The Magic Mountain
As a book, certainly a very good one, although as a Great Book I found it a bit middling. It has a certain uniqueness that is intriguing, a story that wavers and a temporality that wanes - and occasionally waxes...
male-author
Don Quixote
A bit awkward at times, a bit of a mouthful, as perhaps waranted given centuries of separation. Like a young deer struggling to walk, there are moments of grace and wit that are astounding - but of course my metaphor...
If on the winters night a traveler
I was wondering a lot about greatness while reading this. I don’t think Italo Calvino is one of the greats, but I do love what he does. There is something a bit Borgesian about this, maybe Kafkaesque or maybe a...
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Fun & funky pursuit of a killer and pursuite of the killt, whodunnit and also just whatdunandwen, little bit of Christie and a little bit of Groundhog day, and a little bit of (frankly, somewhat cumbersome) sci-fi oddity. That frame...
Ulysses
I mean I thought this was pretty great actually. Tedious, sure, full of itself, sure, riddled with references and languages I either got, or as may happen, did not. I’m fine with a bit of navel-gazing, I can appreciate it,...
Dawn of Everything
Graerber and Wengrow paint a compelling and beautiful painting of new potentials for understanding the past & present. They set up a neat dichotomy between a Rousseaun and Hobbesian view of the origins of humanity, before bravely pointing out that...
As I lay Dying
I don’t think I gave this book a fair hand, I don’t think the audio book did well. I was worse at following it than I was with my recent forays into Joyce, despite Faulkner’s comparatively straightforward story and language....
The Art of Flight
Part autobiography, part literary criticism. I was a bit skeptical at first, and maybe to a certain extent throughout the entirety - while most of it is beautifully wrought, there is a tendency for Pitol just to simply start listing...
Jingo
Not Pratchett’s best, not the best Pratchett featuring these characters, but I mean, still Pratchett, still heartfelt and earnest light silly fantasy about racism and war. Good fun, and would recommend, but maybe not for someone’s first experience of Discworld....
Bleeding Edge
Quick (for Pynchon) fun (for Pynchon) jaunt through conspiratorial world of fresh-from-the-dot-com-collapse Silicon Alley, NYC; a modern take on film noir but like in books and also with computer stuff. A good mess to untangle with some snazzy characters and...