Glory is my third book from this year’s Booker Prize shortlist. I’ve read and reviewed two others so far: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan and Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout. Spoiler alert! My favorite is still Small Things Like These. In fact, as far as Glory goes, you’re own your own. It was too much for me. I didn’t get very far at … Continue reading Glory by Noviolet Bulawayo
So, I thought this book was going to be about Olive Kitteridge. I had it in my head that it was a sequel to one of Ms. Strout’s earlier books, but it turns out this one is another book about Lucy Barton whom we met in 2016’s My Name is Lucy Barton. You don’t need to know anything about the earlier book to enjoy Oh, … Continue reading I Digress: Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout — Booker Prize Short List, Book Two
Small things can contain worlds. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is literally small. 114 pages of a fairly large font, you’d be right to call this a novella. I read it cover to cover in a sitting. The lives Ms. Keegan portrays here are also small. The central character, Bill Furlong, goes about his days running the small coal distributor that keeps his … Continue reading I Almost Cried Three Times. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
I’m one of those people who get excited over the Man Booker Prize. Almost every year, once the long list is announced, I head over the my local library to get as many of the nominated books as I can. Typically, there are a few not yet available in America, and there are a couple my library doesn’t have yet. So I check out two … Continue reading Sunday Salon: Why the Booker Short List Ruins my Reading and Other Bookish Items
John Berger’s Booker nominated novel From A to X is designed to infuriate readers. The man is simply asking for it. From A to X is an epistolary novel, consisting of letters sent from a woman, A’ida, to Xavier, the imprisoned man she loves. A novel made up of letters loses many readers from the get-go. The introduction explains that the letters in From A … Continue reading
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill is often compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The two books do share a superficial similarity. Both take place in and around New York and both are narrated by an outsider. Both are centered on a fantastic character, one that inspires admiration in other men, but this character is not the narrator. There the similarities end. Though born in … Continue reading Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
May Contain Spoilers 