Published by Penguin (May 1, 2000), The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst marked Mr. Hollinghurst as perhaps the eminent classical Gay stylist (writer) since E.M Forester.
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The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst
By Nightfall By Michael Cunningham
She turns, surprised. It isn’t Rebecca. It’s Mizzy. It’s the Mistake. Right. The solid square plates of his pectorals, the V of his hips; here is the small dark bristle of pubic hair, the pink-brown jut of his dick.
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Satori By Don Winslow
Satori begins with Hel getting an assignment, mentioned in the synopsis above of killing a Soviet Commissioner in China. This Commissioner a one Yuri Voroshenin actually has some ties to Hel's decadent mother, first introduced to us in flashback in Shibumi. But before Hel gets to make this attempt and free himself from his American cell, Hel must train in etiquette with Solange a lady French Agent that trains Hel in the ways of French manners as Hel must transform himself into a French Arms Dealer who was recently killed in a car accident. Hel fall in love with Solange and there beings our tale.
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The Corrections By Jonathan Franzen
Some of Franzen's off passages are wonderfully well envisioned like the description of Gary and Caroline's young son Jonah up above. Franzen surely has a depth that is mature in this book. Like John Irving, say, I'm not likely to look too far backwards to the two or so books before The Corrections. And with Mr. Franzen's Freedom awaiting me I know I have much to say in the future.
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The Cypress House By Michael Kortya
Michael Kortya's Cypress House is a very 'dry' accounting of some southern backwoods happenings.
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Imperial Bedrooms
Imperial Bedrooms, Brett Easton Ellis’ Sequel to Less Than Zero, begins rather surprisingly. With ‘Clay’ the main character of Less Than Zero recounting with us about the book that was written about him. He speaks of the ‘blond haired attractive friend’ who wrote the book. Clay recounts some of the actual events of his life, revealed in the book Less Than Zero. This is interesting writing but it’s dangerous, because such can easily fall into ‘cheesy’ banality. Less Than Zero took place during the 80′s after all. In one description from Clay about the actor who portrayed Julian (in the movie Less Than Zero) he states: Julian became the sentimenalized version of himself, acted by a talented, sad-faced Clown, who has an affair with Blair and then realizes he has to let her go because I was: His best bud. “Be good to her,” Julian (the actor) tells Clay Just on a fun note, could this be Mr. Ellis’ comments upon the actual actor, Robert Downey Jr., who in fact did play Julian in the movie version of Less Than Zero? Irregardless I was certainly taken off guard by Mr. Ellis’ surprising opening after all these years. He even mentions
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Half Empty by David Rakoff
David Rakoff's Half Empty is being called 'Defensive Pessimism' a term coined by some on the Internet.
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Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas
I woke up this morning, one hour early thinking that I've got some really hot things to say about Thomas' really rather dank and dismal Our Tragic Universe.
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Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
Where should I begin? Alastair Reynolds is one of our favorite writers. I think I’ve reviewed nearly every one of his Revelation Space Books, and honestly I was happy to do so. It’s been awhile since his last book House Of Suns. With this book Terminal World, Reynolds has returned to a smaller venue, namely a one Planet where things are not altogether familiar. This planet is separated into Zones that have unique properties. Most everyone on the planet lives in a city called Spearpoint which is situated on the surface of a vast artificial spire made of a nameless, nearly impermeable black substance. About 30 million live in the city of Spearpoint.. The Zones allow for or exclude different technologies, humans passing from Zone to Zone must take a unique medicine to survive. There are about 6 small towns or precincts within Spearpoint. Although Mr. Reynolds characters call their planet Earth, clearly they are living on Mars. Into this world the book introduces us to a surgeon named Quillon, and it becomes clear soon after that Quillon is known as an Angel, one who used to live in the Celestial Levels of Spearpoint. In other words these ‘creatures’ (Angels)
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The Portrait of a Lady [Kindle Edition]
![The Portrait of a Lady [Kindle Edition]](http://media2.libri.de/shop/coverscans/147/14737103_14737103_xl.jpg)
There is Casper Goodwood a wealthy and young American Mill Owner who follows Isabel to England to stake his claim, he is a haunting presence in the book, as his love for Mrs. Archer is unrequited and unremitted as well.
