The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami My rating: 4 of 5 stars *** Warning: this review contains a slew of spoilers *** The Strange Library is sure to be engagingly familiar for most Murakami fans, regarding the set, the props, and the unlikely hero. There is a solitary, inward-looking boy; an ordinary public building containing a profound mystery; a hidden labyrinth; a sinister and grotesque man looming over the boy’s life in a threatening way; a sheep man (I have to admit to a soft spot for Murakami’s recurring sheep-man character — in this story, he even makes doughnuts; what’s not to love?); and an ethereal now-you-see-her-now-you-don’t beautiful female guide and protector, who doubles as the boy’s pet starling. It is beautifully written…
Posts tagged “book review”
Getting Colder by Amanda Coe My rating: 4 of 5 stars “Of course it’s serious, my love, but it’s fucking hilarious!” This is one of my favourite lines from Getting Colder and it suits the whole book really, which is a black comedy. I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for a review, and I dived in with eager anticipation. Getting Colder is a fast read that kept me flipping pages as if it were a thriller. It tells the story of an emotionally remote woman — or a highly passionate but repressed one, take your pick — who leaves her husband and children to run off with the (legend has it) great love of her life, a…
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell My rating: 5 of 5 stars *Warning: I have said things in this review which some readers may view as plot spoilers, so proceed with caution, please.* I have read only a handful of The Bone Clocks professional and lay reviews so far because I find that if I read too many reviews before writing my own, I feel constrained by others’ opinions. But I think I can safely assume that most of the important points about this book have already been made, for better or worse. I should say upfront that the inferences I’ve made about the author, which I find worth discussing because they are based on the book, may or may not…
Book Review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente
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Posted on January 8, 2014
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente Publisher of this 1st edition hard cover: Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan, New York 2011. My rating: 5 of 5 stars I bought this book as a gift for my very young nieces, only to realise that I had misjudged the appropriate readership by about six years. So, I decided to read it myself, and I loved it. It’s brimming with the same lush imagery and sensual delights that one finds in Valente’s adult novels, amidst all the Fairyland glimmer, glamour, and ghastliness specific to this children’s tale. In both Valente’s adult novels and this one, her imagined worlds are equal parts terrifying and…
Incarnadine: Poems by Mary Szybist Publisher: Graywolf Press, Minneapolis 2013 My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is so beautiful, in so many ways. Szybist is a new favourite poet of mine, now that I have just finished both this book of poems and Granted, her first published collection. These are modern contemplative pieces that are well introduced by the two quotes Sybist has included at the beginning: The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation. — Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace Repose had again incarnadined her cheeks. — Thomas Hardy, Far From The Madding Crowd How apt those quotes are,…
The Bad Seed by William March Publisher of this edition: Harper Perennial, New York 2005 My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is a good read, despite already knowing the outcome — as I believe everyone does who has ever heard of it. March builds his narrative cleverly and precisely. He opens the story by focusing upon a single family and their social circle, in a small American town, and then narrows the focus down little by little, finally isolating his two main characters completely — in a social and psychological sense — so that the reader’s anxiety is held taut, through to the end. This is emotionally confining enough to feel absolutely claustrophobic, as we end up feeling as cornered as…
The Weight of a Human Heart by Ryan O’Neil My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a generous collection of perfect gems. It’s the first I’ve read of Ryan O’Neill’s writing, and I am now a fan. These stories are vibrant, fresh, and poignant. I laughed out loud, even in the midst of sad tales, where laughter was the last response I had expected from myself. What I love most about this collection is that, while O’Neill has a deft and clever touch with traditional narrative, post-modern send-ups, and meta perspective points-of-view — making it look easy to bounce between these quite different ways of thinking — he has tremendous heart too. He is a substantial writer, not merely a clever one.…
Black no Sugar – 9 Short Stories by A.W. Wilson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Black no Sugar is a collection of nine short stories by A.W. Wilson, a self-published author, containing some bleak, pithy, funny, and well-crafted prose. I have read it slowly, one or two stories at a time, because (as promised) each story is like a dose of hot and bitter brew. In fact, that is just how I prefer my coffee, and it was the title, along with the hilarious image of a much-overused Munch painting on a Starbucks take-away cup (I’d thought I’d never see a fresh re-frame of that, but life is full of surprises) that made me decide to give the stories a try. I…
Book Review: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami
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Posted on March 30, 2013
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami My rating: 5 of 5 stars So here’s the thing about Haruki Murakami that turns my brain into fairy floss: how is it that this 60ish Japanese guy writes in such a way that I feel he is exploring not only his own psychic underworld but also mine? (I should mention here that I am not likewise a 60ish Japanese guy.) Given his rampant popularity across cultures, I am assuming I am not the only one who has this experience. His fans seem to return to him like … Well, like whatever the 2013 version of a crack whore returning to the den is … No, more like an opium den, isn’t…
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami My rating: 5 of 5 stars I can understand readers having extreme love/hate reactions to Murakami, generally, and to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, particularly. As in his other works, the most recent of which is 1Q84, opening the covers of Wind-Up Bird is like strapping yourself into a carnival ride through someone else’s dream world; unless you are very keenly interested in the mind of that dreamer, you will be in turns bored or repelled by the experience. I am keenly interested in Murakami, and I find myself willing to read pretty much anything he writes; but it is a love that surpasses my own understanding at times.