stefo's reviews
54 reviews

The Diary of a Madman, the Government Inspector, and Selected Stories by Nikolai Gogol

funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Here’s some scattered thoughts about each piece featured in this anthology:

- Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt – A story about a neurodivirgent man and his controlling aunt, nothing much of interest here except the dream sequence at the end and the cheeky closing sentence.

- How Ivan Ivanovic Quarrelled With Ivan Nikiforovich – Or, the state is scared to get involved in some gay drama.

- Nevsky Prospect – Two tales vaguely connected to a location in St. Petersburg, I probably missed a lot of the satire here because of that, the stories themselves felt very real however, like some gossip you’d hear in the city center, so that was nice. Other than that I’m just okay with this one, nothing really stuck out as fascinating.

- The Nose - By far the most proto-absurdist almost surrealist tale I've read by Gogol, segmented in 4 parts that ultimately end with a reflection on fiction (it's "importance" and sharing a frustration with dogmas and principles) by the author himself. Great short story.

- The Overcoat – I remember that we were actually taught this story in school back in the day and I honestly think It was way too early for anyone to understand the satire of socioeconomic status and the subtle absurd humor in it. Good, concise story.

- Diary of a Madman - An impressively “lol random” story that actually manages to be decently funny, unlike a lot of humorous writings of the according age, fun diary-entry-rule-breaking structure due to the main character that is quite ahead of its time and a somewhat terrifying conclusion. Very good short story.

- The Carriage - Unfortunately I didn't find this one interesting at all, there's barely a story here and it ends rather abruptly. Significantly less funny (if funny at all) than the other pieces and in general I'm really confused why this short story is even included in this anthology.

- The Government Inspector – An alright play that could have benefited from fewer acts and more cacophony (since it includes so many characters). Although it was a bit predictable and kind of overstayed its welcome it still surprised me with its metanarrative final act (with the whole spiel of the happenings being written about).

Overall I’m pleasantly surprised by this anthology, having a good amount of works without it being too scattered and I genuinely enjoyed Gogol’s proto-modernist antics a lot. Ultimately I’m glad I finally found a Russian classic writer that I like. 

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

adventurous reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 *Writes an allegorical story about how "man can be destroyed but not defeated"*
*Blows his brains out with a shotgun 9 years later*

What did he mean by this??? 

Caligula by David Greig, Albert Camus

dark funny reflective sad fast-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

3.5

I read this play mainly for three reasons: In numerous interviews Yorgos Lanthimos names this little book as his main inspiration for "Kinds of Kindness"; I had seen this play before in lists of "Disturbing" lists and the likes; I enjoy Camus' writing.
It ended up being about what I had expected it to be, a concise story about a maniacal ruler who lives beyond moral, ethical and/or logical principles. Its also quite funny at times, but not too much, which might have been one of my issues. My main issue is that its surprisingly tame-ish, nothing really shocked me and it isn't as exaggerated as I wanted it to be, which isn't the play's fault of course, I just couldn't fully enjoy myself with the premise at hand after having read so many examples of the "Theatre of the Absurd". Still, a decent quick read so I'm inclined to give it a 7/10.

Running Wild by J.G. Ballard

dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This is my first Ballard book and I got just what I expected, a dark, crime-ridden mystery (although the plot quickly stopped being a mystery to me) as a metaphor for societal anxieties. Quite decent, but not too memorable and at times a bit too exaggerated. I'll be checking his other books out for sure.

Knight's Gambit by William Faulkner

challenging mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Започнах тази книга миналата година, декември месец, завършвам я сега. Това на първо място не е много добър признак. Изненадващо си спомням, че първата историйка ми хареса, не ужасно много, но ми хареса. След това обаче изгубих всякакво желание да я продължа, не съм сигурен защо, може би защото в сравнение втората исторя беше покъртително скучна или просто не ми е било до четене тогава. Каквато и да е причината, факт е, че зарязах тази книга 7 месеца, след което продължих. Ако си позволявах да оставям книги, които са ми безинтересни, щях да го направя, но прецених, че тази не е толкова дълга, пък и я четох на български: "Колко пък трудно да е да я довърша?". Доста тръдно.
Последната история в този сборник (Knight's Gambit) реших да я прочета на английски, защото усещах, че изпускам нещо и не се изненадах когато осъзнах, че прозата е изключително тегава за четене на оригиналния си език, преводачът се е справил много добре с превода на някои сегменти но целият стил на Фокнър е загубен: досадните му безкрайни повторения не изпъкваха; комплексният му речник се губеше в превода; езиковите изкривявания на героите изобщо не се забелязваха и т.н.
Всичко това разбира се нямаше да ми направи впечатление ако бях прочел цялата книга на английски, но най-вероятно дори нямаше да я довърша, защото не мога да подчертая достатъчно колко трудно бе за четене в оригинал.
Като цяло, тематиката на разказите ми беше безинтересна, самите истории твърде много се повтаряха и героите бяха неприятни без това да добавя много към атмосферата. Слабо уиски, разреждаха го с вода и захар.
Нямам търпение да почна да чета нещо по-интересно.

