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deathbedxcv's reviews
55 reviews
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
adventurous
dark
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“‘Oh, Fortuna, blind, heedless goddess, I am strapped to your wheel,” Ignatius belched. Do not curse me beneath your spokes. Raise me on high, divinity.’”
John Kennedy Toole’s Odysseus is a 30 year old, white, obese, unemployed, New Orleanian scholar who’s obsessed with the medieval era, Fortuna, movies, and lives with his mother on Constantinople Street. His name is Ignatius J. Reilly, and he’s a fucking annoying dickhead who blames everyone but himself for his misfortunes. And I love him for that. Ignatius, I believe, is one of the most well written and memorable characters in American literature. I mean some people really hate him, like really hate him, and that’s a good thing because he’s fucking annoying, abrasive, and arrogant. Just like Holden Caulfield, he wears a hunting cap, but this one is green instead of red. This leads me to believe, maybe Ignatius is what Holden would have grown up to be if J.D. Salinger’s story continued. And the hunting caps are something akin to the changing colors of bell peppers.
I really don’t think there is a better way to describe this novel than how The Washington Post did in 1987; “A corker, an epic comedy, a rumbling, roaring avalanche of a book.” It seriously is an avalanche of a book because Toole expertly and right at the beginning has the small delicate snowflakes slide down the enormous mountain of what would end in a comical disaster. From the cop interrogating him outside the D.H. Holmes department store for looking suspicious, to Ignatius trying to start a civil rights movement with the Black factory workers at the Levy Pants factory, to Ignatius trying to bring peace to the world by getting involved with the LGBTplus crowd, to the cockatoo going for his gold earring, everything is connected.
And all the other characters in the book, wow! Myrna Minkoff! Miss Trixie! Miss Annie! They are all so brilliantly written! But the one that stands out the most to me is Burma Jones, the black janitor at the Night of Joy strip club, who speaks in a rather stereotypical manner, but the lines that come from him make me believe that this Toole character isn’t a total racist caricature. Jones wears glasses and smokes constantly as he rightfully critiques the United States treatment of Black Americans; “Color peoples cain fin no job, but they sure can fin a openin in jail. Coin in jail the bes way you get you somethin to eat regular. But I rather starve outside. I rather mop a whore floor than go to jail and be makin plenny license plate and rug and leather belt and shit.”
Oh Fortuna, thank you for finally spinning your wheel towards me reading this book, and I hope you do the same for someone else.
Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
dark
funny
lighthearted
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“There is absolutely no necessity to learn how to read; meat smells a mile off, anyway […] Out of the forty thousand or so Moscow dogs, only a total idiot won’t know how to read the word ‘sausage.’”
‘Heart of a Dog’ is the second novel I’ve read by Mikhail Bulgakov. And like ‘The Master and Margarita,’ it did not disappoint. It follows the story of a stray dog who gets his pituitary gland and testes transplanted with a criminal’s by Moscow scientist Dr. Philip Philippovich Preobrazhensky. Over the course of the story, the dog becomes more and more human until he finally becomes a man named Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov. The story is extremely funny and dark at times. It is definitely a satire of the bourgeoisie and how classes are treated differently. At one point Sharikov finds employment disposing of a dog’s worst enemy, and starts expounding Engels.
Trigger warning though, there is a scene involving attempted sexual assault, but it is very short.
But please read the book it’s very funny.
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
“‘I suppose - in a way - we’d got to the end of love. There was nothing else we could do together. She could shop and cook and fall asleep with you, but she could only make love with me’”
I think Maurice Bendrix has become one of my least liked characters in all of literature. Don’t get me wrong, Graham Greene’s ‘The End of the Affair’ is filled with beautiful language. Like Mr. Greene knows how to write a sentence. But omg if Maurice Bendrix wasn’t such an annoying and horrible person! He cheats, he lies, he stalks, he’s an extremely jealous person, he’s arrogant. Even to the last page, as he’s cursing God (which is very ironic, ifykyk), he’s still so arrogant. Which is exactly why I believe you should read this book. Sometimes good books have very annoying and flawed characters.
‘The End of the Affair’ takes place during the London Blitz of World War II. Maurice has an affair with Henry Miles’ wife, Sarah. Sarah has a complicated relationship with religion and men, and this affects her relationship with them. Maurice then stoops to stalking and stealing extremely personal things to have Sarah become his. Very possessive person. This is my first Greene book! Enjoy!
The Trinity of Fundamentals by Wisam Rafeedie
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
“The palm will be bloodied, well and good—are we seeking independence and liberation while expecting a path strewn with roses? This stage is difficult, very difficult, and there is no alternative to endurance. Our day will come, I don’t know when, but it will come, and our efforts will not be wasted.”
Wisam Rafeedie’s ‘The Trinity of Fundamentals’ is a novel which follows Palestinian Kan’an’s nine years of hiding from the Israeli occupation in the 80s and early 90s before he is sent to a detention center. The Palestinian Youth Movement states that it is a fictionalized account of Rafeedie’s time spent hiding from the occupation. And the story of how this novel came to be published is insane—being smuggled out of prison in pills type of insane. Kan’an at the start of the novel is 22 years old and has love from his homeland and the Palestinian cause for independence, which leads him to let go of everything, his family, his friends, his girlfriend, his education, everything, and go headfirst into necessary isolation ordered by the revolutionary party. And it’s a look at a revolution which to me is something I’ve never really seen before. When I think of revolution, I usually think of soldiers fighting with guns, or swords, or stones. But in this novel, the revolution is letting things go, learning to be without your mother, without friends, and without a lover. The revolution is learning to be alone in complete isolation with only your thoughts to keep you company.
I think what this novel does great, besides educating us about real life events like the First Intifada, or the Madrid Conference, is it showcases the multiple sides of being a revolutionary and how it affects relationships with others. For example, one of the relationships that stood out to me the most, was Kan’an and his mother. It was interesting to see a revolutionary get disciplined or talked to like a child by their mother. It was interesting to see her still see him as her child, and not just a freedom fighter who is willing to do anything for his country, and to mother him and yell at him for not eating enough or to clean his hideout more often. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a heart that would like to learn more about the Palestinian multi decade struggle for independence, or to those who refuse to see freedom fighters as human beings.
Holy Bible: Placed by The Gideons by Anonymous
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
I just don't care enough to read the whole thing. If you're able to read it all, then all props to you!