bookrblog

Run

Saturday, December 27th, 2008 | American Literature | No Comments

I actually preferred this novel by Ann Patchett to the one people rave about, Bel Canto. It was tightly structured with a minimum of characters - characters with depth - and it didn’t try to cover the world, just one small family. The plot was basic while still being unusual, but it was the interesting characters which drove the story.

A small family attends a Jesse Jackson rally on a winter’s night - a politician and his two black adopted adult sons.  One son falls in front of a car; a black woman saves him but is hit by the car. Her young daughter reveals she is the boys’ natural mother.

No one is perfect in this story but it comes together at a human level and resolves itself because people are drawn together for human reasons. It was a very enjoyable read, well put together, simply told in that simple American manner, and thought-provoking. I liked it.

Notes from the Underground

Thursday, December 18th, 2008 | Russian Literature | No Comments

This novel by Dostoevsky is partly like the voice in your head, and partly like the voice you secretly wonder whether other people have in their heads, strange people. It’s bitter and it’s funny and it’s so modern that this has been called the first modern novel, though it was written in the 19th century, which sounds so long ago now.

It’s not really a novel. It’s just some thoughts without beginning or end. It’s sort of like the quiet desperation quote but it’s so angry. It’s recognisable, not necessarily from yourself, but in parts it is yourself. It sounds like Dostoevsky the gambler.