Review A Book

[Eagleheart]

Aleksis Zorbas -Kazandzakis

Now this is a real story of a daring life, a unique philosophy in the book and its uniqueness largely based on the simplicity of the main character. Zorbas is one of those fine fellows, quite familiar with the illusionary nature of the compellingly introduced topics that nevertheless lack the depth. If not for anything else - the author produces a remarkable harmony between plot and philosophical development of arguments and his character Zorbas a proverbially humanistic man, who in his ardent critic of the wickedness of man still finds his strenght to live with him and accept him without the ornaments of the imaginary and idealistic...Wonderful book...

[Erna]

The plot against America by Philip Roth

Let me start with my conclusion: what a dissapointing book. The idea of the book really made me think it would be interesting: what would have happened when the USA would have a had a president cooperating with Hitler in 1930-1945? And the books start quite interesting.

But unfortunately a lot of speeches given by important people are totally written down, containing a lot of names and years which don't mean anything to me (maybe because I'm not American and therefore don't recognise the names?). And the things happening are mostly on family level. I would have preferred a wider view over the country...

So an interesting idea but not worked out well...

My rating: 4/10

[Serenata]

The Da Vinci Code- Dan Brown

I saw the movie first and liked it so I decided to read the book, which was a lot better than the movie. I know it has gotten really controversial, but I really enjoyed it. I tend to go for some action in the plot. There was quite a bit.
I didn't like how every chapter was a cliff-hanger, but the diction of the book was pretty easy to read. The history provided in the book was probably the best part.

8/10

[brainstrain]

Hmm...i guess my last read would be, sadly, A Tale of Two Cities. Not that the book was bad, but that was several weeks ago. I really don't read as much as i should =(

Well, it was amazing. A legendary plot, legendary characters, and many modern day applications!

Who hasn't felt like their life is a failure and been tempted to become like Sydney Carton and give up completley?

Who hasn't known (or wish they knew) someone like Lucie Manette, whose kindness and mercy knows no bounds

Who hasn't heard of or experienced themselves selfless, untainted, uncontrollable love at its purest like Lucie and Charles?

And who couldn't imagine the wrath of centuries of neglect, abuse, and downright inhumanity boiling over into a breif time of Impartial and Unstoppable Vengance, also known as La Guillotine?

I can imagine quite well that vengance, and plan to incorporate it into my next book (if i ever get around to starting it =D)

10/10!!! I liked it, my sisters liked it, and my mom is going to like it once i make her read it hehe.

If you haven't read this book, I will find you and steal all your cheese, potatoes, and grain products if you don't read it in the next month. That's not a threat, its a promise ^_^

[malwethien]

The Prestige - Christopher Priest

More than just a story between 2 rival magicians, Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier; it is a story of obsession, deception - of others and of self, and misdirection. Eerie and captivating, it will make you double back to re-read passages you have already read - or thought you read. By the end of the book, readers are left with more questions than answers. Reading The Prestige is like watching a magical act - where anything can happen, but nothing is as it seems.

The novel is much more complex than the movie and it was a good move on the part of the "movie makers" (i.e. screenwriters, directors, etc) to present a more "tamer," "simpler" version on the novel. The novel is so much more fantastical that if viewed on the screen will seem so unbelieveable, to the point of being absurd. However, it works wonderfully well on paper.

A must read for everyone in the literate world

[Pen&Ink]

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Just finished this a couple days ago. I loved it. I was crying at the end.
I love the plot and over all story. I personally could have done without the 30 page retelling of the battle of waterloo, and sometimes it was a bit slow,but over all it was a really great book. ^_^ I would recommend it to anyone who has the patience to read such a long book.

[EAP]

To be honest, I liked the movie of The Prestige more than the book. It's edgier, darker and more emotionally involving.

[malwethien]

To be honest, I liked the movie of The Prestige more than the book. It's edgier, darker and more emotionally involving.

Well the movie is more "realistic" than the novel...like I said the book seemed so "fantastic." But on the whole I liked the novel better...

