Sunday, 25 Jan 2009

Location: Canada

White Noise - Don Delillo
"A book so post-modern it disappeared up its own behind."
L: 3.5

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khalid Hosseini
"Same as kite runner but still beautifully moving and tragic."
L: 4 B:3.5

The First Third - Neal Cassady
B: "Interesting journey into Neal's childhood and pysche. Lots of sex."
L: "Should never have been published. I repeat, never been published."
N.B: Brendan has looked for this book for 10 years. Lavinia has never read it.

My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok
"Intriguing and brilliant coming-of-age/artistic discovery of NYC Hasidic Jew."
L: 5 B: 5

All the Pretty Horses - Cormac Mcarthy
"Sparse, beautiful writing. Country and characters raw, honest, flawed. Perfect."
L: 5 B:5

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
"Race conscious and racist simultaneously. Lavinia was perfect as Huck."
L: 4 B: 3.5

America's Best Political Writing - Various
"Great year for it. Eulogies for Republicans, bouquets for Obama".
L: 4 B:4

Aura - Carlos Fuentes
"Rubbish misguided ghost story. Don't bother. Mexico has better writers."
L: 1 B: 0.5

Occassion for Loving - Nadine Gordimer
"Admirable achievement to create all-round awful characters yet good book."
L: 3 B: 3

As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
"Stunning voices, frustrating, tragic story. Palpable with sorrow and despair."
L: 4 B: 4.5

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Knock all the women's heads together and all the bloody men too."
L: 3.5
(Brendan opted out as has read it twice already. Would have given 5)

The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Fitzgerald
"Captures pathetic mundane, muddy reality of civil war. But boring."
B: 2.5

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
"Fascinating insights into social behaviour. Draws extremely long bows though."
B: 3.5 L: threw across room after three pages (v. rude considering not our copy of book)

Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
"Interesting ideas. Not sure why read after all these years."
L: 2.5 B: 2.5

Change We Can Believe In - Obama for America
"Best speech on race ever given. Great policy prescriptions. Infatuated."
B: 4 L: threw across room after three pages (she thinks ok considering our copy of book. Brendan disagrees vehemently. Lavinia replies that idolisation is a sin.)