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stephanie_roberts's reviews
419 reviews
In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison by Jack Henry Abbott
4.0
At a young age Jack Henry Abbott was arrested for a petty crime, while in prison he advanced to murder, and almost the minute he was released due to an ego trip of Norman Mailer, he killed again and was returned to prison where he would eventually die by his own hand.
I think this is an excellent book if you would like to see into the mind of a sociopath, who can talk a good intellectual game, but he seems to be entirely unable to empathize with any other human. He tells a story in the book about how mean the guards are to him when his mother dies, as though he is again a victim, he however never expresses any grief or sorrow for her loss.
I think this is an excellent book if you would like to see into the mind of a sociopath, who can talk a good intellectual game, but he seems to be entirely unable to empathize with any other human. He tells a story in the book about how mean the guards are to him when his mother dies, as though he is again a victim, he however never expresses any grief or sorrow for her loss.
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
5.0
To Have and Have Not is the tale of the ups and down of fishing boat captain Harry Morgan. This adventurous tale is riveting, and Hemingway keeps you hooked at the end of his line, with the twists and turns Harry endures trying to keep himself and family out of poverty. There is violence and super unfortunate and I found gratuitous use of the word nigger, that being said, I am a tremendous fan of Hemingway's spare prose style. I find being immersed in his stories soothing to my spirit.
In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
5.0
I am not surprised that when F. Scott Fitzgerald read this early work of Hemingway's he realized Hemingway was the real deal and supported his writing thereafter. This is an unusual book, and if you like a narrative with a clear beginning middle and ending, you are probably not going to like these stories at all. But I did like them because I allowed myself to experience the vignette being set before me, on their terms and not my expectations of what should happen in a story and how. It is about enjoying the literary ride. In Our Time you will meet the soldier, the bullfighter, the fisherman. All the classic Hemingway tropes in their genesis. My favorite stories are the man in nature scenes, which made me long to be outdoors in the forest somewhere or on the edge of a lake fishing.
The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk
3.0
I adore Orhan Pamuk, and this is his third novel that I have read this year. I am a little disappointed with this book. The story is far-fetched. Early on in the novel boy meets girl, things don't work out and boy pines faithfully for girl for many years. Her behaviour in this drama is mystifying. I don't mind the absurdity of this fairy-tale-telling at all. Pamuk is an unabashed romantic of the highest order, and I love that about him. I want to believe this story and in these dark and cynical times–I need to. The problem is how dramatically the pace and interest of the story fizzles in the end. I hate to say it because I get so much pleasure from his books, but you could probably lose the last thirty pages of this book without really effecting the read. He inserts himself as the narrator picking up the pieces in the end (a plot device also used in Snow) and it makes me sad. It doesn't strengthen the story, it detracts. If you are a hardcore romantic, and do not mind reading indepth about other cultures, as Turkey is very much a central character of his books, it is definitely worth the read in spite of the weak ending.