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Washington Square [Kindle Edition]
![Washington Square [Kindle Edition]](http://syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=0375761225/MC.GIF&client=sirsi&type=rw12)
Catherine for her part loves and admires her father and wants only what he wants. She doesn't quite see her father's poor treatment of her in his pert and ironical manner. One gets a sense that he does love her yet that he is often short and ironic and sarcastic when around her. When a young man enters Catherine's life, Morris Townsend, who at about thirty is described by Mr. James as a very beautiful young man. Mr. Townsend is a 'fortune hunter' he has squandered his life savings on foolery and being 'wild' as he mentions, yet he is intelligent and does seem to have a real attraction for Catherine. However, Dr. Sloper grows to despise the young man and forbids his daughter to marry him. He suggests strongly that she will not receive his share of inheritance if she does.
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The Last Theorem [Kindle Edition]
![The Last Theorem [Kindle Edition]](http://www.sfsite.com/gra/0810/la1.jpg)
At any rate the writers let us know rather quickly that Ranjit is obsessed with mathematician Pierre de Fermat's famous Theorem which he wrote in the margin of one of his books. Ever since Mathematician's have raced to discover the actual proof of Mr. Fermat's Theorem. It's quite clear that Fermat did know the answer to proving his Theorem but realized that it would be long. Interestingly Fermat's Theorem has been proved in real life, and only recently by Andrew Wiles in 1994.
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Kafka on the Shore [Kindle Edition]
![Kafka on the Shore [Kindle Edition]](http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165515991l/4929.jpg)
Kafka On The Shore is our fifth Haruki Murakami book reviewed here on By The Book, and it does amaze me that Haruki Murakami is fairly well trenchant in his perspectives. Most writers tend to move onto territory that we as readers can't put from one book into the next, yet with Mr. Murakami we do tend to see many of the same verbiage and tones that his previous tomes have elicited. As a fine writer, however, Mr. Murakami is able to keep things very interesting, something that 99.9% of writers on this world would be unable to fathom.
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South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel [Kindle Edition]
![South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel [Kindle Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wl0a5sEYL.SX156.jpg)
Now we come to yet another of Haruki Murakami’s works: South of the Border, West of the Sun. This is a short work by Murakami about 240 pages or so. Unlike Hardboiled Wonderland at The End of the World (The Link is Broken! But scroll down about 6 or 7 reviews to find it.) which we found dreary, this latest book puts Murakami back on his game. South of the Border is a very typical book by Mr. Murakami, his male characters are all rather straightforward in their desire for ‘something more’ in life. They usually do quite well in life or seemingly so but are unhappy and dissatisfied by their lives for some reason. This is the crux of Mr. Murakami’s many works. The basic yearnings in a Murakami work are his women. Usually very unusual women who these singular men have met under beguiling circumstances. There seems to be the loss of these women that propel Mr. Murakami’s Men to dire emotions or consequences. Here in South of the Border the main character is Hajimi who is described during his youth in a small town in Japan. He meets Shimamoto a strange young girl who has to drag
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) [Paperback]
![Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) [Paperback]](http://images.fatrain.co.nz/.tmp/images/Books/Fiction-and-Literature/General/150x200/Hard-Boiled-Wonderland-and-the-End-of-the-World_-A-Novel-_Vintage-International_.jpg)
