Topic suggested by Gokul on Fri Aug 14 17:21:48 .
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Reviews of contemporary fiction, contemporary being anytime after WWII. :-). |
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- From: vj (@ chme111pc1.ecn.purdue.edu)
on: Sat Apr 17 18:57:33
ok I would like to briefly review and recommend Ivan Turgenev's short novels or long stories,
I chanced across them (a collection of about five long stories) and they are decidedly evocative, The ones I read where "Asya" "Mumu" "First Love" and "The Diary of a Superfluous man" The last is what prompted me to read the complete collection,
Most of these stories have a recurring theme of passion, rather than love , passion that carries away man from the coarse necessities of existence and they are mostly involving a narrator, a man who narrates his love story invariably with a woman who is portrayed very beautifully... They are accompanied with really acute observations about the state of human existence in general and I believe he has a hidden nihilistic humour running through all his writing, if you want to really read a book about passion where characters are in 'total' love or devotion, Please read this.
- From: vj (@ chme111pc5.ecn.purdue.edu)
on: Mon Apr 26 12:04:06
Can somebody review Jean Paul Sarte for me?
vijay
- From: Gokul (@ gatekeeper.ohioedison.com)
on: Mon Apr 26 18:39:27
Vijay,
The following URLs have lot of info on JPS.
http://people.delphi.com/gkemerling/ph/sart.htm
http://members.aol.com/KatharenaE/private/Philo/Sartre/sartre.html
- From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217)
on: Fri May 21 14:34:34
guys,
I posted a review of Dostoevsky's "Brother's Karamazov" in the Classics thread. Check it out if you're interested.
- From: arvind (@ tor-c53-02-032.dyn.passport.ca)
on: Sun Jun 6 13:04:55
why doesn't anyone talk about R.K.NARAYAN ? if you want to read books based in south india ,he
is the best author ever.
- From: arvind (@ tor-c53-02-032.dyn.passport.ca)
on: Sun Jun 6 13:09:55
JAYBEE:I've read the foundation series.the book I enjoyed most was the one in which there is a guy called the "MULE".the ending in particular was very touching.
- From: bb (@ dialup-209.245.195.141.houston1.level3.net)
on: Thu Jun 10 01:21:16
read "an equal music" by vikram seth.. not as verbose as suitable boy, i didn't have high expectations from this book, but was enthralled and amazed by it. the story deals with a person who plays the second violin in a quartet in london. his lover is a pianist whom he meets after a 10 year gap. she slowly turns deaf and his music falters.
wonderful language, excellent understanding of music. the way seth discusses schubert & bach are just wonderful. story is set in london, vienna and venice. a great book and a must read for a lover of western classical.
- From: Gokul (@ pool-207-205-187-179.clev.grid.net)
on: Mon Jun 14 23:59:55
Would anybody review J L Borges' works here? TIA. I sampled his "labyrinthes" and found it very abstract and intriguing.
- From: Anu (@ 98a6f960.ipt.aol.com)
on: Mon Jul 5 15:55:09
Hi everyone..
Has anyone read this book titled 'Sophie's Choice' by William Styron?
It's about a woman name Sophie. As the author unfolds the story about her, the reader will realise that she is always thrown into circumstances at every step of her life,where she has to make a 'tragic' choice, that leave her mind and body devastated...she is also a holocaust victim..
There is a constant mood of depression and gloom throughout the book and when you are done with it, that mood kind of clings to your person for a while...:-)
I would also suggest keeping a dictionary handy for those interested in the meaning of some of the words the author uses...kind of reminded me of my GRE preparation days...
Anyway, it will be interesting to read what other's have to say about this book. I believe there is a movie too by the same name starring Meryl Streep...wondering if I should watch it :-)
Anu
- From: bb (@ inehou-pxy05.compaq.com)
on: Tue Jul 6 18:49:28
mario puzo passed away.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_384000/384624.stm
- From: Udhaya (@ 207-218-69-39.nas-1.obt.primenet.com)
on: Thu Sep 9 02:27:46
Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children"--a review
.
Charting India's turbulent history since its independence and telling it through a story is no small feat. Rushdie certainly achieves what he set out to do in that sense. Influences of precursors in the magical realism epic genre is very evident in Midnight's Children, I can't help but think of One Hundred Years of Solitude along with other lesser known works by Jorge Amado and Mario Vargas Llosa, but this is elite company to be aligned with and Rushdie certainly has taken the genre and made it his own.
