|
Just finished a few books On the Road by Jack Kerouac, thus making me the first American male to have read this book AFTER turning 21. The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa which was probably the best historical fiction novel I ever read. and The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes which was a little slow, but fascinating for how it varies between all three types of narrators. Yes, you heard me right. A third of the novel is second person.
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2006 23:59
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 11:27 |
|
|
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead. Racial Allegory about a black elevator inspector who is framed for the collapse of an elevator in a brand new skyscraper in the city. She suspects she is set up by the Empiricists, who inspect elevators with rigorous logic, a rival sect of inspectors who are at war with her own sect The Intuitionists, who inspect elevators by mediditation and instinct. The characters are a little flat, but the plot really does pull you in, as strange as it might be.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2007 20:37
|
|
|
AmnesiaLab posted:And before that was The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, by Steven Sherrill. It may not sound like it, but it's a serious book, it's set in modern-day America, and it really does feature the Minotaur of legend-- working as a grill cook at an American restaurant. It's basically a story about the socially awkward, so goons should love it. The writing style is excellent, and the book is surprisingly moving. Holy poo poo, he was my writing professor a few years ago. I absolutely love that guy and his writing. I don't usually see alot of people who have read his stuff. Did you try Visits from the Drowned Girl yet?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2007 00:40
|
|
|
After the almost unanimous adoration of the goon mass made me buy it, I just finished Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World. I found the first half of the work to be interesting, but I feel it lost focus and fell apart somewhat at the end, although his role near the end as a historian of Scientific progress was genuinely fascinating. My major complaint with the work comes with his almost laughable and arguably offensive summary and criticism of Post-Modernism. Considering how admirably and thoroughly he preaches analytic observation and open-mindedness, it seems upsetting to me that he appears to have spent no more than few passing seconds reading up on actual Postmodernist thought. The idea that he claims the argument "Darwin invented Evolution to further Atheism" as being from the Post-Modern movement is particulalry insulting to the school and wildly inaccurate. All in all, a very good read, but Sagan, like most scientific writers it seems, has a deep distrust of Postmodernism that leads him to strawman it and ignore it as an absurd enemy to rational thought as opposed to a valid intellectual school.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 22, 2007 01:46
|
|
|
FuzzyLollipop posted:Since this one has been so good, I was thinking about One Hundred Years of Solitude next. Does anyone have any comments/warnings? Pretty loving amazing. Honestly, I think a book that is closer to the "style" of Love in the Time of Cholera though would be his novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Its light on Magic Realism too, and deals with the same sort of widespread social networks that Love plays with.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2007 23:10
|
|
|
Bdurox posted:I just finished The Iliad by Homer translated by Robert Fitzgerald. It took me a really long time to get through it, I'm talking years. This was not due too much to Fitzgerald who did the best translation I have yet seen. It was due to Homer. I had to take him a little at a time, but most of this is that I do not know much about Greek culture and that I did not hear it being recited to me as people would have in ancient Greece. Most of it, though, was still good writing. The part I didn't like was after the death of "Hektor". The next couple chapters dragged on and on until the end, which I thought did not really wrap anything up at all. The battle could still be going on, and we aren't told who will win. In all, I recommend Fitzgerald, but not The Iliad as much unless you want some tough reading. Its a lot better if you read the Iliad not as a tale about the Trojan War in total, but rather about the involvement of Achilles in the battle. It begins with him quitting, the climax is his return, and the completion is his ultimate glory. It's really a story about him, not the war.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2007 05:55
|
|
|
Zero Karizma posted:That's the next one on my list. What did you think of the Nurse Character in Farewell? I remember always disliking that book because she was so stereotypical and two-dimensional in the story.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 8, 2007 19:35
|
|
|
Zero Karizma posted:Which nurse? The friend, Ferguson? Or the evil overlord "Nurse Ratched" clone, Van Campen? Catherine Barkley, the love interest.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 8, 2007 19:51
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 11:27 |
|
|
I've been on a bit of a streak recently, and in the last month was able to polish off three good ones. The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien by Oscar Hijuelos A slice of life epic about a Cuban-Irish immigrant family living in Central Pennsylvania during the 20th century. For the scope of the family, each character is well rounded and believable, although some obviously play second-tier to other siblings. My only complaint is that it seems inconsistent in who to treat as the protagonist, split constantly between Margarita and Emilio. The ending leaves a bit to be desired as well, but considering the novel's intent, I wonder how much of the ending is deliberate. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy Everyone seems to be on a Cormac kick since [i]The Road[/b] and the No Country film. I chose this one since I heard a lot about it, but its been pretty much ignored by the forum. Great book, great characters. Felt like a page-turner more than anything, but was handled with a scope uncommon for the "western." In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez Probably my favorite of the three. Adds the scope of human life that Hijuelos' novel has with a political and moral message that only adds to the power of the novel. Makes the relatively unknown Dominican martyr's human in their experiences, and draws the reader to hold a strong emotional tie to the history of the island.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2008 22:54
|
|