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hangsawoman's reviews
313 reviews
Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter
4.0
Angela Carter is always a joy to read, even when her subject matters are troubling, upsetting or infuriating. I think it must, at least in part, be down to her prose. Every sentence is constructed so carefully. She's also hugely intelligent and that comes across through her careful intertextuality--always complex and rewarding but never show-off-y. Heroes and Villains didn't quite capture me like The Magic Toyshop did, but it's still a wonderfully twisted gothic fairytale, this time taking in morality and post-apocalyptic scenarios to create a complex, shocking, British dystopia. It's a sort of anti-Brave New World, taking a stuffy girl from a rigid, fenced off community and immersing her in the outside world.
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
5.0
Somehow unsettling, hilarious but steeped throughout in a very deep melancholy. The reader gets the sense of the pointlessness of turning thirty, how life seems to be a series of hunts and chases that end in nothing. It changes from detective novel to conspiracy thriller to an account of loss, all the while remaining thoroughly Murakami in every way--in fact, this seems to be where so many of his motifs and obsessions begin. Ears. Cats. Divorce. One of his best that I've read so far, and, as an aside, if you're looking to start reading him then this could be one of your best bets.