While I wholeheartedly embrace the ambitious novel, my feelings as a reader were somewhat mixed. I appreciate the abundant research that went into the novel, the intricate parallels drawn between the generations, the twins-- an allegory for Hindu/Muslim, India/Pak, India split between nationalism and the inherited British values and so forth, along with the allusions to mythical and cultural icons. The foreshadowing creates a restless anxiety about the turn of events that somehow to me seemed sour once they arrived. I enjoyed the adult characters more and the adolescent ties more than the central adolescent character, Saleem who wades through incredible tragedies and circumstances and accompanies the reader for much of the novel. The grown up Saleem shows up as the writer of the autobiography, the book itself, a clever jolt to break the relentlessness of the novel's historical narrative. Rushdie conjures up as many tangents and detours as possible and willfully makes a mad dash for each. It's not that I didn't relish the panoramic view I saw but I wanted to explore the woods deeper.
Perhaps if the central narrative voice wasn't such hopeless downer I might have enjoyed it even more. The first half of the book was breezy and enjoyable up to the part where India has the changing of the guards and the joint family busts at the seams squabbling like typically colorful fictional neurotics. But the part of the story that covers the Indo-Pak war was very drawn out and bitter. And the sudden infusion of incestuous longing seems forced and needless at this point. While One Hundred Years referenced the horror of the central american governments, Midnight makes overt references to Indian politics and politicians that somehow doesn't jell well in a novel. Morarji's urine drinking and Indira's emrgency rule must've really got Rushdie's goat, both issues get equal importance and numerous mentions in the novel. There seems to be an underlying sarcasm, a kind of a holier than thou snickering at the miseries and superstitions of India, something I abhor in many Indian expatriates, something which I could have easily done without from Rushdie (I hate V.S.Naipal for this reason). In a subject as rich and varied as India, I was disappointed that Rushdie couldn't find more to celebrate.
- From: Anu (@ ws239-24.allen.msstate.edu)
on: Tue Sep 28 11:45:07
Hi..
That was a very good review on Midnight Children..Udhaya. In fact, your censure of the book's unwanted references...reminded me of this book I recently read..called Bombay Ice by Leslie Forbes.
I am not even sure if she is an Indian expatriate. Her book too rambles a lot on a number of aspects of Bombay.The book was very incomplete in a number of ways not to mention repetitive.
Has anyone else read this book?
- From: Murugan (@ 131.241.26.63)
on: Thu Nov 11 10:37:15
Hi,
1) Any observations on a 1950s book - G.V.Desani's 'All About Mr.Hatter'? (shades of him can be observed in Rushdie and A.Ray).
2) Has anyone read Shasti Bratha's(regret,not quite sure of the spelling of the surname)'My God Died Young'?
Regards,
Era.Murugan
- From: Udhaya (@ )
on: Fri Jun 9 17:08:14
Review of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera.
Love in the Time of Cholera is a sensuous feast, a dissection of love in all its flavors. Every type of love is an ingredient, a plotline in this rewarding stew. Central to the story is Florentino's unrequited love for Fermina. Closely linked by his marriage to Fermina, Dr. Juvenal plays a major role in the story as well. Florentino's beyond-obsessive love strangely steers him with such clarity through everything, making him a wise person seasoned in all the weathers of life. In a way, when Florentino finally grows out of his adolescent ways, we realize that though his love was pure, he needed to be made into such a man in order to deserve what he yearned for.
Through the many characters that populate the story, Marquez shows the shallow, selfish, greedy, and vain aspects of love along with the noble, faithful, tragic and principled side. The true brilliance of Marquez is that while the world he shows us seems uniquely his own, it also reverberates with universal truth. So, the novel is as rich, magical, wild and unpredictable as life itself.
Review of Russell Banks'Continental Drift.
Banks has carved himself a niche among American writers of fiction--the social displacement of the working class whites. The novel charts a working stiff's gradual tumble as he finds himself slowly losing step with society. The average man's inability to make himself a viable part of the changing equation in society--the out-of-reach status, skills, careers and life are poignantly captured by Banks. The gradual meaninglessness in man's role as a husband, father in a struggling class also gets plenty of attention in this novel and this is where Banks is at his best. The small scenes within the family are worth savoring.
When Banks weaves in the cultural and racial contributions to outline society's current state of affairs, he gets out of his range. The historical background, the inflow of immigrants in Miami all seem too researched and issue-oriented for a novel. For those interested in the plight of an everyman in white America, this would be worth a read. But I still feel his outlook a bit bleak. Russell Banks could benefit from a balanced emotional approach to his subject. The novel is a relentless downer that it seems predetermined rather than real, yet the pacing is very good and the characters are readily identifiable. I've heard that Banks' short stories are good. This makes sense to me since his style suits the intimate sketch of short stories.
- From: Madhurabarathi (@ 203.199.224.65)
on: Thu Jun 29 03:16:30 EDT 2000
I recommend Indian Review of Books published from Chennai for exhaustive reviews on all kinds of books. You can also try the following:
http://www.chennaionline.com/books
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