Review A Book

Just finished re-reading Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. This is probably extremely biased, seeing as I've always adored it, but here's a brief review, anyway:

Brideshead Revisited tells the story of Charles Ryder, a lonely student at Oxford in the early 1920s. He meets the eccentric, charsimatic Lord Sebastian Flyte and they quickly become close friends. As they grow closer, Charles becomes acquainted with Sebastian's upper-class Catholic family, who live in a large country mansion, Brideshead. As Charles becomes closer to Sebastian's family, especially his sister Julia, the two friends drift apart and Sebastian sinks deep into alcoholism. The rest of the book concentrates on the relationship between Charles and Julia, and the issue of religion. Charles's atheism is challenged and through his relationship with Sebastian's family he gradually begins to understand Catholicism, and his perception of the world is changed.

For me, Brideshead Revisited is the perfect book - it's witty, entertaining and has a few characters that could have been borrowed from his earlier novels (one of Sebastian's friends at Oxford, the eccentric Anthony Blanche is quite similar to Miles Malpractice from Waugh's 'Vile Bodies)'. But as well as being funny, it's also very serious and desperately sad in parts.

If you've read anything thing else by Waugh, I'll guarantee that you'll love Brideshead Revisited. If you're new to Waugh, Brideshead is the perfect place to start. And once you've read the book, I highly recommend the excellent television series, starring Jeremy Irons as Charles and Anthony Andrews as Sebastian.

Scheherazade,

I think you will find that "East of Eden" reads quickly; at least it did for me. What else to you have on deck for your summer reading? I'm always curious to know what similarly minded folks are reading.

Days ago, I finished reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, and enjoyed it very much - rich with symbolism, darkness, depression - my kind of literature! :D
Having never read anything by Kafka, I felt a little unsure of what to expect, yet I think this has inspired me to read some of his other novels; I have heard wonderful comments especially of The Castle.
For anyone interested in discussing The Metamorphosis, I began my solo discussion here, and would love anyone else's input and interpretations.
My rating of this book: 9/10.

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Originally Posted by scoooter5

Scheherazade,

I think you will find that "East of Eden" reads quickly; at least it did for me. What else to you have on deck for your summer reading? I'm always curious to know what similarly minded folks are reading.

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I am hoping to read:

Brideshead Revisited
Shipping News
American Psycho
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

And of coursethere are the Book Club books we will be reading as well. If you are interested, have a look: http://www.online-literature.com/for...splay.php?f=15

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki

The book is a mix between specialised book and novel. It recounts the life of a Geisha (namely Mineko Iwasaki) and also gives information about the duties and customs of geishas.
I liked a lot how it was written because it seemed different to what I'm used to. It's nothing out of the ordinary, regarding the writing style, actually I would say that it is nothing more than average. What the main character felt when she experienced loss and love is not written about very much, the author seems to be detached from that part of her life. I don't know what exactly intrigued me about it, maybe just that it was different.
Besides, the information Mrs. Iwasaki gives is really interesting. I read the book within two days and wouldn't mind to read it again.

6/10 - Because it's a good read but the author clearly is no "knight of the pen".

I finished Jonathan Lethem's and Carter Scholz's Kafka Americana the other day. It's an interesting idea; five short stories (2 each plus 1 co-written by both writers) dragging poor Franz K kicking, screaming and mostly moping into the post-modern 20th century; using both his stories and the whole myth about Kafka as set-ups. Though I find myself wishing I'd brushed up on Kafka beforehand - it's been years since I read him, and I have a feeling I'm missing out on some stuff. But anyway, Lethem is still one of the best new-ish writers I've read, I want to read more by Scholz, and the idea of Kafka working in Hollywood and writing the script for "It's a Wonderful Life" (and ruining poor Capra's career in the process) had me laughing out loud on the subway.

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Originally Posted by Themis

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki

The book is a mix between specialised book and novel. It recounts the life of a Geisha (namely Mineko Iwasaki) and also gives information about the duties and customs of geishas.
I liked a lot how it was written because it seemed different to what I'm used to. It's nothing out of the ordinary, regarding the writing style, actually I would say that it is nothing more than average. What the main character felt when she experienced loss and love is not written about very much, the author seems to be detached from that part of her life. I don't know what exactly intrigued me about it, maybe just that it was different.
Besides, the information Mrs. Iwasaki gives is really interesting. I read the book within two days and wouldn't mind to read it again.

