Wilkinson88
I'm looking forward to eventually reading this myself, but I'm also impressed that a few people here have managed to get an early copy of the book.
Whereas Mrs Bridge was a superb portrayal of how a middle-aged woman adjusts to the monotony of suburban life interwoven with various themes, Mr Bridge is more straightforward in its approach showing how a deeply unlikeable individual can be materialistic and dead set in his conservative ways. His idea of a treat is to clip stock certificates to the Christmas tree. The core idea of the book that Mr Bridge cares more about accumulating wealth to ‘provide' for his family than providing any love to them is a good one
For such a short play the way in which it examines mental health and suicide ideation is impressive.
Overly vigorous and mundane examination of John James Todd (Hey, three first names!) and his various encounters throughout life, from the battlefront in the trenches during world war 1 to his filmmaking attempts to make a nine-hour epic of Jean Jacques Rousseau's the new confessions culminating in him being a victim of McCarthyism. The biggest issue here is that Boyd assumes the reader has an intricate interest in Rousseau's life and the filmmaking techniques he used to make a grandeur epic, but in reality, this took up half the book for me. If I wanted to read about the making of a silent film epic, I would just read production stories of Napoleon (1927), which Boyd was clearly inspired by.
If John James Todd was a fascinating character, all the overwriting could be forgiven, but he isn't lacking the self-awareness you think might have come in abundance during his later years.
Boyd seems to adore writing fictional biographies about people, but based on my personal experiences with this one, I won't be rushing to read them anytime soon.
Published in 1947 but is still completely relevant in today's society. The concept of a married couple owning a radio which allows them to overhear other people's conversations reminds me of the very nature of social media. Scrolling through a person's Facebook or Twitter feed, no matter how idealized they make their page, is similar voyeuristically.
Thematically there's a lot to unpack here, including gender roles, writer's creativity and sexuality. Tonally it is a little all over the place, sometimes struggling to make a smooth transition between absurdity and tragedy. Yet the book is an interesting character study on Garp himself, showing how life events can change a person like his son Walt's death. The story is ambitious, showing a person's story from conception to death. Irving has cited his admiration for Dickens before, and I can definitely see the narrative parallels.
It didn't always work for me, but after reading 30% of Hotel New Hampshire and finding it insufferable, not to mention A prayer for Owen Meaney was largely dull in its execution, meaning Garp is probably my favourite of Irvings so far.
Giving this a rating even though it was a DNF at 20%. A somewhat disappointing trudge through 1940's Hollywood. Friedrich provides a chaotic chronology that bears little relation to the previous subject matter. For example, he mentions the screenwriting battle between Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles on Citizen Kane and then delves into Bertolt Brecht. I'm sure Brecht's influence is remarkable, but I would have preferred more stories that dealt with what happened behind the scenes.
Also, for a book about Hollywood in the 1940's it really isn't about it at all. We don't get enough of what actually happened in 1940's Hollywood. How was the city growing and changing? What industries made Hollywood click besides movies? And what impact did the movie industry have on Hollywood as a whole? Not covered here. What was Hollywood as a city and a factory-like in the pre-war era? Not covered here.
Written in 1962 and semi-autobiographical, I have to give The Pumpkin Eater credit for a few things. It provides a pretty unique insight into the complexities of mental illness, marriage and the desire to find oneself. The protagonist Mrs. Armitage finds herself drifting through three marriages and an abundance of children before discovering her life has been enraptured by boredom and frustration, being slowly stifled by domesticity and colluding (sometimes quite happily, sometimes feeling she has no choice) in her own oppression. A affecting scene in Harrods where she has a nervous breakdown illustrates this perfectly.
However the book meanders and the last section of the book isn't as tightly written. It made me wish that Mortimer could have achieved the richness of a narrative like Mrs Bridge a book where it felt Connell perfectly captured what he was trying to say within 117 short vignettes. Apart from a few well done passages The Pumpkin Eater didn't have the emotional impact for me unfortunately.
Fantastic. Captures the complexity of human relationships in a humane and thoughtful manner. The language is often poignant, only adding to the tragic story. Definitely won't be my last Baldwin.
Beautiful prose, but could not develop any emotional connection whatsoever to these characters apart from Ivar. I came away wishing the bulk of the story was focused on him instead.
Short and sweet. I like the vivid imagery of it but only in the academic world could this somehow be analyzed and scrutinized in the way that it has been lol
This had a charm up to a certain point, attempting to recapture the FA Cup giant-killing magic or how a team from a tiny village known for its sugar beet farming pulled off the unthinkable and won the FA Cup. It would make one yearn for the days of men in sheepskin coats huddling together with their tweed caps and clutching a cup of Bovril in their hands, enduring a dismal 0-0 draw. Or as Carr points out, “ They bellowed disbelief at incompetence, cried scornfully to the grey heavens in godlike despair, clamoured angrily for revenge. For 20p, they did all this and were not held to account.” Eventually, the repetition of the humour became a bit grating, but I enjoyed what was there.
Entertaining series of vignettes about American consumer culture, the absurdity of life and fear of death. The only problem is DeLillo consistently beats the reader over the head with it to the extent that it becomes laborious to read in the last third.
An intimate look at a Shaquille O Neal sized human who spends his days working at a pants factory, selling hot dogs and communicating with Myrna, a New York beatnik friend? Not as funny as I was expecting; a sense of comedic repetition can drag the story down, but Toole does have things to say about capitalism, consumerism and race that ultimately make it more than just a laugh-out-loud type book.
