mermaidforlife's reviews
15 reviews

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

“There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes).

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

reflective slow-paced

4.0

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

5.0

How to Read Literature Like a Professor Revised Edition: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster

informative slow-paced

2.0

The Passion According to G. H. by Clarice Lispector

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

Clarice, you word it in no other way it can be: “Ah, I’m being so direct that I manage to seem symbolic” (142). You are explicit to the extremes, and I managed only to grasp one thing in my first impression: the absence, the void is violent and atomizes. Your mute introspection from meeting and tasting the cockroach is a weapon. You mentioned a fear of freedom and truth, claimed you couldn’t bear it, but it is I who could not. You exited the tunnel alone, not I. I remain in it. I held your hand and nearly collapsed, now I must swallow. This will take time. 

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

4.0

The Mantle and Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol

funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

5.0

The nose persists within Gogol’s works as an object worthy of great consideration. (My Russian companion, what of the nose occupies you? You humor me!) Nonetheless, Gogol approaches man’s dysfunctional social and psychological mannerisms, speech, and acts with a form of delicate empathy and genius. 

To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck

challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

3.0

Hyper fixations dazzle me. All obsessions are tragic in some dimension, even if unreachable, yet, not all are unpleasant. The narrator’s obsession in Nabokov’s  “Lolita” was pleasant. (Side note: why is it that all Russian authors are incredible?) The character Joseph's obsession in this book was unpleasant. Perhaps it was the approach to writing–the synthesis/transposition of words–, and the burdensome detail of setting as opposed to human thought. 

Steinbeck was a novice writing this second novel. What I mean by this is not that one may anticipate amateurish writing (for that is ENTIRELY erroneous), but that he was utterly unarmed against his critics wishes. Critics and editors implored Steinbeck to modify his novel several times–to emphasize detail which muddied the humanity of the characters–and he did. It would only be until later that Steinbeck overcame their inadequate advisions on how to reach the crux of humanity and subverted them. For achieving this ultimate understanding, I parade for Steinbeck. Steinbeck, I’m your number one fan!

Let Us Compare Mythologies (Canons) by Leonard Cohen

mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Leonard, 
Each of those whom have encountered you are well aware you are a ladies man. The poem in which you titled “Poem” was surely self-reflective, written in the third-person about you: 

“I heard of a man
who says words so beautifully 
that if he only speaks their name 
women give themselves to him.”

If not, I tell you it is. I must purchase each book of your poetry and shall, soon.

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Steinbeck. Your last novel. Why this way of leave? “. . . just good-by, a warm bath and an opened vein, a warm sea and a razor blade.” You will forever be my favorite. Forget the critics—their misunderstandings and vanities.