Book reviews
Apr. 25th, 2008 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selene_13I haven’t done one of these in a while: 4 book reviews (cut for length, not for spoilers)!
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
I loved this book! It’s a true page-turner and I could not put it down. It's the story of nine-year-old Oskar, precocious and inquisitive, who lost his father in the 9/11 attack on the WTC. When Oskar finds a key that belonged to his father, he goes on a quest to find the lock to which the key fits. Along the way we meet an array of interesting characters, always filtered through the earnest and naive eyes of Oskar. Alongside his story, another story unravels: that of Oskar’s grandparents (dealing amongst other with the bombing on Dresden, Germany), and the two stories eventually collide. There is a prominent use of graphics and textual gimmicks in the novel that are occasionally intriguing or fun, sometimes useless, and sometimes profound (especially those final pages). Due to the number of these gimmicks the body text is actually less than you might expect, but its worth it for this story. Again, I could not put it down. What a funny and touching narrative. The closest I can compare it to is The Incident with the Dog in the Night-Time. Highly recommended.
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
Another book that makes use of a child’s perspective (Liesel) though it is actually told from the PoV of Death (no, not Pratchett's, but similar :)). Liesel is adopted by the Hubermanns and lives in a little village outside Munich. She has a high affinity to reading and collecting books, which she mostly gathers by stealing. She has three encounters with Death, which define the three stages of her life. The relationship between Liesel and her adoptive parents and her friend Rudy is very descriptive, amusing and true. When Max, a young jew who comes to hide in the Humbermann’s basement to escape the hazing, joins the family dynamic, the true complexity of the war in Germany shines through. What to do when you don’t agree with the new regime, but your society forces you to comply? This book also makes use of graphics by Max’s art (his perspective of his situation and his relation with Liesel) and though they are simply, they are stunning. The inevitable end of the novel is heart-rendering, but this is a beautiful and original novel. Another I highly recommend.
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A classic. Some might say the classic. I confess I read it for that reason mostly (I’m always trying to catch up on my classics even when I don’t always enjoy them), but I was pleasantly surprised. I expected a tough and, I admit, boring read. Instead, I rather enjoyed the story, the humour and the commentary on Russian society. Mostly, I enjoyed the main character’s degeneration. The student Raskolnikoff, plans to murder a bitter old money-lender to alleviate his poverty, but mostly to prove that he is above human reproach (like Nietsche’s Ubermensch). After the crime, he is overcome by delirium, paranoia and megalomomania, inwardly (and sometimes vexingly outwardly) ranting and stumbling his way through the story. Meanwhile, he (we) meet a wide variety of different characters who are at times amusing, aggravating, kind or vindictive. I was curious throughout the text whether Raskolnikoff would get away, be found out, or would confess, therefore I was intrigued to the end. It was not a simple text and I wouldn’t recommend it to a casual reader, but all in all, I rather liked it. I also think Raskolnikoff’s fever, fainting and delirium likely invoked my h/c kink somewhat. :)
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
A nicely written narrative about a family of mixed race in the Boston area. The father, Howard, is a professor at the local university, and has affairs. His wife Kiki becomes friends with the wife of a conservative collegue of Howards whom he hates. Their loud-mouthed daughter Zora attends the university and falls for the poet-prodigy Jerome, and street-wise son Levi finds himself drawn in by the plight of Haitian immigrants. We follow through the story various plotlines concerning all four of the family (Howard, his wife Kiki, their children Zora and Levi) and the people they have friendships and relationships with. It is a compelling tale, nicely written with an easy flow, where the characters stand as houses and various comments are made on multi-culti society, but the ending does not really lead to anything and therefore there is no sense of resolution or pay-off to any of the storylines. Perhaps the point is more or less that there is no point, people experience things, evolve and move on, they forgive each other or not, they overcome their insecurities or not, they outgrow their naiveté or not, but in a novel I generally expect a conclusion. Okay read, bit of a flat end.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
I loved this book! It’s a true page-turner and I could not put it down. It's the story of nine-year-old Oskar, precocious and inquisitive, who lost his father in the 9/11 attack on the WTC. When Oskar finds a key that belonged to his father, he goes on a quest to find the lock to which the key fits. Along the way we meet an array of interesting characters, always filtered through the earnest and naive eyes of Oskar. Alongside his story, another story unravels: that of Oskar’s grandparents (dealing amongst other with the bombing on Dresden, Germany), and the two stories eventually collide. There is a prominent use of graphics and textual gimmicks in the novel that are occasionally intriguing or fun, sometimes useless, and sometimes profound (especially those final pages). Due to the number of these gimmicks the body text is actually less than you might expect, but its worth it for this story. Again, I could not put it down. What a funny and touching narrative. The closest I can compare it to is The Incident with the Dog in the Night-Time. Highly recommended.
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
Another book that makes use of a child’s perspective (Liesel) though it is actually told from the PoV of Death (no, not Pratchett's, but similar :)). Liesel is adopted by the Hubermanns and lives in a little village outside Munich. She has a high affinity to reading and collecting books, which she mostly gathers by stealing. She has three encounters with Death, which define the three stages of her life. The relationship between Liesel and her adoptive parents and her friend Rudy is very descriptive, amusing and true. When Max, a young jew who comes to hide in the Humbermann’s basement to escape the hazing, joins the family dynamic, the true complexity of the war in Germany shines through. What to do when you don’t agree with the new regime, but your society forces you to comply? This book also makes use of graphics by Max’s art (his perspective of his situation and his relation with Liesel) and though they are simply, they are stunning. The inevitable end of the novel is heart-rendering, but this is a beautiful and original novel. Another I highly recommend.
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A classic. Some might say the classic. I confess I read it for that reason mostly (I’m always trying to catch up on my classics even when I don’t always enjoy them), but I was pleasantly surprised. I expected a tough and, I admit, boring read. Instead, I rather enjoyed the story, the humour and the commentary on Russian society. Mostly, I enjoyed the main character’s degeneration. The student Raskolnikoff, plans to murder a bitter old money-lender to alleviate his poverty, but mostly to prove that he is above human reproach (like Nietsche’s Ubermensch). After the crime, he is overcome by delirium, paranoia and megalomomania, inwardly (and sometimes vexingly outwardly) ranting and stumbling his way through the story. Meanwhile, he (we) meet a wide variety of different characters who are at times amusing, aggravating, kind or vindictive. I was curious throughout the text whether Raskolnikoff would get away, be found out, or would confess, therefore I was intrigued to the end. It was not a simple text and I wouldn’t recommend it to a casual reader, but all in all, I rather liked it. I also think Raskolnikoff’s fever, fainting and delirium likely invoked my h/c kink somewhat. :)
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
A nicely written narrative about a family of mixed race in the Boston area. The father, Howard, is a professor at the local university, and has affairs. His wife Kiki becomes friends with the wife of a conservative collegue of Howards whom he hates. Their loud-mouthed daughter Zora attends the university and falls for the poet-prodigy Jerome, and street-wise son Levi finds himself drawn in by the plight of Haitian immigrants. We follow through the story various plotlines concerning all four of the family (Howard, his wife Kiki, their children Zora and Levi) and the people they have friendships and relationships with. It is a compelling tale, nicely written with an easy flow, where the characters stand as houses and various comments are made on multi-culti society, but the ending does not really lead to anything and therefore there is no sense of resolution or pay-off to any of the storylines. Perhaps the point is more or less that there is no point, people experience things, evolve and move on, they forgive each other or not, they overcome their insecurities or not, they outgrow their naiveté or not, but in a novel I generally expect a conclusion. Okay read, bit of a flat end.
