Tag: 5 stars
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The Troll Garden
Review: A glorious selection of seven short stories. Capturing the sense of silence and emptiness on the Great Plains, like you are there. “A Wagner Matinee” is amazing and also very tragic. In the true sense of that word. “The Inconceivable Silence of the Plains” Last trains and slow sunsets, snow and frozen fields. First Read more
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Burmese Days
Review: Outstanding novel of British Colonial Burma. All the protagonists are thoroughly dislikeable. Gin soaked, heat baked, pathetic lives playing out in a dirty, remote hill station in Burma’s jungle. Once again Orwell proves to be the voice of conscience for the 20th century. SImply an amazing piece of writing, yet it is never much Read more
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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 Read more
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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 Read more
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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 Read more
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The Devil in the White City
Review: Excellent, entertaining from cover to cover. Three narrative threads are woven together: The book offers a unique glimpse into 19th century Chicago life. The stench, the crime, all the way to the glory of the world’s fair and the starry-eyed visions of the future it embodied. Will have to see what else this author Read more
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The Moor’s Last Sigh
Review: A masterpiece. Sometimes poetic, sometimes profane. A dark journey through four generations of a remarkable family. A glimpse inside the world outside the tourist brochures of India, the world at the top of the skyscrapers and the world at the bottom of the streets. The prose is masterful and elegant, from the gutterspeak to Read more
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Slaughterhouse Five
Review: A brilliantly executed and skillfully written book. An anti-war manifesto if ever there was one. Funny, sad, disturbing, and throughout the book is a consistent moral statement. Most of the time we look at war as an historical event but forget the deeply disturbing personal stories that make it up. I award this book Read more
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The Flowers of Evil / Les Fleurs de Mal
Review: Brilliant. A dark, disturbing masterpiece. I wish to hold sway overYour life and youth by fear,As others do by tenderness. Remember, time is a greedy playerWho wins without cheating, every round. Eggplant emoji. I will re-read these for the rest of my life, they’re simply beautiful. I award this the coveted 5 stars. This Read more
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Son at the Front
Review: A powerful, moving, intensely captivating piece of Whartonian brilliance. This one is not one of her noted masterworks, but it really should be. Mobilization and the Great War seen through the lens of Paris from 1914-1918, and seen through the experience of Americans before they joined the war. Fascinating. It emphasized to me how Read more