Now we continue with our further explorations of Haruki Murakami’s work. Our last two reviews of Mr. Murakami, you may wish to read as well (Sputnik Sweetheart and A Wild Sheep Chase). In this one Mr. Murakami often enters the Fantasy area of fiction, interspersing an unusual mix of real life characters with an alternate fantasy world. The main character of Hard Boiled is known as a “Calcutec” which means that he is basically a human number cruncher who is able to decipher complex binary codes and such within his own scull. He’s another of Mr. Murakami’s male ‘stock’ main characters. He lives in a small apartment, is divorced and is about 35 or so. He’s disconnected from life in general and basically lives a lonely existence with only himself to concern himself with. As a Calcutec the unnamed narrator works for a group called “The System” an underground organization that protects important data from “The Semiotecs” who steal such data for their own ends. There is no James Bondish touches to Mr. Murakami, however! His touch is unusual to say the least as a Murakami work is not easily defined under normal circumstances. I was pretty well surprised to
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Books One Must Read – Time Regained by Marcel Proust
There are those who have read Proust and those who haven’t. It pleases me to say that I’ve read “Time Regained” and every word of it. That it took me three years to read (I was reading other things as well) is besides the point. To be honest with you I couldn’t come out and tell you what it is all about. Time Regained becomes very internal to ones space after living with it so long. Time Regained literally becomes ones life in some way or another. There becomes a ‘groove’ you might say that the reader will surely get into whilst reading it. Here is how Wikipedia The Encyclopedia describes it: In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (French: À la recherche du temps perdu) is a semi-autobiographical novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its extended length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the “episode of the madeleine“. The title In Search of Lost Time has gained in popularity since D.J. Enright’s 1992 revision of the classic translation of C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, but it is also widely
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Gravity’s Rainbow (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) [Paperback]
![Gravity’s Rainbow (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) [Paperback]](http://img0.fkcdn.com/img/214/9780099533214.jpg)
A work of Unbridled Genius, Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a real nut to crack! Now that sure sounds like a good blurb if I was working for the New York or Los Angeles Times, but chances are only my ‘small circle of friends’ (you my By The Book readers) will ever read it. I can’t say that I came to Mr. Pynchon with any advance warning, I’d heard of Gravities Rainbow and of Mr. Pynchon here and there and nothing substantial, only my own gleanings as to his work. Take a good look at Mr. Pynchon there, it’s the last you’ll ever see of him! He’s actually still alive! He’s about 72! Mr. Pynchon guards his privacy very well and good for him! After reading Gravities Rainbow I can see where Mr. Pynchon would not be all that interested in the glare of our modern apparatuses, the lights, the camera and the action. His is an entirely unique perspective, a brilliant ‘stream’ that Mr. Pynchon has created where only his own thoughts and wanderings are captured. We, as readers of Gravities Rainbow are of no importance at all. It’s Mr. Pynchon’s show and what an amazing show it
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The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection
Lately I've been hearing about a 'sea change' in science fiction writing. Young writers are coming into the field and they aren't writing about space or robots as such. In many of the new tales told here in the 27th edition I was left at times wondering when it was going to 'kick-in' Indeed I didn't really find much to interest me until about half way through.
