Atwood’s world is thoroughly formed, her imagination extraordinary, but only just one step in front of the world of today. She touches on serious biological concerns, terrorism both individual and corporate, and big philosophical concerns, without losing the beauty and…
Category: Literary Fiction Reviews
A review of The Light of Day by Graham Swift
Go deep below the surface of any person, and you will find Swift’s narrator, George Webb, a man for whom the normal movements of life have become odd, and replaced by a kind of quiet obsession – love perhaps, or…
A review of Hermit in Paris – Autobiographical Writings by Italo Calvino
Hermit in Paris, along with The Road to San Giovanni comprises the extent of Calvino’s autobiographical writings, at least in English. There is still a mystery about Calvino, and that will remain; you won’t be able to understand, from the…
A review of Withdrawal by Michael Hoffman
Is this artlessness or is it art perfected? One hardly cares, for Hoffman is a natural storyteller and, although this is often not high praise for a writer, it achieves a different dimension when, as here, the writer is sufficient…
A review of The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
In the end, we choose our point, arbitrarily: “A period, a dot of punctuation, a point of stasis.” Atwood reminds us that the story could easily end elsewhere, that endings are random, and that, for her protagonists (but not for…
A review of Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft
In terms of intention it succeeds brilliantly and the intention is no paltry one. It explores a dark world of a man who was a difficult tortured child and never escaped that childhood. His failure to generate love among any…
A review of James Joyce: A Short Introduction by Michael Seidel
One who has long been acquainted with the works that Seidel discusses will enjoy the book most. Despite the title and despite the titles of books like it, there is really no introduction to Joyce. The only introduction to the…
A Review of Youth by J.M. Coetzee
. The story is tortuous because it reminds its readers of something that seems to go hand and hand with youth – the desire for glory, for greatness, for artistic achievement and admiration without the tedious work of application. John…
A review of Herb ‘n’ Lorna by Eric Kraft
This shift of chronological focus is similar to that found in Little Follies. There the opening stories carry Peter from toddler to a young boy of almost nine. Time then becomes elastic and – as in this book – turns…
A review of The Enigma of Arrival by VS Naipaul
Neither memoir nor story, the descriptive detail is fine, but it lacks any overall movement, is slow going and painful to read, and ultimately leaves the reader with nothing more than a brief impression of the mental state of the…