Stratford is an interesting narrator, and his passive acceptance, even in the worst of situations keeps the tone of the book light. In typical Smiley style, Good Faith is a tight, fast paced, and carefully set out novel full of…
Tag: fiction
A review of Where Do You Stop? by Eric Kraft
It may seem strange that, in a book where so much is tied together in ways that have to do with physics, a contrary motion coming from the same source is also possible. The key to the book is discontinuity.…
A Review of The Promised Land by Ruhama Veltfort
While the novel slouches towards magic realism, the double voice enables the reader to maintain enough of a distance to create a tension. It is quite possible that Yitzhak is a visionary. It is equally possible that he is either…
A review of Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
The mixture of everyday life, and a very common set of tragedies coupled with moments of transcendence makes for a fast paced read. In the end, we are left with the permanence of love in the face of the temporarily…
A review of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
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…
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…