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Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition) [Kindle Edition]
![Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Edition) [Kindle Edition]](http://clayscottbrown.biz/kindle/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/51dzKNK2HoL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3BottomRight-1634_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg "Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Edition) [Kindle Edition]")
“Who Is John Galt?” Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is surely not what you’d expect anyone today to be reading. Sure, you’d expect a few ‘college students’ going through the depressed days after ‘beer nights’ to be taking a looksie into this visionaries works. But Mrs. Rand is usually given a wide berth from most readers, who actually might be better informed by reading her. Mrs. Rand is something unique to Philosophers, if we can call her that, she is a Philosopher who writes fiction. And where most Philosophers would be terrible fiction writers, Mrs. Rand is a very good writer on her own merits actually. Her Atlas Shrugged is my first attempt at her work, as it were. I’m no student of Philosophy, personally I’m not all that interested in ‘how to get there’ isms, but more interested in the actual firmament of arriving at said locale… if you get my drift! Still I’ve included a u-tube video of Mrs. Rand’s interview with Mr. Mike Wallace in 1959, she is quite an interesting person, I must say. My actual mother has been an adherent or admirer of Mrs. Rand’s for some time, and so after many years of her name
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The Yiddish Policemen’s Union [Paperback]
Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is our next book. The book has won the Hugo and Nebula awards as well as many prizes for fiction. The book itself concerns an alternate future wherein the Hebrews didn’t claim Israel as their own and a Jewish settlement is placed in Sitka, Alaska of all places. Into this landscape Mr. Chabon places his characters, hard bitten types who just so happen to be Jewish. Our hero in this thriller is Meyer Landsman a down and out police detective who is investigating a murder at his hotel. The man murdered, Emmanuel Lasker turns out to be the son of a highly prominant Rabbi in Sitka. Working with him is his beefy life long friend Berko who is a detective as well. Together they begin an investigation into who might have murdered Emmanuel Lasker, who oddly enough is described as a candidate to be The (Hashem..ah choo!) Messiah! There are a number of subplots one involving detective Landsman whose divorced wife becomes his commanding officer. It’s all very intricate stuff in this novel. I was wondering if Mr. Chabon was actually going to write a mystery, but in the end I don’t think there
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Sputnik Sweetheart [Kindle Edition]
![Sputnik Sweetheart [Kindle Edition]](http://clayscottbrown.biz/kindle/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/31is0latsEL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3BottomRight-1434_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg "Sputnik Sweetheart [Kindle Edition]")
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. Our second Murakami book reviewed (A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami) was our first. This very talented writer has a very fine way of capturing the interest with his crisp and interesting prose. So far Mr. Murakami’s men in his novels, usually a loner, are nearly variations of the same. The same somewhat jangled and unique characters seem to have been placed in each of his books. A really interesting way to write, and luckily Mr. Murakami is very good at deciphering these people with unique habits and ways. His loners, indeed every book of Murakami’s I’ve read has a sense of ‘not belonging’ to the plot, as if the world were somehow not in tune with the people in his novels. Which indeed gives his characters a certain mystery and charm. Here in Sputnik Sweetheart, Murakami treads his usual path with really fine ease. Unlike say in A Wild Sheep Chase, where at times you are very unsure of the sanity of the characters, the people of Sputnik are for the most part glued to their society. They are terribly sophisticated and knowledgeable about the surroundings they live in however, these aren’t losers
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The Fountainhead [Kindle Edition]
![The Fountainhead [Kindle Edition]](http://clayscottbrown.biz/kindle/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/51o2dJp-a4L._SL500_AA266_PIkin3BottomRight-1234_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg "The Fountainhead [Kindle Edition]")
The creator originates. The parasite borrows. The creator faces nature alone. The parasite faces nature through an intermediary. The creator’s concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite’s concern is the conquest of men. The creator lives for his work. He needs no other men. His primary goal is within himself. The parasite lives second-hand. He needs others. Others become his prime motive. The basic need of the creator is independence… to the creator all relations with men are secondary. From the beginning of history, the two antagonists have stood face to face: the creator and the second-hander. When the first creator invented the wheel, the first second-hander responded… he invented altruism. The creator – denied, opposed, persecuted, exploited – went on, moved forward and carried all humanity along… Ayn Rand – The Fountainhead – pages 712,715 That’s Architect Howard Roark at his trial very near to the end of Mrs. Rand’s Fountainhead. As you may or may not be aware I’ve reviewed Mrs. Rand’s, Atlas Shrugged, earlier (about two reviews down or so) I thought that The Fountainhead was a later book by Mrs. Rand and was surprised to find, back then, that Atlas Shrugged was her final fiction.
