understandable to a non-musician. What they call narrative history nowadays, in that it’s very readable just like a novel. Every third guy…
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Something to Answer For
Review: This was the first ever (inaugural is the word) Man Booker Prize winner, way back in 1969. My goal beginning with this one is to read all 50 Booker Prize winners from 1969-2019 in the next year. I don’t get this book. It was well written, very crisp prose and some really elegant phrasing.…
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Burning Marguerite
Review: Powerful and intensely moving. If that sounds like every book jacket review in history it doesn’t matter. It’s still true. There is a very calm space right at the heart of this novel, like the silence in a cathedral. There is not a lot of wasted prose. Short, intense sentences that convey pages of…
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The Poetics of Space
Review: Wow. This was a tough one. Not that it was bad, not at all, it was just difficult. A treatise on the philosophy of how we experience our own houses. Using examples from poetry, psychiatry, and nature the author delves into the phenomenological ways that each area of our domiciles affect us. Cellars, for…
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German Tanks in WWI
Review: An excellent and very detailed look at the design and combat history of the German Imperial Army’s response to the Allied introduction of tanks. That was a run-on sentence, but you see I’m stoned off me tits. Along with the very extensively researched text, the rare archival photos are amazing. While primarily focused on…
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Red Planet Blues
Review: Page 326. This book should have ended right there. Instead of bashing ahead for another 99 pages. The premise was forced, but due to the brilliance of the author he made it work. Humorous, fast-paced, edgy, this was an excellent novel. Just needed an editor is all I am saying. One of the things…
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The Secret of Chimneys
Review: What a ripping yarn! I’ve never, or hang on. Okay I checked my book list and I have actually read an Agatha Christie novel in 1988. I knew I had read some of her short stories but a novel was… wait for it… a novel experience! This was a great read, fast paced, slightly…