the_town_cryer's reviews
46 reviews

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

4.5

Harrowing and fascinating in equal measure

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

3.75

This edition does a great job of contextualizing both of the “Alice” books and that info was essential to understanding the stories’ significance as classics of children’s literature. 

Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

Beautifully written, a strange but very intriguing examination of the ideas of faith, religion, and sin. Look past a few cases of outdated language and you have an endlessly re-readable story. 

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

3.5

Pretty solid read. Definitely had some issues with the dialogue but can see the value in it subverting your expectations of “Wild West” dialogue in a book that does a fair amount of interrogating of other western tropes.

The Nonexistent Knight & The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino

adventurous dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.25

An enjoyable set of fantastical parodies. Read the knight’s story for fun and hilarity, read the Viscount’s story for macabre intrigue 

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

challenging funny tense medium-paced

4.0

I… I don’t know what I just finished reading but I’m convinced I liked it even if I can’t say why.

Zero K by Don DeLillo

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

Boy oh boy. There are some really cool passages and pieces of this novel but the style it’s written in and the narrator just weren’t for me.

Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov

4.5

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

3.5

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

3.75

Come for the classic adventure story, think about leaving at several points on account of how poorly the descriptions of various places, people, and cultures are described.