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Absolution Gap [Kindle Edition]
![Absolution Gap [Kindle Edition]](http://clayscottbrown.biz/kindle/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/51rMz0YPI9L._SL500_AA266_PIkin3BottomRight-2334_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg "Absolution Gap [Kindle Edition]")
Absolution Gap is the final volume of Alastair Reynolds ‘Revelation Space’ series of novels. We here at By The Book have reviewed all of them. In this one Absolution Gap Mr. Reynolds begins us back to where the last book essentially left off on Ararat the Pattern Juggler World where the Lighthugger ‘Infinity’ (the ship had become Captain John Brannigan through the Melding Plague, if you remember) was crash landed into the Pattern Juggler Ocean. It is here where we pick up on some old favorites of the series. There is Scorpio, the genetically altered pig and leader of the colony, and we see that it has been over twenty years since the colonization. He is in search of his friend, Nevil Clavain, the old war hero from the past who you may remember from the earlier books, he is now somewhat older and in seclusion upon the new settlement. There is a pod that has landed nearby with someone in it… and fearful that it might be Skade, Scorpio enlists the now reclusive and weary Clavain to assist. Turns out that it’s Khouri, Villanova’s assistant… she tells them that her baby (Aura) was stolen from her womb by Skade
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The Trial [Kindle Edition]
![The Trial [Kindle Edition]](http://clayscottbrown.biz/kindle/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/51kswSoNq+L._SL500_AA266_PIkin3BottomRight634_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg "The Trial [Kindle Edition]")
Most of us know of Mr. Kafka’s work by way of The Metamorphosis, which has become required reading in High School classes. I’m one of those who found the Metamorphosis rather inventive and highly exceptional, so it was with no little surprise that I did decide to pick up one of Mr. Kafka’s books, The Trial. The Trial is just that a Trial of one Josef K, who as a respected bank official, is suddenly accused of a crime. Interestingly the crime itself is not revealed in any way and we never learn of the actual charges against Mr. K. The book is very strange indeed, and if you were expecting a straight forward ‘crime drama’ you will be disappointed, as Mr. Kafka isn’t interested in the facts, as it were but in the undercurrents and perceptions of the legal proceedings that ensnare the young bank official. As Josef K looks further into his trial, we meet many very unusual and often singular characters from his life. His lawyer is a sickly fat man with a young girl as a servant that often has illusions of love and intimacy with the lawyer’s clients, including Mr. K. In fact the women
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The Bostonians (mobi) [Kindle Edition]
![The Bostonians (mobi) [Kindle Edition]](http://clayscottbrown.biz/kindle/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/51Wozp-UggL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3BottomRight-534_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg "The Bostonians (mobi) [Kindle Edition]")
Let us now turn our attention to The Bostonians by Henry James. I must admit that I’d never read anything by Mr. James before, but his reputation has, of course proceeded him. So it was with some interest that while I was shopping for other books, that I decided upon The Bostonians. I usually try to start at the beginning of a writer’s career but with Mr. James there are quite a few books and I just felt that I finally needed to ‘pick one up’ as it were. A quick perusal of its back cover told me that it would be about the so called ‘Woman’s Movement’, the Woman’s Suffrage Movement. There are three main characters, Olive Chancellor, a stalwart of the Movement who is wealthy, cultured and attractive. She is very single minded in her pursuit of a woman’s dignity during a time of much turbulence amongst the sexes. Olive is really nearly sexless as described by the very lyrical text as Mr. James describes her. Indeed, she has no need of a man at all and looks at the ‘Species’ as something less than savory and/or necessary, and although mannerly and strict to men, in general, the
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Clapham Junction
All these many threads do come together in a pretty fast going movie. There is even some gay 'professionals' one a closet case who traverse the Clapham Toilets, looking for cheap and raunchy sex. It's pretty raunchy all right as one of these 'blokes' an older man well to do basically gets raped from behind then attends a dinner party with his wife and sees a friend from his toilette adventures! Reminding me a bit of the action in 'Prick Up Your Ears' and the delightfully decadent Joe Orton.
