Fiction Reviews

Review: Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf

11.07.2010 Fiction Reviews

Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf My rating: 4 of 5 stars Time is issued to spinster ladies of wealth in long white ribbons. These they wind round and round, round and round, assisted by five female servants, a butler, a fine Mexican parrot, regular meals, Mudie’s library, and friends dropping in. What a difficult book [...]

Tagged as: English Literature, Fiction Reviews, Virginia Woolf

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Review: Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

10.27.2010 Fiction Reviews

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence: 5 of 5 stars So exasper/exhilar/ated. Mostly ‘ated’ trying to put together what’s what in the extended monologue of this book. Methinks two Lawrence(s) in a row was a mistake. The drama gnaws at you after a while. The thinking just grinds away. Where The Rainbow is a romp, [...]

Tagged as: D.H. Lawrence, English Literature, Fiction Reviews

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Review: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

09.24.2010 Fiction Reviews

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky My rating: 5 of 5 stars Don’t you think I should do something long for the Brothers Karamazov. One on one with their names which are tremendous to me. The portraits they make in the long hallway. I’m on this moving sidewalk down the hall. I’m on my new [...]

Tagged as: Fiction Reviews, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian Literature

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Review: Silas Marner by George Eliot

09.13.2010 Fiction Reviews

Silas Marner by George Eliot My rating: 3 of 5 stars I’m trying to come up with synonyms for ‘quaint’ to describe this little tale. Because it is a tale and it is sweet and it whips the ending in a blink and you are left to contemplate words for “quaint,” like mushroom or turtle [...]

Tagged as: English Literature, Fiction Reviews, George Eliot

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Review: The Plague by Albert Camus

09.06.2010 Fiction Reviews

The Plague by Albert Camus My rating: 4 of 5 stars To narrate. Er. To be narrated to. To exemplify a narrator on the condition that narration necessarily falters along. To ping death. To say there are no characters, only various responses to various feelings. To draw a line between one’s current place and the [...]

Tagged as: Albert Camus, Fiction Reviews, French Literature

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Review: The Painted Room: A Tale of Mantua by Inger Christensen

01.03.2010 Fiction Reviews

The Painted Room: A Tale of Mantua by Inger Christensen My rating: 5 of 5 starsInger Christensen does not fail me on the first day of 2010. She my patron saint of peeling paint and intrigue and loftiness. This is the plottiest plot I’ve ever loved and I love it for its swiftness and obliqueness [...]

Tagged as: Fiction Reviews, Inger Christensen

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Review: The Voice That Was in Travel: Stories by Diane Glancy

12.21.2009 Fiction Reviews

The Voice That Was in Travel: Stories by Diane Glancy My rating: 5 of 5 stars I love Diane Glancy. I just do. I love the one that basically lists different types of fireworks. I love the one about the woman in her car (I thought of Barb driving to Detroit or New York). I [...]

Tagged as: Diane Glancy, Fiction Reviews, Native American Literature

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Review: The Field by Joanna Gunderson

07.03.2009 Fiction Reviews

The Field by Joanna Gunderson rating: 4 of 5 stars Another good one from Red Dust. Gunderson’s line-broken un-punctuated no-paragraph ‘novel’ is surprisingly novel-ish. The most continuous and recognizable element in the book is the place (in or around the mountains in NY): the house, landscape, seasons, etc. Certain events and relationships are repeated (with [...]

Tagged as: Fiction Reviews, Joanna Gunderson, N. American Literature

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Review: Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

02.12.2007 Fiction Reviews

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence My rating: 5 of 5 stars When we’re gone we will be both D and H and H and D, simpering and stead. I’ll be a stake in the feild and you’ll be crap tumbling around. When we’re gone I’ll say this is just like Sons and Lovers. It [...]

Tagged as: D.H. Lawrence, English Literature, Fiction Reviews, Out

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Review: Geography and Plays by Gertrude Stein

01.20.2006 Fiction Reviews

Geography and Plays by Gertrude Stein My rating: 4 of 5 stars She is a hen and being a hen is to hen. Hen next to hen in. In her hen hemmed nest of in. Her in. Next hen. Next. She is a “bullet in the back of the rooster.” That hen. She is pleasing [...]

Tagged as: Fiction Reviews, Gertrude Stein, N. American Literature

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