He is deliberate, meticulous, and splendidly disciplined. The stories are perhaps not original in form but they would serve without degradation of any sort as works by a Chekov or a Joyce. Reviewed by Bob Williams Chutney Power and Other…
Tag: fiction
A review of A Wedding In December by Anita Shreve
The happy couple wed, the guests leave the inn, and the reader is left wondering how the marriage between Bridget and Bill, conducted under the shadow of death and the disbelief of their old friends, will fare. But unfortunately we never find out. A Wedding in December is an immensely readable book, but it is not a memorable one.
A review of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
In the world of this extraordinary book a subterranean London coexists with the London that occupies the surface. This underworld consists of abandoned subway lines, unused sewers, and unexpected extension of space into a vast chasm that holds, among other things, the beast of London, an enormous and invulnerable boar with a bad temper.
A review of b-mother by Maureen O’Brien
Like most first novels by a gifted writer, the abundance of invention and everything that goes with it is overwhelming. It’s impossible to fault a writer for this. Her next book may be more spare and controlled but it…
A review of Until I Find You by John Irving
Clearly John Irving is a talented writer, whose extensive research is matched by his extensive knowledge. It’s just a shame he doesn’t have a trusted editor willing to insist that Irving cut the ridiculous quantity of fluff out of his…
A review of Border Town by Hillel Wright
Wright excels at the exploration of popular culture. He writes well of comix, jazz, and the media. He is still enough of a hippy to deplore the world’s sad path to a reactionary and repressive right. He is not only…
A review of The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
As Nathan’s own book of follies grows in an almost Rabelasian style, there are botched attempts at love and lust, outrageous names like “Marina Luisa Sanchez Gonzalez”, a physical and metaphysical quest towards a fictional construct called the “Hotel Existence”,…
A review of Zigzag through the Bitter-Orange Trees by Ersi Sotiropoulos
Sotiropoulos draws her minor characters sharply. The staff of the hospital with its charismatic Dr. Kalotychos, the nursing staff, and the patients – described unsympathetically but realistically as monsters – constitutes the closed, stifling world of the ill and their…
A review of The Way It Wasn’t by James Laughlin
The cover is a beauty with an autographed picture of the author and the title in typescript below it. The inside matches the outside and consists of a generous selection of appropriate or simply beautiful photographs and artwork. It is…
A review of The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan
The Unknown Terrorist is being sold as a Trojan Horse of a thriller masquerading the seriousness of the societal critique it provides, but even that statement is a Trojan Horse. At the core of this novel is a nihilism so bleak, that it makes even the horror of the terrorist act, of murder and suicide, seem minor in comparison. It’s almost the complete opposite of the joyous affirmative humour which underpins Gould’s Book of Fish, and except for the occasional forays into stunning prose, it’s hard to believe this is the same author.