Customer Comments

Elliott Blackwell has commented on (13) products.

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

Elliott Blackwell, January 26, 2012

There are two things I can always count on to be bleak: Nick Cave songs and Cormac McCarthy novels. Blood Meridian is an amazing and graphically brutal work. While the bloody Sam Peckinpah style violence proliferates every chapter, its the magnificent and poetic prose that helped me navigate this hellish West that at times bore more resemblance to a Hieronymous Bosch painting. Unlike other writers, McCarthy writes about violence as violence and not as anything symbolic. He is definitely one of the truly great American authors.

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The Annotated Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie

Elliott Blackwell, October 26, 2011

I have loved Maria Tartar's other annotated books and this one is just as beautiful as the others I have in my collection. This novel celebrates its 100th anniversary is a great read for both children and adults. Though filled with pirates, Indians, mermaids, lost boys and fairies this story covers themes of lost youth to death. As Peter even says, "To die will be an awfully big adventure." Don't let all of the adaptations fool you, this is a magical book of such depth, as well as adventure, that it has something for everyone. That is why this tale has lasted so long.

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The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

Elliott Blackwell, September 15, 2011

A fantastic tale that reminds one of the best of Marquez or Calvino. The novel follows two protagonists stories: that of Henri a soldier and cook for Napoleon and Villanelle the androgynous Venetian whose story is caught up in romance and chance. Their two stories start seperately and interconnect as both are escaping Russia and the French troops, though for completely different reasons. Winterson does a masterful and magical job of storytelling as she presents these two characters and all of their passions.

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The Seas: A Novel by Samantha Hunt

Elliott Blackwell, September 11, 2011

The Seas is told by a 19 year old narrator struggling to move from adolescence to adulthood. Drawing on classical mythology and fairy tales, such as Undine and The Little Mermaid, Samantha Hunt weaves a tale that can be magical, funny, dark, and often hauntingly beautiful. Like the stories from which this one derives, the narrator finds herself deep in longing for her love of an older man but also fears that her love will bring about his death. All the while, she still looks to the sea for her father to return where he had walked into it when she was eight. When I finished this mesmerizing tale, it left me not only appreciating this book but wanting more from its talented author.

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The Master and Margarita. Mikhail Bulgakov by Mikhail Bulgakov

Elliott Blackwell, September 9, 2011

The great Russian surrealist novel that tells of the Devil coming to Moscow to wreak havoc. Bulgakov writes with amazing and meticulous detail about the politics, religion, and art in Russia. Not to mention it has a sharp-shooting talking cat named Behemoth that to this day is so popular he's printed on t-shirts. It's also a favorite of Salman Rushdie, Tea Obhret, Patti Smith, and Daniel Radcliffe. Not to mention inspired The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil." This book also has the great line: Manuscripts don't burn.
A must read for anyone who hasn't read it and a great novel to reread if you have.

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