Johnson’s writing–her vivid detail, sharp dialogue and insightful, deftly witty scenes–reveal a family of distinct, complicated individuals grappling with the internal and external impact of our society’s stereotypes, but also asks us to look more closely at our own relationships.
Tag: novel
A review of Radegonde and the First Crusade by Lauren Small
Radegonde and the First Crusade spans four years from the time Radegonde leaves home to the bloody conclusion of the novel. Lauren Small vividly brings the time to life while spinning a tale of one young woman’s struggle with faith. At the Council of Clermont at the end of 1095, Pope Urban II issued a call to arms that would result in the first crusade – the People’s Crusade – and the capture of Jerusalem, liberating the holy city from Muslim control. Related in the present tense by an omniscient third-person narrator, the story focuses on Radegonde, both her interior struggles with faith and sin, forgiveness and love, and the outward challenges she faces.
A review of Prairie Ashes by Ben Nadler
Prairie Ashes is well worth your time. Whatever your interests, it is the duty of the working class as much as it is the rentier class to understand what was once possible in the pursuit of a more equal society. Orwell found it once in Spain; even if for a brief time, it proves that things must not always be as they are, as well that authority is not invincible or necessary in its unjustified form.
A review of Suicide by Édouard Levé
The narration in particular demonstrates Levé’s artistry. The book’s speaker addresses his friend, recounting a wide range of events, conversations, and thoughts that took place before the suicide. But wait—he, the narrator, is recounting incredibly specific details about his friend’s life, quoting conversations, explaining worries and trains of thought that his friend, not the narrator, experienced.
Shifting Perceptions: A Review of Apparitions by Sybil Baker
What is true? What is not? The protagonist, Simone, arrives in Istanbul with her friend, Agnes. The city, partly European and partly Asian, hints at the dichotomies in Simone’s life and the fusion and confusion she encounters.
A review of Prétend by Arielle Burgdorf
I love this book. It is located at the crossroads (if not terminus) of cultural appropriation, mistranslation, gender and identity fluidity. Carrère’s fake identity novel, the brilliantly glib aspersions of Nightwood — all this and more are revivified in Arielle Burgdorf’s masterful take on identity in an increasingly amorphous world.
A Review of The Girl from Blind River By Gale Massey
Comparisons aside, Jamie and Girl from Blind River stand on their own as remarkable achievements in popular literature. Gale Massey has a poet’s eye for the telling detail, and can evoke a feeling with a few deftly written words. Readers don’t need to be told Jamie is poor after Massey has her searching “the remaining pizza boxes until she found a piece of crust and chewed it while she watched the [poker] hand play out.”
Veracity and Transformation: A Review of Grief Cottage by Gail Godwin
The book is wonderfully informed by multiple metaphorical depictions of our inner and outer struggles. Young Marcus loses his mother, his only parent, and goes to live with his eccentric and spiritually bruised great Aunt Charlotte on a small island in South Carolina at the beginning of the summer. Aunt Charlotte has past wounds that haunt her, rendering her a reclusive but renowned local painter.
A review of The A to Z of Normal by Helen Barbour
The A to Z of Normal, by British author Helen Barbour, is a “relationship novel,” but has more to say than a romance, or a “chick lit” book. Readers like to learn while being entertained, and in this novel, Ms. Barbour gently educates us about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and deserves praise for recognizing the dramatic potential in a subject seldom-explored in fiction.
A review of The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Buried Giant is not an easy book. Its simple prose belies the complexity of the narrative, and the multiple layers of meaning as Ishiguro presents us with extremes that are equally unpalatable, and both of which could well be seen as the modern condition. At times, the fog is enough to engulf the reader, and the work seems to be as obscure in its meaning as the location of Beatrice and Axl’s son’s village.