I really enjoyed the first part, with a good range of characters, atmosphere and setting adeptly established. Even a three-page story of creating a sign on the grounds outside the Hat Creek Cattle Company was entertaining. It's just a shame that the second part foregoes any continuation of character development and opts to introduce yet more characters, whose purpose - it turns out - is to simply run into the characters from the first part.
It works as a counterpoint to the over-romanticization of the wild wild West in examing the brutality and unforgiveness of the landscape that Gus, Call and many others encounter. Underneath it all, there isn't much of a plot, though. Much of the book seemed to consist of an expositional backstory where McMurty elected to describe a character's origins and thoughts in great detail at the expense of the story.
Also, that dern ending. I expected a much stronger conclusion than whatever that was!
A heartwarming, sweet tale depicting long-lost summers on an island in Finland. The central theme is the poignant relationship between a grandmother and a small child, revealing the similarities and differences! between growing up and growing old. The story is an easy read, with little plot, but is rich in its descriptions of nature and, at times, is quite funny
It meanders a bit at times, and the misogyny is problematic, particularly in the first chapter, but dammit, it's a touching character study of a middle-aged man trying to come to terms with how he's lived his life juxtaposed with an appreciation of American nature that won me over in the end.
I wasn't as emotionally involved as I thought I would be, but the prose is so beautifully written, and Plath portrays her own experiences with mental illness so vividly and harrowingly that I can see why it's regarded as a classic
I'm a chionophile (Cold weather lover), so I was predisposed to like this anyway. Still, Vesaas enhances a reasonably familiar story with his lyrical description of the frost, icicles and snow that engulf this rural Norwegian village. Vesaas describes Unn's enchantment with the ice palace with such beauty that I'm giving this an extra star just for that. I think the character development lacked a bit, which disconnected me a little from the plot.
A pitch-perfect novel. I think one of the many uses of Goodreads is the ability to discover works of literature that would have probably escaped me otherwise. This was on the Penguin modern classics list, I believe, and if it weren't for my desire to want to be a list completionist, then Mrs Bridge would have escaped me entirely.
What puts Mrs Bridge in the same category as other writers like Yates, Carver or Updike who have made astute observations about the suburban lifestyle of American society? Initially, the novel reads as a simple, straightforward portrait of a housewife, India Bridge and her devotion to her husband and three children. Yet much like the above writers, the text is much more layered than that. Evan S Connell deftly interweaves a variety of themes. Family relationships, privilege, the repression of social mores, and the longing to find one's individual self are scattered through the 117 short vignette-like chapters, each with its own title.
Most importantly, the reader gets a clear sense of the world that Mrs Bridge inhabits. Her life is not only filled with the challenges of being married to Mr Bridge, the rearing of her three children but just as important, keeping in line with the issues and concerns of her social setting. Mrs Bridge strives to find her place in the world she inhabits. Connell also demonstrates how the culture that Mrs Bride resides in can shape her views. For example, an earlier scene in the book has Mrs Bridge keeping a careful eye on her daughter's, Carolyn, relationship with a coloured girl, Alice Jones succumbing to the prejudice of her time.
The prose is outstanding, and many of the chapters end with a sense of closure. Consequently, each chapter is either a self-contained miniature event or things are left up for the reader to interpret. For example, this is how chapter 90 ends in which Mrs Bridge's son comes to realise that he has not fooled his mother about the reason why he crashed her car: “Although she had not said a word, he perceived that in some fantastic manner she sensed the complete truth, and he reflected that in matters however distantly related to sex she possessed supernatural powers of divination”.
Overall the narrative device used, the fact that the themes and issues Connell tackles are still relevant today, and it's the profound insight Mrs Bridge gives into the conditions of married and family life that make it a timeless masterpiece.
A thorough and compelling read about one of the NBA's greatest dynasties. What puts this book into the category of great sportswriting IMO is it focuses on some of the lesser-known names associated with Showtime, like Jack McKinney to even the draft busts like Billy Thompson. Showtime understandably gives the well known names of the 80's Lakers like Magic, Kareem, Riley, Buss and Worthy its fair share of attention, but it also excels in presenting insights and anecdotes from almost everyone associated with the organization over the period.
The only slight niggle is that I would have loved a little section on Chick Hearn, the voice of the Lakers and the demise of Showtime lacks considerable detail, but these are only slight issues in what is an excellent read.
If Goodreads had a half star rating, I'd put this closer to 3.5 than a four. This is, at times, a beautiful recreation of Hugo's experiences as a boy living with his German mother and an Irish, nationalistic, father set amongst the backdrop of 1950's/60's Ireland. Though both parents clearly have different parenting styles, they are both united by nostalgia and a longing for a return to the good old days. The father yearns for an Ireland he imagines so much that he forces his children to only speak in Irish. The mother speaks about her own desire for Germany to return to where it was before the Nazi's occupation. It is this thematic strand that is captured pretty well.
Unfortunately, the scattered nature of the writing style is a bit of a downer. In every chapter I found, there was a tendency to go from subject to subject. For example, there are two chapters one after the other that discuss his father's friend, school experiences and relatives. I would have preferred a less is more approach here.
A little dull but nice to see that Steinbeck was in a beautiful part of the world.