Reviewed by Nisha Bhat
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK by James Baldwin is the story of a young black couple separated when the man, Fonny, is falsely accused of rape and imprisoned. The story is largely narrated by Fonny’s lover and soon-to-be-mother Tish, and it unfolds through a set of disconnected scenes in the present and the past. (more…)
Reviewed by Lira Samanta
Who doesn’t like On the Road? I can’t think of anyone who has read this Beat Generation novel and not loved it whole-heartedly. Perennial in its popularity ever since its publication in 1957, On the Road has been hailed as the visionary novel for young men and women throughout America, who, upon reading it, have been themselves been inspired to take to the road and embark on glorious, dirty travels. The beloved, uniquely American Jack Kerouac weaves a fast, caffeinated tale, which gets into the reader’s heart and lungs. (more…)
Traumatized by an accident that involves something falling from the sky, which leaves him eight and a half million pounds richer, our hero spends his time and money obsessively reconstructing and re-enacting memories and situations from his past: a large building with piano music in the distance, the familiar smells and sounds of liver frying and spluttering, lethargic cats lounging on roofs until they tumble off… But when this fails to quench his thirst for authenticity, he starts reconstructing more and more violent events.
With stories on puberty, first love, and fatherhood, it’s easy to see how one might think that Patrick Somerville’s TROUBLE is an ode to the condition of the modern American male. But what does dear Patrick think of all this?
Check out this feature on him from The Chicago Reader :
Patrick Somerville makes his debut with a collection about masculinity and control
By Martha Bayne
November 3, 2006
“I NEVER HAD a huge accident that put me in the hospital,” says Patrick Somerville. “But I feel like I got hurt so many times when I was a kid—minor to midlevel injuries like breaking my arm, breaking my arm another time, broken fingers. I fell off my bike all the time, and I crashed on skis a bunch too. I had this weirdly violent childhood.” (more. . .)
Judging from this picture, there are worse places to live than Provence. Rolling Hills, quaint villages, and endless wine, Provence is almost perfect. Perhaps that’s why Peter Mayle has devoted eleven (!) books to extolling the virtues of the place. And readers around the world have gotten the message. Tourism in Provence has gone up since Mayle’s first book, A YEAR IN PROVENCE, was published. And it’s sure to increase again with the release of the film “A Good Year” based on Mayle’s novel of the same name. Vintners from Aix to Arles rejoice.TOURJOURS PETER MAYLE
In this hilarious online chat with college newspaper editors, Bret Easton Ellis suggests that in the movie version of Lunar Park, he would like to see his character portrayed by Forrest Whitaker.
Here’s the full transcript (read the whole thing — it’s highly amusing):
Moderator: We are pleased to have as our guest Bret Easton Ellis, author of AMERICAN PSYCHO, LESS THAN ZERO, THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, GLAMORAMA, THE INFORMERS, and now LUNAR PARK, his most recent national bestseller. (more…)
We recently stumbled across this hilarious, if not long overdue, approach to book review. In this case, Jon Krakauer’s true crime tale cum history of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints—UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN—gets the haiku treatment:
“Some think they hear God
And do anything He says
Including murder”
Now if only someone could do the same for ULYSSES
On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a bachelor decides to give himself a wild night of love with a virgin. As is his habit–he has purchased hundreds of women–he asks a madam for her assistance. The fourteen-year-old girl who is procured for him is enchanting, but exhausted as she is from caring for siblings and her job sewing buttons, she can do little but sleep. Yet with this sleeping beauty at his side, it is he who awakens to a romance he has never known. (more…)