[ghideon]

I just finished two books.
1) "I": The Creation OF A Serial Killer by Jack Olsen
2)Middle Passageby Charles Johnson

I will write about Middle Passage because it is a much more substantial work. Johnson won the National Book Award in 1990 for this novel and at the time there was a great deal of contoversy. Some NBA members believed that the book won the award because of cultural and political dynamics and not because the book was great in a literary sense.

The story is basically this:
A young black man, an ex-slave, is living in New Orleans and surviving by petty theft and nickle-dime hustles. Through a bunch of twists and turns he finds himself faced with a choice: marry a woman who he does not want...he does not want to marry anyone. Or get killed by a Big Time Gangster for a debt he owes.
Well he takes the third option and the day before the wedding he jumps aboard a ship setting out to Africa to pick up "cargo" (i.e.Africans captured for slavery).
The bulk of the novel recounts this Rutherford Callhoun's experiences aboard the slave trader called The Republic. To make a very exciting tale much too short I will simply say that after three months at sea(involving a mad captain who dies, a 1st mate who is eaten, and a takeover of the ship by the chained but mystically powerful Africans) Rutherford is transformed, one could even say he finds redemption.
There are some very moving passages in the short 210 page novel. At one point, we are told that the Africans who have taken over the ship and killed many of the crew are now in very deep water emotionally and spiritually for they have acted out of rage and vengance. They have become as morally corrupt as those who had chained them and they will suffer for that for a long long time. Reading that I felt a great deal of compassion for the slaves who revolted and even admired how deeply they felt over any act of violence. And I was left comparing such an ethics with the moral compass in the society I live in where death and murder, arson and rape is everywhere and thus nowhere, talked about so much that there is very little actually said or discussed.
The author is on a bit of a mission. He is widely known for calling for a new form of African-American literature. One that embraces Western philosophy and culture rather then always positioning it in contradiction or opposition to it. And Middle Passage is full of references to all sorts of philosophies and philosophers some widely known and others much less so. I thought that at times these parts of the story were quite engaging and at other times I found them damn distracting.
I would give the novel about 8 stars. I could read it again. I will remember it. And it gave me a very different perspective into that time in our history.

[brainstrain]

Ok, so I was just on two 8 hour car trips (to little rock arkansas and back) so I had a LOT of free time. On the way there I beat Final Fantasy 1 on my gameboy, but on the way back I read a book or three. Here's what I thought:

Book One - Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony

I saw this an Arkansas Bookshop, it was a pleasant suprise. This is the fifth book in the Artemis Fowl series, and I had no idea it exsisted. The basic plot is that Hybras, the Isle of Demons, sent itself into Limbo to protect from the onslaught of humans. It had, however, been there too long and the Time Tunnel that brought them there was collapsing. So they have to travel through, time, space, and history to save the 8th family.

I LOVE this book, Eoin Coifer's writing style is just so free and wonderful...the last scene, were all the main characters are flying (along with the demon's island) though the collapsing time tunnel is just amazing...

10 out of 10!

Book Two - The City of Ember

This was, if nothing else, a fascinating book. Despite the bizzare names (Lina and Doon. ) it is a very good, fast-paced read. Though pretty obviously by an amatuer writer (lots and lots of uneccesary detail), it is a great plot. Two kids struggling against a corrupt mayor to find a way out of a dying city. Quite the cliffhanger ending, though
i'd say 7 out of 10

Book Three - The People of Sparks

Fortunetly, the city of ember was published a while ago, so I bought the sequel along with it . You can tell she got some feedback from her readers, LOTS less of that annoying uneccesary detail. It is a little hard to read, as you can tell exactly whats going to happen (and you know you aren't going to like it). You also know the general way it has to resolve itself (some kind of large catastrophe to untie everybody) but you don't know what it is. She does, however, beatifully interlace the catastrophe with the plot, making this overall a great read.

8 out of 10 ^_^

[euterpe]

Sappho's Leap by Erica Jong

I honestly didn't know what to expect with Jong interpreting Sappho's fragments and telling her story...but it was actually very well done. I'd give it a 9/10

[Bii]

A Wild Sheep Chase ; Haruki Murakami

Wow!!! I'm yet to come across a Murakami book I don't love. Read the above after Dance, Dance, Dance (which is a sequel - didn't realise!) but it definitely stood up on it's own. I love the way that Murakami manages to weave isolated, rather introverted characters, with drama, love, sex, intregue, mystery and the down-right bizarre. Love the "Sheep-man". Fantastic book which kind of gets into your veins.

