The clear bent is literary fiction, and that makes this a moving collection full of provocative and evocative work from some of the most well known and respected writers working today. This is a wonderful marketing idea, and one which…
Category: Book Reviews
Book Reviews
A review of Emma Strunk by Tony Nesca
This is an approach that has peculiar qualities. It never becomes poetry of the quotable and pretty sort but it avoids the pitfalls of a prose that needs connective tissue that is simply functional. It is not conventional narrative but…
A review of The Barbarian Parade by Kirby Gann
This is a stance with true commitment. It is evident in Our Napoleon in Rags and it flowers beautifully in The Barbarian Parade. There is indeed about the latter some virtuosity for its own sake, not at all a bad…
A review of The Rose Notes by Andrea Mayes
Although the story is fast moving and satisfying, with all of the ends cleanly tied up, it isn’t the plot which will stay with the reader once the book is finished. Instead, it is the marvellous passages within the characterisation…
A review of Our Napoleon in Rags by Kirby Gann
This is a short book with few chapters and narrative modes that vary occasionally. Gann pins a situation to the story with an epigrammatically precise choice of words. This is a lively response to the question of what kind of…
A review of The Publishing Game series by Fern Reiss
Each chapter comprises a week, within which every day is set out. In other words, like any good time management consultant, Reiss has “chunked” the process into a set of fairly simple and straightforward steps to follow, some taking only…
A review of Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes by Patricia Highsmith
Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes is a worthwhile collection in that it demonstrates Patricia Highsmith’s artistry when working with the smaller palette of the short story. It isn’t a patch on the novels though. Reviewed by Paul Kane Tales…
A review of The Writing Experiment by Hazel Smith
This book is highly recommended for writers of all levels of ability – those interested in producing avant-garde works and those who only want to delve deeper into the art of communication using traditional models. It is, and perhaps unintentionally so, one of the clearest, easy to follow books on postmodernism in literature on the market. This is a unique and very valuable offering to the literary world, full of unusual experiments with words that writers will make use of repeatedly.
A review of The Shakespeare Miscellany by David and Ben Crystal
The Shakespeare Miscellany is that rarity, an educational work that is also wonderful entertainment. This book will be a great boon for beginning students of Shakespeare as well as seasoned “bardolators” (a word coined by George Bernard Shaw in 1901)…
A review of Double Forté by Aaron Paul Lazar
Although described as a mystery, Double Forté is more properly described as an action thriller. There is no detection as such, the climax of the book resulting from a gratuitous confession. Gus LeGarde, a professor of music and head of…