gregory_glover's reviews
318 reviews

We Do Not Part by Han Kang

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I feel like I’ve had the wind knocked out of me.  Some of the most beautiful and atmospheric writing I’ve encountered in a long time.  Deeply significant subject, beautifully wrought.  “I remember the feeling of aching love, how it seeped into my skin.  Clogging the marrow in my bones and shriveling my heart…That was when I realized.  That love was a terrible agony.” (P. 244). On every level—nature, weather, time, eternity, national and international, village, city, family, friendship—it is all woven together into an unstoppable story that flows like a river (tsunami?) to the sea and back again.
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On Close Reading by John Guillory

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

As a Biblical Studies Ph.D., close reading as a practice (technique) akin to exegesis is a welcome analogy.  Guillory does an excellent job laying out the history of the development of the bigram and showing its relationship to other forms of literary criticism (e.g., New Historicism, which is something akin to the old “historical criticism “ in biblical studies).  I am sure to return to it again and again, and to mine the very helpful annotated bibliography provided by Newstock.  I hope to provide an extended review later this year.
The Waste Land and other poems by T S (Thomas Stearns) 1888-1 Eliot

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

Of course it should be a five and would be except that the allusions are so constant and confusing.  It is a classic and far superior minds than mine have praised it.  This is the Vintage Classics edition, which is largely text without explanatory notes.  It is probably worth another go in the Norton (?) or some other annotated edition.  Reminds me of Ulysses. :)
More Than Words: How to Think about Writing in the Age of AI by John Warner

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

I appreciated the emphasis on reading and writing as human activities, as embodied activities that cannot be meaningfully duplicated by a machine. I was especially drawn to the notion that we think by writing and that using a machine to do the writing for us means that we think less. I am also convinced that writing, real writing, involves communicating from one human to another.  A machine really has nothing to say.
Dream City: A Novel by Douglas Unger

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dark hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The longer review is now available on LibraryThing (https://www.librarything.com/work/33095365/t/Dream-City, I received the book through them for review) and my Substack (https://open.substack.com/pub/truthbeautyexcellence/p/dream-city-a-novel?r=2qrhp&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true).  For now I’ll just say that it is worth the read, especially if you are interested in thinking about the present moment in light of the recent past…and if you have any interest whatsoever in the city of Las Vegas.  It is a dystopian morality play, of sorts, without the jeremiad or judgmentalism that sometimes implies.
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Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A beautiful example of coming to terms with injury and loss, overcoming with love.  A mix of fast-paced and sometimes gruesome medical rehab, woven together with quieter stretches of deeply philosophical reflection.  It is personal memoir (of a specific, very limited period of time), examination of work, art, and intention,; it’s a love story of the highest order and a love letter to life.  Very much worth your time, whether you’ve read anything else of the author’s oeuvre or not.
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Foster by Claire Keegan

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Heartbreaking and heartwarming.  Keegan is a keen observer of human nature.
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Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.75

Brilliant.  I’ll try to write more later.  The absolute clarity of a sense of place and setting in the natural world, the people and culture, dialect and dialogue were dazzling.  And Ree is the strongest character I’ve encountered in a very long time.  Stunning.
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Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

The South, not exactly as I know it, but close enough to what I have seen to recognize the truth of these lines.
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Not as strong in my opinion as There There.  …but the final quarter (roughly?) of the book makes the slog worth it.  There’s a lot of addiction description, trauma work, etc., throughout.  That makes it a real challenge to read on a continuous basis, without a break.  I like the encapsulation structure, but found the first section flatter and less engaging.  The jump to the post-pow-wow stories of Opal, Jacqui, Orvil, Loother, and Lony revved up the interest and just hooked me more as a reader.  I appreciate the backstory, but it was work, the payoff for which I’m still uncertain.  This is probably one that will grow in my estimation over time.  Very good writing.  Crammed with insights well expressed on almost every page.
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