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John Adams: Disc 1
This being about the Protestants of this nation there is bound to be plenty of historical inaccuracies. The first disk does begin with a massacre in Boston from the British Troops stationed here. Lawyer Adams actually ends up defending these men, getting them free. But in the second disk England begins to Tax our Protestants, and sure enough it's money that actually freed these Protestants from Merry Old England. Greed will get an American to thinking, that is for sure!
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Carancho
Director Pablo Trapero's Carancho is a gritty well paced drama centering in upon the so called Vultures, Ambulance chasers who work for some upper echelon officials. These car accidents and the legal payouts the the victims families are very shady indeed. Argentina has over 8,000 car fatalities a year.
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Somewhere
Writer/director Sofia Coppola's Somewhere is a dry meditation upon the vagaries of Fame.
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Howl
It’s interesting to note that today any 13 year old girl of this nation can rattle off more ‘obscenities’ via Facebook to her friends in less than 5 minutes than Mr. Ginsburg managed to place in his entire poem.
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Justin Bieber’s: Never Say Never
The goal of Never Say Never is that Mr. Bieber's tour is going to play at Madison Square Garden, a watershed moment for Rock Stars apparently. So we hear from quite a few people who know Justin Bieber, friends and family mostly.
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Every Day
Director Richard Levine's Every Day does often seem like Every Day. I can't remember a Movie that looked more like a television series than Every Day.
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A Somewhat Gentle Man
The film follows Ulrik out of jail (12 years) and back into society. Ulrick meets his old mob boss who wants him to kill the man that informed, thus sending Ulrik to jail. Trouble is, that Ulrik decides not to.
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Vision ~ From the Life of Hildegard Von Bingen
Writer/Director Margarethe von Trotta' Vision (From the Life of Hildegard Von Bingen) is one of those films you would wish others to see. Regardless of the Religion, etc. there is a fine film here. Indeed this very positive and worthy movie is one which will have you remembering it days after.
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Black Swan
Director Darren Aronofsky is surely one of the best directors we've seen in some time. I can't remember when I haven't been interested in at least in one of his films.
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The Kings Speech
Director Tom Hooper's, The King's Speech won the Academy Award last year (2010) for this very bright and really good film.
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Hereafter
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Hereafter attempts a metaphysical structure of International proportions, but the film is as dreary as the 'idea' that Hollywood and/or Eastwood can put together an intelligent film about the spirit.
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Letters to Father Jacob
Director Klaus Härö's film is terribly understated as his 'sweep' is a small Finnish town where an old blind priest, Heikki Nousiainen in a subtle performance brings out some 'feeling' in Leila, Kaarina Hazard. It's Hazards deadpan expressions that really do put a spin on things.
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I Love You Phillip Morris
I Love You Phillip Morris is rather a unique perspective into the lives of two men. The two men played by Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are, it turns out Gay.
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My Soul to Take
The killings are rather perfunctory and you'd think that the town would go Ape Shit over even one Murder. I know I'd be a bit concerned, yet in Craven's half-hearted direction, nothing much seems to matter, even the deaths of like 15 or so people by the end of the film. Thematically the build up to Craven's film is very poor. The Screenplay is a total mess from one end to the next and Craven is really just phoning this one in. Mr. Craven however has a certain energy for these horror teenybopper films that he makes and in a sense he keeps us up on what the 'Kids' (read:Teens) are up to.
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Burlesque
El Diablo Mi Amigo it's been forever since I've seen Cher! Cher was 20 when I was born so right there you know we are talking a ways back.
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Love and Other Drugs
It's Romantic Comedy time in Hollywood again, but this time it's rated R. As we all know by now, Jennifer Aniston isn't going to show her tits anytime soon, luckily we have Anna Hathaway who will!
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I Spit On Your Grave
If you're into Rape Fantasies and Violence then I Spit On Your Grave is one you may enjoy watching.
