In his own words
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The Lady from the Sea
Review: Ibsen at his finest. Ellida, raised on a rocky spit of land in a lighthouse in love with the sea, and… The stranger, a metaphor for the sea. Married to Doctor Wangel, a good man but kind of a pussy. Hilde and Bollette, daughters from a previous marriage, both seemingly play hard to get…
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‘Tis Pity she’s a Whore
Review: Dark! Incest, murder, eyes gouged out, blasphemy, sketchy characters abound doing nefarious deeds. Tough to read the archaic verse, but after a dozen pages you get into the rhythm of it. I’ll have to read it again, maybe after reading a commentary on how it all works together. By that I mean there is…
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The Name of the Wind
Review: Superb! Finally an epic fantasy series that is not a hack reworking of LOTR! Magic is not magical, more like science and a bit of alchemy with a little bit of supernatural thrown in to make things glow a little. Thought it was going to devolve into Harry Potter for a bit, but it…
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Dream Days
Review: A beautiful sequel to The Golden Age. Continuing the adventures of our merry band of children, Harold, Edward, Selina and Charlotte. The Reluctant Dragon is excellent and often printed and sold separately. Again it captures the sweet essence of being a child and looking with sad piteous disbelief on how the grownups waste their…
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Flight to Arras
Review: A superb memoir, highly detailed account of a single wartime flight in the last days of France in 1940 before she fell to Germany. Gets very philosophical in the last chapter, but it makes sense. Redefines what we think of as courage, heroism, perseverance, sacrifice. A short, fast, beautiful read. This book made me…
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This Side of Paradise
Review: Another brilliant novel from FSF. Sad, poignant, and beautiful throughout. People that are young, do young people things. Now, then, way back, going forward, always. That damned war again. 1914 disillusioned the old world and alienated the new world. People drank a lot. Like, a lot. This book made me want to: eat a…
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The Wasteland, Prufrock, and Other Poems
Review: Erudite to the point of superciliousness. Like a graffiti artist leaving tags to show their cleverness, the author dropping in an absurd amount of shout-outs to Donne, Spencer, Dante, even Shackleton. Prufrock was better: In the room the women come and goTalking of Michelangelo This book made me want to: drink bubble tea Overall…
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Mr. Finchley Discovers his England
Review: A beautiful lighthearted romp through the England between the wars. Meet Mr. Finchley, a solicitor’s clerk who has never taken a holiday. Suddenly with three weeks vacation and 40 pounds in his pocket he embarks to the seaside but ends up having a series of of extraordinary adventures throughout the length and breadth of…
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Holmes for the Holidays
Review: Excellent volume of Holmesian Christmas fare. The usual blend of really good/good/just okay, but no real clunkers. Irene Adler, Moriarty, Scrooge, Cratchit, and even creepy Lewis Carroll make their obligatory appearances, but the quality is such that they can pull it off. Not great, but sort of obligatory in these pastiches. A good fast…
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The Golden Age
Review: A delightful romp through an English garden childhood. Lots of beautiful introspective moments, even though the protagonists would never admit they are introspective moments. Kaiser Wilhelm II had this book on his bedside table in the imperial yacht. This was the last age of childhood before the world changed forever in 1914. This book…