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isaacblevins's Reviews (460)
Though it has sat upon my shelf for years - it wasn't until my Kindle needed charging that I reached for E.M. Forester's novel Maurice. Once I began reading, I couldn't help but remember reviews I had read that said that while the novel was groundbreaking for the time in which it was written, it now read as little more than a pot-boiler or melodrama. Now that I've finished the book - I'm not sure that I agree.
The novel tells the story of two love affairs which end in wildly different ways for the protagonist. Forester's prose is good; his descrpitions of the guilt and pleasures that come from secret love are particularly strong. This shouldn't come as a surprise, as Forester himself had some experience of the emotions that Maurice feels. What really shocked me was the ending. I knew that the story didn't end in tragedy the same way that most stories about homesexuality ended until the early 1990's. What I didn't expect was the sheer triumph over self-denial and shame that Maurice exhibits in the final chapter. This isn't simply a happy ending - it's a shout of defiance and victory that came long, long before it's time.
The novel tells the story of two love affairs which end in wildly different ways for the protagonist. Forester's prose is good; his descrpitions of the guilt and pleasures that come from secret love are particularly strong. This shouldn't come as a surprise, as Forester himself had some experience of the emotions that Maurice feels. What really shocked me was the ending. I knew that the story didn't end in tragedy the same way that most stories about homesexuality ended until the early 1990's. What I didn't expect was the sheer triumph over self-denial and shame that Maurice exhibits in the final chapter. This isn't simply a happy ending - it's a shout of defiance and victory that came long, long before it's time.
In my opinion, this is the great American novel. Chabon's Pulitzer prize winner tells the story of two cousins, one American - the other Eastern European, coming of age and inventing the comic book. No matter how many times I read this book I can't help but be amazed by it's scope, it's emotion and it's sheer brilliance.
I like this book so much that I frequently buy copies just to give them away.
I like this book so much that I frequently buy copies just to give them away.
I'm not entirely sure what it says about me that two of the books on my Goodreads Absolute Favorites shelf concern a Golem. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic novel - the sort that sweeps you into its story and causes you to worry about the characters as if you could do anything to change their fate. Despite both being powerful creatures, the golem and the jinni are quite fragile. They experience the same fears, hopes, thrills and disappointments that characterize the immigrant experience for so many. It's rare today to find such exquisite urban fantasy - the kind that doesn't involve romantic pot-boiler plots or mystery-series conventions. This novel reminded me of the possibilities of the genre and left me hoping for more authors willing to explore them.
John Harwood's The Ghost Writer contains everything that is necessary to create a classic English ghost story: mysterious familial past, dark houses, passionate letters, hints of spiritualism, a threatening entity. Despite all of this, it fails, in it's novel-length, to inspire the type of chills that a short story by James, Blackwood or LeFanu.
The narrator, Gerard, never seems to gel into a complete character - rather I couldn't shake the feeling that he was just a two-dimensional figure with no real emotions. The plot is so drawn out that one keeps hoping for movement that never comes. Suspense is the prolongued expectation of an occurance - but if you prolongue that happening too long, the suspense dies. By the novel's end, things have become so trite and convoluted that it seemed the author had gotten as tired of writing as I had grown of reading. In one tidy little resolution, the novel comes to a close and all the "plot twists" are resolved.
I keep reaading other reviews that mention the constant twists and surprises and the "shocking ending" that most people seem to miss. I can't imagine that even a casual reader would fail to see the supposed twists coming from a mile away - as for surprises, there are few. The shocking ending has nothing to miss...but it did make me wish I had missed the whole of the book that had led to it.
The narrator, Gerard, never seems to gel into a complete character - rather I couldn't shake the feeling that he was just a two-dimensional figure with no real emotions. The plot is so drawn out that one keeps hoping for movement that never comes. Suspense is the prolongued expectation of an occurance - but if you prolongue that happening too long, the suspense dies. By the novel's end, things have become so trite and convoluted that it seemed the author had gotten as tired of writing as I had grown of reading. In one tidy little resolution, the novel comes to a close and all the "plot twists" are resolved.
I keep reaading other reviews that mention the constant twists and surprises and the "shocking ending" that most people seem to miss. I can't imagine that even a casual reader would fail to see the supposed twists coming from a mile away - as for surprises, there are few. The shocking ending has nothing to miss...but it did make me wish I had missed the whole of the book that had led to it.
Joe Hill has inherited a fine imagination for horror and suspense. NOS4A2 has been described as a "chase story", and, at a basic level, this is true - but what a chase! Though fairly lengthy, the novel doesn't spend too much of its time describing the history of its anagonist, Charles Talent Manx, instead, we simply witness his acts and the only explanation of his motives come from his own understanding of them. This makes Manx both mysterious and sinister - a combination that leaves the imagination to create some fairly chilling images.
I found this novel to be hard to explain to friends - even while I was recommending it to them. Dimension hopping bicycles, cars and motorcycles along with prophetic Scrabble tiles and a Christmas themed horror land can seem like a lot to pack into a single story. Hill is able to deftly bind it all together and top it with enough suspense to ensure that his place as one of the top horror novelists of our time is assured.
I found this novel to be hard to explain to friends - even while I was recommending it to them. Dimension hopping bicycles, cars and motorcycles along with prophetic Scrabble tiles and a Christmas themed horror land can seem like a lot to pack into a single story. Hill is able to deftly bind it all together and top it with enough suspense to ensure that his place as one of the top horror novelists of our time is assured.
I read this little book for the first time not as a child - but as an adult. I was looking for a book to kick off our Junior High book club and picked up the Westing Game to see if it might be a good place to begin.
I wish that I had found this book earlier in my life. What kid wouldn't be captivated by wonderful characters thrown together to play a game hosted by a dead millionaire? Don't get me wrong...Mr. Westing isn't a vampire or a zombie - he's just decided that his heirs need to do a little puzzle solving in order to earn their share of his estate. While the mystery and the puzzles are fun and wonderfully clever, it's the characters that really make this novel.
All of the characters reside and work in the same high rise apartment building within view of the looming Westing estate. Getting snowed in with them is like being trapped with the most interesting people you could imagine - both good and bad. By the end of the novel it's almost like you're part of a family reunion you know these people so well.
Do yourself a favor - if you're a kid: pick up this book and have a wonderful time!
- if you're an adult: pick up this book and enjoy being a kid again!
I wish that I had found this book earlier in my life. What kid wouldn't be captivated by wonderful characters thrown together to play a game hosted by a dead millionaire? Don't get me wrong...Mr. Westing isn't a vampire or a zombie - he's just decided that his heirs need to do a little puzzle solving in order to earn their share of his estate. While the mystery and the puzzles are fun and wonderfully clever, it's the characters that really make this novel.
All of the characters reside and work in the same high rise apartment building within view of the looming Westing estate. Getting snowed in with them is like being trapped with the most interesting people you could imagine - both good and bad. By the end of the novel it's almost like you're part of a family reunion you know these people so well.
Do yourself a favor - if you're a kid: pick up this book and have a wonderful time!
- if you're an adult: pick up this book and enjoy being a kid again!
