Sam Savage's first novel, Firmin, chronicled the coming-of-age misadventures of a very literate rat living in a bookstore in Boston's Scollay Square. Garnering praise from authors and...
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I read this book twice with ten years in between readings; it was just as powerful the second time around. The main theme of the story is centered on time: how a woman's perspective shifts as she moves through, and re-experiences time, and how she lives in multiple times. This sounds like a complex subject, and psychologically it can be, but Atwood creates a plot that is very human. I remember crying during the first read, I was surprised how much I cried again during the second read. Yet, the story is not written with a heavy emotional hand; at its simplest, it is a story of how a child becomes an adult. Yet, Atwood captures the everyday tragedy that happens on this path, the revelations that horrify, and the losses one endures.
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A bawdy novel in a fairy tale form about a 40 year old poet/pawnbroker who is given back youth to travel for a year to imaginary places. He begins his journey with the pretense of searching for his disappeared wife. He goes to heaven and hell and marries three other women.
Jurgen was brought to trial for obscenity in 1919 for some obscure passages that may have referred to sex. The real reason may have been because of the novel's questioning of religion and dogma. Because of its notoriety, Cabell was launched into fame which included critical appreciation- he was also friends with H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis, among others; and he was read by Mark Twain. After the 30s, however, Cabell's fame slipped and he has had more of a cult readership these days; although his works inspired Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, and he is cited as an influence by Neil Gaiman.
Jurgen is a tale of a mid-life crisis. The main character questions the value of relationships and suffers illusion's unveiling of love, marriage and youth. In the end he has a better understanding of life….maybe. There are many subtle things in this story, maybe too subtle for the contemporary reader.
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(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
Jacoby was inspired, or rather compelled to write this book after hearing a conversation on 9/11/2001- according to The New York Times (2/14/2008), it went something like this: “This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said. The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?” “That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied. At that moment, Ms. Jacoby said, “I decided to write this book.”
After reading this article and few more reviews, and after seeing Ms Jacoby give a book reading in San Francisco, I became inspired to read it. I mostly wanted to see how if I was as ignorant and uninformed as the rest of America; and I also have a deep curiosity to understand the strange history of America's intellectuals.
After reading this, I am curious to see how Jacoby's book departs or expands upon Richard Hofstadter's book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. I think Jacoby does present some of the challenges Americans face in issues of education and critical thinking. Religious fundamentalism and video media are the main culprits to intellectual downfall, according to Jacoby, and I agree. However, I am more concerned of how Americans lost a respect and desire for knowledge and rational understanding. We had a trajectory for such values, but what happened? Where do we fall to the wayside? Jacoby's book excellently diagrams how we have gone awry and what are culprits, but I perhaps I wanted to dig a little deeper into the murk.
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(16 of 18 readers found this comment helpful)
The plot is standard gothic novel stuff, but Du Maurier uniquely reveals inner psychologizing in words. I'm not sure if I had encountered any novel so exact in this regard. I was very much drawn in by the language and the suspense of this work.
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(4 of 8 readers found this comment helpful)
A Nervous Splendor covers nine historical months from the summer of 1888 to the spring of 1889 in Vienna, Austria. The story is mostly centered on the events that led to the Crown Prince Rudolf's double suicide (with his lover Baroness Mary Vetsera). Morton alternates Rudolf's story with events that were happening simultaneously to other cultural figures: Sigmund Freud, Gustave Klimt, Arthur Schnitzler, Theodor Herzl, Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner and Johannes Brahms.
The overall effect is a fast-paced and engaging snapshot of Viennese history, one sees how little events start to have larger ramifications and how isolated events actually do have influence on a larger whole. One can also see how the milieu shapes the individual who can in turn, shape the milieu.
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(4 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
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lisa_emily has commented on (19) products.
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
lisa_emily, September 29, 2009
I read this book twice with ten years in between readings; it was just as powerful the second time around. The main theme of the story is centered on time: how a woman's perspective shifts as she moves through, and re-experiences time, and how she lives in multiple times. This sounds like a complex subject, and psychologically it can be, but Atwood creates a plot that is very human. I remember crying during the first read, I was surprised how much I cried again during the second read. Yet, the story is not written with a heavy emotional hand; at its simplest, it is a story of how a child becomes an adult. Yet, Atwood captures the everyday tragedy that happens on this path, the revelations that horrify, and the losses one endures.(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabell
lisa_emily, June 12, 2008
A bawdy novel in a fairy tale form about a 40 year old poet/pawnbroker who is given back youth to travel for a year to imaginary places. He begins his journey with the pretense of searching for his disappeared wife. He goes to heaven and hell and marries three other women.Jurgen was brought to trial for obscenity in 1919 for some obscure passages that may have referred to sex. The real reason may have been because of the novel's questioning of religion and dogma. Because of its notoriety, Cabell was launched into fame which included critical appreciation- he was also friends with H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis, among others; and he was read by Mark Twain. After the 30s, however, Cabell's fame slipped and he has had more of a cult readership these days; although his works inspired Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, and he is cited as an influence by Neil Gaiman.
Jurgen is a tale of a mid-life crisis. The main character questions the value of relationships and suffers illusion's unveiling of love, marriage and youth. In the end he has a better understanding of life….maybe. There are many subtle things in this story, maybe too subtle for the contemporary reader.
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
lisa_emily, June 12, 2008
Jacoby was inspired, or rather compelled to write this book after hearing a conversation on 9/11/2001- according to The New York Times (2/14/2008), it went something like this: “This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said. The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?” “That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied. At that moment, Ms. Jacoby said, “I decided to write this book.”After reading this article and few more reviews, and after seeing Ms Jacoby give a book reading in San Francisco, I became inspired to read it. I mostly wanted to see how if I was as ignorant and uninformed as the rest of America; and I also have a deep curiosity to understand the strange history of America's intellectuals.
After reading this, I am curious to see how Jacoby's book departs or expands upon Richard Hofstadter's book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. I think Jacoby does present some of the challenges Americans face in issues of education and critical thinking. Religious fundamentalism and video media are the main culprits to intellectual downfall, according to Jacoby, and I agree. However, I am more concerned of how Americans lost a respect and desire for knowledge and rational understanding. We had a trajectory for such values, but what happened? Where do we fall to the wayside? Jacoby's book excellently diagrams how we have gone awry and what are culprits, but I perhaps I wanted to dig a little deeper into the murk.
(16 of 18 readers found this comment helpful)
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
lisa_emily, May 27, 2008
The plot is standard gothic novel stuff, but Du Maurier uniquely reveals inner psychologizing in words. I'm not sure if I had encountered any novel so exact in this regard. I was very much drawn in by the language and the suspense of this work.(4 of 8 readers found this comment helpful)
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889 by Frederic Morton
lisa_emily, January 2, 2008
A Nervous Splendor covers nine historical months from the summer of 1888 to the spring of 1889 in Vienna, Austria. The story is mostly centered on the events that led to the Crown Prince Rudolf's double suicide (with his lover Baroness Mary Vetsera). Morton alternates Rudolf's story with events that were happening simultaneously to other cultural figures: Sigmund Freud, Gustave Klimt, Arthur Schnitzler, Theodor Herzl, Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner and Johannes Brahms.The overall effect is a fast-paced and engaging snapshot of Viennese history, one sees how little events start to have larger ramifications and how isolated events actually do have influence on a larger whole. One can also see how the milieu shapes the individual who can in turn, shape the milieu.
(4 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
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