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The story we read in class as an example for homework was about race, this Charles Chesnutt story is about race also.. https://boxden.com/images/icons/iUFxu44-compressor.png |
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City of Endless Night by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, 2018 After a string of at first seemingly unrelated decapitations occur in very close proximity to each other time-wise (I guess the back to back decapitations isn't uncommon here until like 4 happen), the obligatory eccentric special agent steps in to find out what's going on. I'd say that this is a cut above the rest with relation to other supermarket thrillers but that's not saying much. The field needs much more creativity/diversity. But this was alright. Don't expect to be floored. 3/5 |
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Purity by Jonathan Franzen, 2015 Fairly large scale coming of age story, though admittedly that particular facet of the tale is dwarfed by the recounting of events that lead up to the age in question needing to be come to. About a young girl living in an anarchist squat in Oakland with student debt and a father shaped hole in her life. The quest she embarks on takes her to a cult-like commune in Bolivia where its even more cult like leader had assured her she would be granted any desired information if she comes to intern, cults naturally having all the connections. It's her fable in essence though on a strict page-ly basis the book spends more time telling us about the background and various motives of various parties. It can seem long winded here and there but it's genuinely impressive in its way of building and divulging the truth of our protagonist's plight. It's more contemporary and slice of life-y than exciting but I found it pleasant to read, and was personally quite enamored with the downright anticlimactic ending, it just seemed more real. 4/5 |
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An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears, 1997 Arcadia had already shown me what a force Iain Pears is as a writer, and this here just enhances that knowledge. It's a fairly different animal thematically but the deft and utterly engaging prose is still present and perfect. It's a historical mystery about a murder, and it's told through four separate narrators whose accounts of the same event all vary in credibility and perspective, obviously. While that is the core of the novel's conflict, it reaches out incredibly far to cover much ground of a political nature, and relates it all quite impressively. For its expansiveness nothing is without purpose to the dilemma at large. Occasionally it may not seem so, but you know how books are, and we reach a point deep into it where it all becomes so clear and the greatly intricate weaving of plot lines is genuinely flooring. The man has an uncanny ability with the pen. 5/5 |
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My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, 1951 This has a very strong and obvious Rebeccian atmosphere and tangles with many similar themes like obsession and romantic secrets. But this one is about a young man who is somewhat over attached to his cousin, and comes to harbor a resentment of a woman he's never met for stealing away his only friend. This contempt festers and becomes downright ulcerous after said cousin dies under perhaps mysterious circumstances. But when this woman comes to visit him personally his obsession ultimately does a 180 and he finds himself envying his cousin for having this lady he would soon become infatuated with. All the while we wonder if she's just a gold digger with a deadly influence or a truly bereaved widow. His cousin takes on a curious illness and his letters leading up to his death become increasingly frantic and paranoid and perplexing, but the nature of his wife's and in the matter is the novel's primary speculation. I don't think it reaches the level of Rebecca but it's still a highly engaging yarn that holds its own atmosphere of foreboding danger and love. 4/5 |
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Mean Streak by Sandra Brown, 2014 One of the better supermarketcore books I've read. Went by real quick. 4/5 |
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Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk, 2013 The tweets of a snarky dead girl cast from Hell to earth to save it from the doom she'd ultimately caused. Pretty unfocused and at times vulgar in a try hard way. Didn't leave with much. 2/5 |
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Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847 More than justifies its widespread prestige, quite a classic tale of the bitterest of rivalry, spanning generations. Upon renting out the adjacent manor but soon seeking shelter from the weather, our narrator comes to stay a night at Wuthering Heights and its wretched landlord. His curiosity is piqued by the carved names in the room he finds himself, and in asking a servant what the deal is, a tremendous fable unfolds and the sordid history of the place is laid bare. Profoundly brooding and atmospheric, dripping with liquid tension. 4.5/5 |
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