Synopsis: Parisian survivor of Hiroshima and owner of the world’s largest collection of manuscripts concerning clouds hires an unassuming librarian to catalogue his collection. As the librarian learns about the men of history who had become obsessed by clouds, she is tasked with locating the mysterious Abercrombie Protocol, an attempt by a obscure 19th century [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Literature'
"The Theory of Clouds", Stephane Audeguy
July 3rd, 2009 · No Comments · Fiction, Literature, Philosophy
Tags:Stephane Audeguy
“The Slap”, Christos Tsiolkas
June 28th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Australian, Literature
Synopsis: Man slaps boy. Mother sues man. The fragile and interdependent settlements of modern suburban life are disturbed.
My Take: “The Slap” is clearly a very special book. As the editor of The Australian Literary Review, Stephen Romei, has noted, the book has realised:
“a rare quadrella in publishing: it’s a page turner that sells lots [...]
Tags:Christos Tsiolkas
"Heart of Darkness", Joseph Conrad
June 25th, 2009 · 4 Comments · African, English, Fiction, Literature, Philosophy
Synopsis: Freed from the constraints of European morality, a man confronts the underlying nature of humanity. Madness ensures.
My Take: For quite a short novella, “The Heart of Darkness” has certainly prompted a lot of meta-discussion. The subject of critical attention as a part of the Western cannon, as a flash point in post-colonial literary debates, [...]
Tags:Joseph Conrad
"The End of the Affair", Graham Greene
June 19th, 2009 · No Comments · English, Fiction, Literature, Nihilist
Synopsis: A deeply bitter writer reflects on his aborted affair with a married woman during WW2 London when years after the conclusion of their relationship, he runs into the woman’s husband. Hatred and contempt for self, women and God flows freely.
My Take: I have mixed feelings about Graham Greene. One the one hand, he’s an [...]
Tags:Graham Greene
"The Corrections", Jonathan Franzen
June 15th, 2009 · No Comments · American, Fiction, Literature
Synopsis: As the aging patriarch slips into dementia, a Midwestern family prepares to gather for ‘one last christmas’ in the parents small home town of ‘St Jude’ (The patron Saint of lost causes). Familial pathos and melodrama is writ large.
My Take: I loved this book and I wasn’t alone. It was a massive best seller [...]
Tags:Jonathan Franzen
"The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With The Sea", Yukio Mishima
June 12th, 2009 · No Comments · Asian, Fiction, Japanese, Literature
Synopsis: Teenage boy watches widowed mother sleep with handsome sailor through hole in bedroom wall. Boy becomes disillusioned with handsome sailor when he chooses his mother over life on the sea and begins plotting revenge.
My Take: In a word, dark.
Brett Easton Ellis dark.
Reminded me a lot of the Catcher in the Rye for its [...]
Tags:Yukio Mishima
"An Artist of the Floating World", Kazuo Ishiguro
June 11th, 2009 · No Comments · Asian, English, Japanese, Literature, Under-Rated
Synopsis: An aging painter contemplates his life as an artist of the ‘floating world’ (’Ukiyo‘) of Tokyo’s pleasure seeking districts and struggles to come to terms with his place in post-war Japan. Sometimes hindsight doesn’t come with 20/20 vision.
My Take: As you may have guessed by now, I have a real peccadillo for Japanese fiction. [...]
Tags:Kazuo Ishiguro
"One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich", Alexander Solzhenitzyn
June 10th, 2009 · No Comments · Fiction, History, Literature, Politics
Synopsis: The story of a day in the life of soviet gulag prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov.
My Take: I enjoyed this book tremendously. I’ve had a bit of a hit and miss history with Russian writers, some I’ve loved while others I’ve found interminable and depressing. What made this book so rewarding for me was that [...]
"Dry", Augusten Burroughs
June 4th, 2009 · No Comments · American, Literature, Non-Fiction
Synopsis: Having escaped from a childhood in which his mother adopted him out to her cult leader/psychologist, was repeatedly raped by a fellow patient/cult member and developed a passion for hairdressing, Burroughs’ autobiography continues in Dry with the tale of his adult descent into a life as a high paid, alcoholic advertising executive. Who would [...]
Tags:Augusten Burroughs