For those who haven't ever read a Murakami novel I'd strongly recommend. Whatever it is you're looking for, it's probably in there.

[Kenny_Shovel]

Of all literary techniques, stream of consciousness is the one I have the most problem with. Unless the subject matter and author combine and try damn hard to catch my imagination, it’s all just going to wash over me, however critically acclaimed the work may be. Leaving writers like Joyce, Woolf and Sebald all firmly labelled in my mind as worthy but dull.
Thankfully, experimentation in some of his books by one of my favourite authors, Bohumil Hrabal, persuaded me that my aversion might be down to content rather than style, and lead me to take a risk on ‘Summer at Baden-Baden’ by Leonid Tsypkin. This is a joy of a book and one where the technique is used not as a means to an end, or a flamboyant literary example of the Emperor’s new clothes, but as an integral part of the story.

‘Summer in Baden-Baden’ is a bibliophiles book, and one in particular that should be read by every fan of Dostoyevski. Tsypkin was himself a dedicated admirer of the Russian master and the narrative of the story encompasses and links them both.
The book is framed by a train journey Tsypkin took in the late 1970’s to St Petersburg. A trip to visit and photograph various locations from Dostoyevski’s life and books, in particular ‘Crime and Punishment’, and one that he hoped would bring him closer to understanding the author. As Tsypkin travels he reads from a gift his Aunt has given him: the diary of Dostoyevski’s second wife Anna, covering the period in 1867 when they lived in Baden-Baden.
It is here that the book takes off, as the text flows from first to third person narratives and from the point of view of Tsypkin, Dostoyevski and Anna. The switching of POV and narrative style allows the characters of the married couple to be explored from inside and out in a way that Dostoyevski himself would have been proud of. The changes are made seamlessly, often mid sentence, but you quickly get into stride with the tempo of the writing, to the point were the style of prose seems the most natural way of telling the story. It’s effortless and breathtaking at the same time, and full credit needs to be given to Roger and Angela Keys for their wonderful translation.

Dostoyevski’s battle with his addiction to gambling takes centre stage for much of the time. It reveals many of his flaws: his weakness, obsessive-compulsive behaviour, and mood swings that lead him to push away those closest to him. So whilst at times you can hear echoes of a number of Dostoyevski’s works in the text, it is ‘The Gambler’ you are most reminded of, to the point where ‘Summer at Baden-Baden’ seems like a shadowy ‘Double’ of that book.

The relationship between the ever-faithful Anna and her husband is used as a mirror for one of the major themes of the book. How can Tsypkin, a Jew, reconcile his admiration for Dostoyevski with Dostoyevski’s attitude towards his faith? It’s a question that is touched upon throughout the book, often obliquely referenced, until Tsypkin finally reaches St Petersburg where he directly and honestly addresses it.

As I mentioned before, this is a book for fans of Dostoyevski, and some knowledge of his work, life and times are needed to get the most from it. Some of the nuance of meaning from his meetings with various other Russian writers and the historical accuracy of the events described were a bit beyond my knowledge. But that didn’t effect my enjoyment.
Special mention also to the 2001 edition which included an excellent introduction by Susan Sontag and reproduction of Tsypkin’s photographs from his trip to St Petersburg. Want to see the building where the moneylender in Crime and Punishment lived? It’s in here. Although to be honest it looks like it could be from any of the modern day Eastern European cities I’ve visited.

But whether you regard this book as a fantasy, a fictionalised documentary or an extended piece of fan mail is ultimately unimportant. ‘Summer in Baden-Baden’ stands alone as an exquisite masterpiece, and Tsypkin an author worthy of sitting on the shelf next to Dostoyevsky without fear of being out of place.