Ice by Anna Kavan

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense 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

4.5

I found about this novel and Anna Kavan thanks to Squid's song "Peel St.", upon discovering the book I read a tiny bit about Kavan and was left with a peculiar impression, I somehow knew this novel would be a fever dream and it indeed is. In fact I'd say this is one of the more manic novels I've read in a while, which I say in a positive light, there's so much going on all the time, the constant shifts in narration style and unreliable nature of the protagonist can even come off as a bit much at first but once one gets used to being lost this story flows like a harsh but alluring stream. But yes, this is a very dense book and I don't want to piece everything together in this review, what I can say however is I loved all the fictionalized autobiographical elements of Kavan's life in the story and the multitudes of post-war social commentary through means of allegory, symbolism and many more. Overall I'm shook, frozen and left with the need to indulge more in this author and her deranged writings. 9/10!

Cows by Matthew Stokoe

challenging dark funny 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

1.5

A truly baffling book that goes absolutely nowhere. Cows is an infamously "disturbing" book, we all know that and it is the only aspect that really matters, its the reason I read it, and the reason many others did, its not about the fact that this has a gripping story, its that its disgusting and vile and painfully descriptive, and I can't deny neither of those things, the most shocking of all is that its actually written, I expected garbage prose coming from an edgy college student but I got oddly poetic garbage coming from an edgy economics graduate. My biggest issue isn't in the shock content, its the mentioned lack of progression, things happen in a sort of linear order for a while, you can predict where the story will go and then *poof*, the story is over, with big capital letters "THE END". Rarely do I get so disappointed from these two words, sometimes they are even rewarding, satisfactory -almost always. Here though, they felt mean and uninspired, followed by an excerpt from Stokoe's novel "High Life" which I had no interest in reading after being offended like that. At this point I feel like I'm just ranting so I'll end my review as such: Was this book disturbing? - Maybe, a more appropriate word would be disgusting or severely nasty. Did this book "too much"? - Maybe, too much poop; cum; piss; blood; fart going on but its understandable, reasonably "too much". Was this book good? - Not really, I mean, maybe? There's probably something here related to the artist, probably, but probably not. 
Feel free to skip this one, besides some utterly vile descriptions of unholy acts it does little to nothing. 3/10.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

informative fast-paced

2.0

In my honest opinion this text is unbelievably useless in contemporary times in terms of applied knowledge. The only real merit here I see is historical documentation of sorts. If someone (who's not a history buff) were to proudly present this book on their shelf as a signifier of whatever I would have my immediate mental defenses up when talking to them about any form of culture or ways of thought. The only thing besides analyses by historians that this book presents to the reader is a vast number of quotes and "wisdoms" that are way too specific to be applied in personal pursuits (Although many people seem to believe that is the case. Hell, its so ridiculous that some people read this as a sort of business manual, which is incredibly absurd). And if we're talking about the text as pure prose then I can't comment much on it, this text has passed quite a lot of translations and has a lot of different variants with slight changes in wording which keeps me from enjoying the "words on a page" approach to literature. How does one even rate such a book? But more importantly "How does one enjoy it?" is the question that I currently cannot answer, and honestly care very little to find out.
Do not believe the mass that says this book is an essential read, it really isn't, Sun Tzu said. 

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams

dark reflective sad fast-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

3.0

Originally I discovered this book on one of those "Disturbing Book Iceberg"s and the synopsis did intrigue me.
Roughly a year after I first heard of it I decided to give it a go and it started off very promising, I had never read a singularity-related book so the topic was new to me, the quirky and gruesome aspects of the Death Jockeys and Prime Intelect's "upbringing" were quite fun to read although questionable at times. I had no idea however, where the story was actually heading, building up these characters as we go along. Then we get to the last two chapters and it all goes to shit, ESPECIALLY the last chapter, I took it as a big fuck you to me as the reader and not in a unique or fun way at all. I don't really know what the author is like but judging by the decisions he made with the ending of this novel I would rather not continue reading his works.
That being said I don't want to rate this book too low, I did enjoy the first part of it a lot as I mentioned but the last couple of pages left a really sour taste in my mouth. A mediocre 6 out of 10 sounds about right for now.

A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

First part is absolutely fantastic, both in the existential dread aspect and "worldbuilding" one, even with drops of absurdist/black comedy. 
The second, not so much. You're wallowing in despair, yes, but to what purpose, you already understand how horrifying the idea of such stretched time is. Even with the cheeky hopefulness at the end it feels a bit unnecessary. 
Still, this is a great book, tad disturbing obviously, but very fast paced and "thrilling" in an odd way. Highly recommended if you dig the blurb. Won't take you much time either, so I think its very worth it.