Middlesex the novel is presented as Cal’s third birth – his artistic creation of the “roller coaster ride of a single gene through time.” Cal’s voice is the heart of the story, which is told in a kind of first…
Tag: fiction
A review of At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft
by Bob Williams At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft Paperback: 179 pages Picador USA; Reprint edition (May 1996), ISBN: 031214279X Of the first eight books by Kraft, four of them (Little Follies, Where Do You Stop?, What a…
A review of Yellow Dog by Martin Amis
In the often farcical rollercoaster ride that the book follows, the reader encounters a kind of Quixote tilt at the Windmills of honesty, straining to work out what is real and what isn’t, who is really guilty, and if innocence…
A review of That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
The combination of lighthearted comedy with a very serious main character and intense scenery descriptions makes for an enjoyable and even languorous read. Right from the start the novel plunges into deep description – one imagines Proulx herself driving past…
A review of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
As an example of mainstream fiction it is by no means despicable. It offers solid enjoyments although the careful reader will be uneasy about many authorial choices. Reviewed by Bob Williams Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier Plume…
A Review of My Life As a Fake by Peter Carey
The slick post-modern magic realism narration never interferes with Carey’s first and greatest strength, which is that of a terrific storyteller. Although the story moves quickly, the writing is almost always tight, beautiful, and compelling, interlaced with delicate puns, and…
A review of What A Piece of Work I Am by Eric Kraft
Much of the novel issues from the stage and much of the language is stagy. Since the explanation for staginess comes after the fact, one is obliged to determine how much satisfaction a belated explanation can give. Contrivance is a…
A review of DeLillo’s Cosmopolis
It is possible that under the poor structure and pretty prose lies a deeper truth – some vision about the world and what matters. Or perhaps we are to read into the book that nothing matters – that in the…
A review of Crabwalk by Gunter Grass
Crabwalk is a complex and difficult novel which challenges the reader to think about history, about perspective, and narrative truth, but keeps the reader at arms length. The story is narrated by Paul Pokriefke, a 50 year old survivor of…
A review of What’s Wrong with Dorfman by John Blumenthal
The style is a marvelous succession of deadpan one-liners, quick and funny. A perceptive reader will see in this a device whereby Dorfman, the narrator, distances himself from his problems. Reviewed by Bob Williams What’s Wrong with Dorfman? By John…