“But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings.Do you want... Continue Reading →
Book review: ‘Outline’ by Rachel Cusk
“Sometimes it has seemed to me that life is a series of punishments for such moments of unawareness, that one forges one’s own destiny by what one doesn’t notice or feel compassion for; that what you don’t know and don’t make the effort to understand will become the very thing you are forced into knowledge... Continue Reading →
Book Review: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.”Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude This book. I will definitely judge... Continue Reading →
Book Reviews: Faber Stories – Lorrie Moore, P.D. James and Alan Bennett
Story One: 'Terrific Mother' by Lorrie Moore ‘Terrific Mother’ is my first Lorrie Moore. I know she is much praised here so when I saw this Faber mini book I thought why not? Adrienne is 35 years old and childless. The best compliment a woman can get is ‘you’d make a terrific mother’ when they... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
“I was not the woman who breaks into pieces under the blows of abandonment and absence, who goes mad, who dies. Only a few fragments had splintered off, for the rest I was well. I was whole, whole I would remain. To those who hurt me, I react giving back in kind. I am the... Continue Reading →
Book Reviews: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
‘For God’s sake come to me quickly. She has done for me at last, Rachel my torment. If you delay it might be too late.’ The first short story of Daphne du Maurier that I read was 'Don't Look Now' which hooked me right away. Next, I read 'The Birds' and I knew that I... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
“It's the basic condition of life to be required to violate our own identity.” This is my first PKD book and I didn't know that this was the book that inspired the movie Blade Runner. I haven't seen the movie (sorry) so I can't really compare the two. However, I saw it as an advantage... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf
Then a terrible shriek came from the middle of the crowd, as if someone has set his foot upon a burning thorn, as if his foot being nailed to the earth with nails of fire, as if flames were shooting through his marrow. The crowd fell apart, all eyes drawn to the foot to which... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
"She pictured him in nice clothes, his hair cut shorter, maybe his nose straightened, speaking a more careful English, interested in music and literature, learning about politics, psychology, philosophy; wanting to know more the more he knew, in this way growing in value to himself and others." The Assistant, Bernard Malamud I found Bernard Malamud... Continue Reading →
Book Review: ‘Half of the Yellow Sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“...my point is that the only authentic identity for the African is the tribe...I am Nigerian because a white man created Nigeria and gave me that identity. I am black because the white man constructed black to be as different as possible from his white. But I was Igbo before the white man came.” ―... Continue Reading →