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Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
We were terribly impressed by this outstanding documentary about this greatest artist of his generation... Jean Michel Basquiat... Recommended highly for your MOVIE Library!
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Clays Book Reviews
The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst
Published by Penguin (May 1, 2000), The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst marked Mr. Hollinghurst as perhaps the eminent classical Gay stylist (writer) since E.M Forester.
By Nightfall By Michael Cunningham
She turns, surprised. It isn’t Rebecca. It’s Mizzy. It’s the Mistake. Right. The solid square plates of his pectorals, the V of his hips; here is the small dark bristle of pubic hair, the pink-brown jut of his dick.
Satori By Don Winslow
Satori begins with Hel getting an assignment, mentioned in the synopsis above of killing a Soviet Commissioner in China. This Commissioner a one Yuri Voroshenin actually has some ties to Hel's decadent mother, first introduced to us in flashback in Shibumi. But before Hel gets to make this attempt and free himself...
The Corrections By Jonathan Franzen
Some of Franzen's off passages are wonderfully well envisioned like the description of Gary and Caroline's young son Jonah up above. Franzen surely has a depth that is mature in this book. Like John Irving, say, I'm not likely to look too far backwards to the two or so books before...
The Cypress House By Michael Kortya
Michael Kortya's Cypress House is a very 'dry' accounting of some southern backwoods happenings.
Imperial Bedrooms
Imperial Bedrooms, Brett Easton Ellis’ Sequel to Less Than Zero, begins rather surprisingly. With ‘Clay’ the main character of Less Than Zero recounting with us about the book that was written about him. He speaks of the ‘blond haired attractive friend’ who wrote the book. Clay recounts some of the actual events of his...
Half Empty by David Rakoff
David Rakoff's Half Empty is being called 'Defensive Pessimism' a term coined by some on the Internet.
Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas
I woke up this morning, one hour early thinking that I've got some really hot things to say about Thomas' really rather dank and dismal Our Tragic Universe.
Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
Where should I begin? Alastair Reynolds is one of our favorite writers. I think I’ve reviewed nearly every one of his Revelation Space Books, and honestly I was happy to do so. It’s been awhile since his last book House Of Suns. With this book Terminal World, Reynolds has returned to a smaller venue,...
The Portrait of a Lady [Kindle Edition]
There is Casper Goodwood a wealthy and young American Mill Owner who follows Isabel to England to stake his claim, he is a haunting presence in the book, as his love for Mrs. Archer is unrequited and unremitted as well.
Washington Square [Kindle Edition]
Catherine for her part loves and admires her father and wants only what he wants. She doesn't quite see her father's poor treatment of her in his pert and ironical manner. One gets a sense that he does love her yet that he is often short and ironic and sarcastic when around...
The Last Theorem [Kindle Edition]
At any rate the writers let us know rather quickly that Ranjit is obsessed with mathematician Pierre de Fermat's famous Theorem which he wrote in the margin of one of his books. Ever since Mathematician's have raced to discover the actual proof of Mr. Fermat's Theorem. It's quite clear that Fermat did know the...
Kafka on the Shore [Kindle Edition]
Kafka On The Shore is our fifth Haruki Murakami book reviewed here on By The Book, and it does amaze me that Haruki Murakami is fairly well trenchant in his perspectives. Most writers tend to move onto territory that we as readers can't put from one book into the next, yet with Mr. Murakami...
South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel [Kindle Edition]
Now we come to yet another of Haruki Murakami’s works: South of the Border, West of the Sun. This is a short work by Murakami about 240 pages or so. Unlike Hardboiled Wonderland at The End of the World (The Link is Broken! But scroll down about 6 or 7 reviews to find it.)...
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) [Paperback]
Now we continue with our further explorations of Haruki Murakami’s work. Our last two reviews of Mr. Murakami, you may wish to read as well (Sputnik Sweetheart and A Wild Sheep Chase). In this one Mr. Murakami often enters the Fantasy area of fiction, interspersing an unusual mix of real life characters with an...
