Tóibín excels at novels from a woman’s point of view. Here he gives a sympathetic portrait of two women shaken by events and hoping for a second chance. The main male characters, Tony and Jim, lack the determination and character of Eilis and Nancy. Unthinking, they grab onto the first thing that comes along.
Category: Literary Fiction Reviews
Queer Bodies and Youthful Exuberance in Rainbow Rainbow by Lydia Conklin
Through sparse prose, a keen eye for detail, and sharp social critique, the stories in Rainbow Rainbow create a sense of fluidity both in scope and philosophy grounded only by the limitations of the body and the identities we associate with it.
A review of Owning the Not So Distant World by Grace Cavalieri
Grace Cavalieri is by turns as sagacious and oblique as a Zen koan, her verses brimming with aphoristic wisdom, and also charmingly chatty, like your best friend in the world, oscillating between aloof and intimate but always appealing.
Revenge Follows Function: A review of The Inhabitants by Beth Castrodale
In this entertaining and creative novel, Castrodale smartly weaves together modern and classical literary takes on potions and tonics, nature and nurture, motherhood and friendship, grieving and healing, and the perils of trusting the wrong people while distrusting one’s own instincts.
A review of Zero at the Bone by Christian Wiman
Poetry gives suffering form, and giving suffering form is an antidote to despair. Yet content matters, too. For Wiman, much confessionalism is “an idolatry of suffering…an outrage that no person (or group) has suffered as we have, or simply a solipsistic withdrawal that leaves us maniacally describing every detail of our cells.
A review of Lucky by Jane Smiley
Smiley’s underlying theme, however, is the precariousness of this immortality. While presenting Jodie’s maturation as a woman and artist, she quietly notes some major historic events of the passing era.
A review of On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
The story begins as a huge flight of monarch butterflies starts their yearly migration to the south. This is a metaphor for Vuong’s migration to America from Vietnam. When the book reaches its final pages, the flight of the monarch butterflies is resumed, and we can see and hear them beating their wings in unison as they continue their journey, many dropping to their deaths en-route.
A review of The Leaves by Jacqueline Rule
Jacqueline Rule makes good use of her legal experience in Luke’s story, which is tragic, spotlighting just how broken the foster system he ends up cycling through is, or how brutal the legal detention system, and the way in which it traumatises rather than helps the young people caught in it.
A review of Turn Up the Heat by Ruth Danon
Light and heat serve as central metaphors for comfort. They represent the warmth Danon so desperately craves as an antidote to the cold she fears. Her fear is deeply rooted in the uncertainty and anxiety that accompany illness and hospitalization.
A review of Review of Pigeon House by Shilo Niziolek
Niziolek does not play safe with any of her stories; ‘The Fisherman’s Wife’, for example, at first appears like a folkloric tale told many times before, but Niziolek’s vengeful twist provides this tale with a squeeze of lemon. There is something gloriously satisfying and almost palate cleansing in the way Niziolek seeks to subvert her reader’s expectations.