In his own words
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Klee Wyck
Review: Vivid, spare, imaginative prose. Says in one phrase what some would take three lines to say. Proust would take 10 pages. I had a pretty low opinion of natives before, but I like them even less after reading this. The myth of the noble savage is just that, a myth. Savages need to be…
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Pride and Prejudice
Review: Why did I wait so long before reading this? Outstanding narrative, humor, plot was a bit convoluted but I got it sorted quickly. The prose is exquisite. Really. Hard to improve a single line after 200 years. So good. Did not expect that. This book made me want to: read the rest of her…
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The Recognition of Shakuntala
Review: Introduction by Rabindranath Tagore. So you know it is good! Goethe loved this, thought it was exquisite poetry. An excellent translation and the rhyming parts, where they occur, are natural sounding and not forced like often happens in translated poetry. A lot of the characters and rituals you would really have to be Hindu…
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The Myth of the Sisyphus
Review: A series of essays on existential philosophy. First and longest of them was tedious, but well worth the effort to get through. The last few essays were beautiful vignettes of the life and scenery of Algiers and Iran. A brilliant and honest writer. This book made me want to: visit Algiers in the 1950s…
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Fahrenheit 451
Review: Always get asked if I’ve read this, and finally did. Well worth the wait. A novel for our times, and for the times before and the times to come judging by the popularity of reality TV. Very quotable, very readable, very visionary. Just plain great. This book made me want to: read more and…
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Into Africa
Review: Couldn’t put this down. Superb history, well researched and backed by primary sources, yet reads like a novel. An impossibly difficult journey, for a grail quest. Reminded me a lot of the Franklin fiasco and the tremendous waste of lives and resources spent to recover one foolish old adventurer. Learned a lot about 19th…
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The Color Purple
Review: I can see why this won a Pulitzer Prize. I can see why this has been banned before. Written in southern Afro-slang it just gets you right in and keeps you there. Beautifully crafted and paced all the way through. Some parts were so difficult to read, without getting a boner. A book to…
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A History of France
Review: An excellent short history of France and the French people. From Vercingetorix to De Gaulle, this is the book that covers it all. Not an exhausting or comprehensive history, there are other books for that. This is a brief and concise, often humorous and always entertaining trip through 2000 years of kings and communes,…
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The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories
Review: I have always had a pretty low opinion of Hemingway, macho douchebags like him piss me off and I love that Wallace Stevens punched his drunk ass out in Key west. Are you ready for the however pivot? (Here it is) However, this was brilliant. Top shelf. Amazing, gripping, heartfelt, totally absorbing. No wonder…
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So, Anyway
Review: A brilliant and thorough autobiography. Kept my interest right from the beginning and never lost it. Like most talented and funny people, the on-stage character is very much removed from the real-life human that plays that character. Funny in parts that needed to be, and serious in those parts that needed to be. Just…