Books One Must Read – Time Regained by Marcel Proust
There are those who have read Proust and those who haven’t. It pleases me to say that I’ve read “Time Regained” and every word of it. That it took me three years to read (I was reading other things as well) is besides the point. To be honest with you I couldn’t come...
Gravity’s Rainbow (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) [Paperback]
A work of Unbridled Genius, Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a real nut to crack! Now that sure sounds like a good blurb if I was working for the New York or Los Angeles Times, but chances are only my ‘small circle of friends’ (you my By The Book readers) will ever read...
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection
Lately I've been hearing about a 'sea change' in science fiction writing. Young writers are coming into the field and they aren't writing about space or robots as such. In many of the new tales told here in the 27th edition I was left at times wondering when it was going to...
Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition) [Kindle Edition]
“Who Is John Galt?” Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is surely not what you’d expect anyone today to be reading. Sure, you’d expect a few ‘college students’ going through the depressed days after ‘beer nights’ to be taking a looksie into this visionaries works. But Mrs. Rand is usually given a wide berth from most...
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union [Paperback]
Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is our next book. The book has won the Hugo and Nebula awards as well as many prizes for fiction. The book itself concerns an alternate future wherein the Hebrews didn’t claim Israel as their own and a Jewish settlement is placed in Sitka, Alaska of all places....
Sputnik Sweetheart [Kindle Edition]
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. Our second Murakami book reviewed (A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami) was our first. This very talented writer has a very fine way of capturing the interest with his crisp and interesting prose. So far Mr. Murakami’s men in his novels, usually a loner, are nearly variations of...
The Fountainhead [Kindle Edition]
The creator originates. The parasite borrows. The creator faces nature alone. The parasite faces nature through an intermediary. The creator’s concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite’s concern is the conquest of men. The creator lives for his work. He needs no other men. His primary goal is within himself. The parasite lives...
Absolution Gap [Kindle Edition]
Absolution Gap is the final volume of Alastair Reynolds ‘Revelation Space’ series of novels. We here at By The Book have reviewed all of them. In this one Absolution Gap Mr. Reynolds begins us back to where the last book essentially left off on Ararat the Pattern Juggler World where the Lighthugger ‘Infinity’ (the...
The Trial [Kindle Edition]
Most of us know of Mr. Kafka’s work by way of The Metamorphosis, which has become required reading in High School classes. I’m one of those who found the Metamorphosis rather inventive and highly exceptional, so it was with no little surprise that I did decide to pick up one of Mr. Kafka’s books,...
The Bostonians (mobi) [Kindle Edition]
Let us now turn our attention to The Bostonians by Henry James. I must admit that I’d never read anything by Mr. James before, but his reputation has, of course proceeded him. So it was with some interest that while I was shopping for other books, that I decided upon The Bostonians. I usually...
H20 ~ Clays Movie Reviews
Somewhere
Writer/director Sofia Coppola's Somewhere is a dry meditation upon the vagaries of Fame. ...
Justin Bieber’s: Never Say Never
The goal of Never Say Never is that Mr. Bieber's tour is going to...
Vision ~ From the Life of Hildegard Von Bingen
Writer/Director Margarethe von Trotta' Vision (From the Life of Hildegard Von Bingen) is one...
The Kings Speech
Director Tom Hooper's, The King's Speech won the Academy Award last year (2010) for...
Hereafter
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Hereafter attempts a metaphysical structure of International proportions, but the...
Letters to Father Jacob
Director Klaus Härö's film is terribly understated as his 'sweep' is a small Finnish...
I Love You Phillip Morris
I Love You Phillip Morris is rather a unique perspective into the lives of...
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
We were terribly impressed by this outstanding documentary about this greatest artist of his...
Los Angeles Time
Los Angeles TimeTHE ATTIC DWELLER WRITTEN BY CLAY SCOTT BROWN
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