K-S

[Kenny_Shovel]

I love Czech literature. Writers from that region have a wonderful ability to talk about nothing and everything at the same time, all wrapped up in a warm dark humour that reveals a great love of life. Perhaps it’s a twentieth century tradition that stems from the writing of the humorist Jaraslav Hasek and his greatest gift to Czech literature, ‘The good soldier Svejk’? Perhaps the origin is earlier and beyond my knowledge? But the influence can be seen in the work of Ivan Klima, Karel Capek, Bohumal Hrabal, and probably countless more I’ve never even heard of. I’ve always got half an eye out looking for writers in a similar vein, a search that somehow led me to miss what was already under my nose.

‘The Engineer of Human Souls’ by Josef Skvorecky has been sitting in my to-be-read pile for some time, probably a couple of years. I’d bought it on recommendation, but the ominous sounding title (a reference to Stalin’s opinion of a writers function) plus a hefty 571 page count, well above my normal comfort zone, had seen me passing it by for newer purchases on a fairly regular basis. And what a glorious book I was ignoring.

The story revolves around Danny, a jazz loving writer from Czechoslovakia, living in exile in Canada and working as a university lecturer in literature. The parallels with Skvorecky’s own life are very strong, to the point where the book comes close to a Japanese I-novel in style. The narrative shifts between Danny’s current life amongst the Czech émigré in Canada and significant periods in his past, all neatly tied together with letters from those he knew from his homeland who have taken refuge in other parts of the world. As the story progresses, we learn the different paths chosen by Danny and his friends during wartime, and how their lives pan out. Much is revealed as the characters live through ever changing times: democracy, Nazi rule, communism and for the lucky ones who escape, exile.

The subtitle to ‘The Engineer of Human Souls’ is: An entertainment on the old themes of life, women, fate, dreams, the working class, secret agents, love and death. But that reveals only the tip of this book’s iceberg. How a seemingly meandering tale, with a fairly basic plot can say so much is a testament to the skill of Skvorecky.

Familiar Czech literary obsessions of food, wine, women and song make regular appearances, and at times Danny’s laid back attitude to life is reminiscent of the ‘good soldier’ himself. But there is much more under the surface. Bravery, cowardice, motivation and duty are put under the microscope as we learn of Danny’s wartime experiences working in a Messerchmitt factory, and his flirtations with the resistance movement. Flirtations that are fed more by desires towards impressionable young girls than desire to do the right thing. This proves to be an enduring attraction to Danny, as his older self becomes ever closer to a young student in his class.

Life under Nazi rule, the communist regime, and abroad as an exile are subtly compared. Contrast skilfully made between the younger man living under oppression and fighting against it in his own way and the older wiser man amused by the attraction of totalitarian states to those who have no experience, or real understanding, of them.

This is a bibliophile’s book as well. The discussions Danny has with his students’ flow throughout the story, and literary references abound. The book is even divided into seven chapters named after famous authors. The result is a book that moves to the love of literature, as well as the love of life.

I’m still undecided if this book has crossed the line to becoming a masterpiece or not, I need a little longer to mull that over. But it is a fantastic read: warm but cynical, naïve but knowing, straightforward but complex, a book full of contradictions, but one that never stops being a joy.

[LauraJayne]

I've just completed, as in literally 10 minutes ago, Eragon by Christopher Paolini.

This is the first book in the 'Inheritance Trilogy.'

It follows the struggle of a young farm boy, Eragon, who finds a Dragon egg, which hatches, thrusting him into the life of a Dragon Rider. Along with his Dragon, Saphira, he meets many different characters throughout his journey, most of whom aid him in the final battle at the end of the book.

Overall, I think it is a brilliant story, very detailed and gripping. In some parts, itt became a little dreary, although these were only short passages, and made no effect to the overall enjoyment of the book :]

I truly found it fascinating, and find Paolini a deeply talented, young author. [He started writing Eragon at 15 ] It is a wonderful fantasy adventure, although there are certain areas which appear similar to such works as Lord of The rings. Whilst some people I know who have read it found this a problem, and rather annoying, I still think that Paolini made this book unique, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! I would definately reccomend this book :], and now I'm off to start the second book in the 'Inheritance Trilogy' - Eldest!!

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