6/10 - Because it's a good read but the author clearly is no "knight of the pen".

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By the sound of it, it seems really nice. :)

Themis, have you read "Memoirs Of Geisha"? I liked it a lot. I wonder if "Geisha, A Life" is better...

I mentioned in another thread that I was reading the book "Blink" by someone with the last name Gladwell, I believe. It sounded cooler than it was, in my opinion. It had a lot of great information about how our minds make split-second decisions, and a lot of examples of how some decisions made this way have totally altered people's lives, but at the end, I didn't feel like as if the author had accomplished anything...I didn't walk away with any more knowledge about the actual process our minds go through...I just have a bunch of stories that act as examples. I'm a little more knowledgable about hidden prejudices and how dangerous and inaccurate snap judgement can be, but otherwise I feel like as if the book didn't prove a point...it was more "textbooky" and objective.

Now I'm reading "True Notebooks" by Mark Salzman, which is a recounting of true events the author had while teaching in Juvenile Hall, and it is totally awesome so far.

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Originally Posted by Shannanigan

I mentioned in another thread that I was reading the book "Blink" by someone with the last name Gladwell, I believe. It sounded cooler than it was, in my opinion.

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Malcolm Gladwell. I once read another of his earlier books, The Tipping Point. ;)

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Originally Posted by mono

Malcolm Gladwell. I once read another of his earlier books, The Tipping Point. ;)

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From what I understood, The Tipping Point was better...haven't read it though.

some excellent reviews here :) makes me want to read them

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Originally Posted by Pensive

Themis, have you read "Memoirs Of Geisha"? I liked it a lot. I wonder if "Geisha, A Life" is better...

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Yes, I read the "Memoirs of a Geisha". As I mentioned in another thread I didn't really like it. It was far too 'romantic' for my liking and the ending too - silly. Sorry. It read just like fiction to me, like something some screenwriter in Hollywood might invent.

You could always try it, Pensive. ;) In certain aspects it's better and I think it's far more likely to have happened than what Arthur Golden wrote. But as I said before, it wasn't written by a professional writer and that shows.

I finished "True Notebooks" by Mark Salzman yesterday...and I had to blink back a tear in the end. It's a nice feel-good nonfiction story about when Salzman taught a writing class in Juvenile Hall. Very revealing, very invovling...you can't help but feel for these kids who now realize that their bad choices are going to cost them their entire lives. It's realistic as well; the author goes to some of the students' sentancings and is forced to acknowledge that the kids he cares for and teaches are murderers, and he sees the pain in the victims' families...but the book reveals both sides and the potential these kids have. A really recommend it.

Finished "Madame Bovary". I'd read it once before, but so long ago that I scarcely recalled any of it. I enjoyed it. It wasn't exactly a page turner. Flaubert's prose is a little more descriptive than I like, I guess. But I liked the story of Emma Bovary's gradual descent into oblivion. It felt almost like peeping to watch as she searches for some fulfillment, almost desperately, and always comes up empty. I especially like how Flaubert lays some of the blame for Emma's disillusionment on novels (I think Walter Scott novels are mentioned several times). She craves the world she's read and can't accept the mundane world in which she actually lives. I'm glad I read it again.

Ryu Murakami's "In The Miso Soup" was an interesting book. It's been compared to "American Psycho", and I certainly see why. The narrator has something of the same detached, misanthropic view of the world, it occasionally explodes into VERY graphic violence, yet at the same time it does seem to want to say something more than just "yuck". I actually found myself thinking of his namesake Haruki Murakami's "Underground", which of course might be silly considering they're two very different authors telling two very different stories - but the connecting factor is: both are about the inability of the Japanese society to handle the extraordinary. In a society built upon politeness, keeping your emotions in check and doing what's expected of you, there is no way to deal with extreme situations either practically or mentally - whether it's the real-world catastrophe of the terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway in "Underground" or the fictional serial killer and the metaphorical influence of American culture in "In The Miso Soup". The book hits where it hurts in more than one way. True, it's a bit talky at times despite its short length, and the American character is a bit too metaphorical to be taken seriously, but... I liked it, if not quite as much as "American Psycho". 4/5.