Reviewed by Ellen Wernecke
Something’s rotten in the state of corporation in Max Barry’s third novel Company. Sales assistant Jones has been recruited out of college to work for Zephyr, a busy and successful company which does… well, Jones isn’t sure, but he’s eager to find out. Rivalries stripe his new department of Training Sales, but all Jones knows is that he’s already earned the ire of his cubicle-mate, who hasn’t been promoted in five years.
This video was created for the book Remainder by Tom McCarthy. Music by Sol Seppy is featured. It’s possibly one of the most hauntingly cool things we’ve seen in a long time….
As an English student, I am not thrilled with Gaitskill’s simple style and choppy sentences. Her writing style is really off-putting and it may take a while for me to pick the book again.
- Shay B. (East Carolina)
I finished reading Veronica about a week ago and had to think about what I just read. Although I am not an ace book critic, I found the book to be very confusing. It was very difficult to follow as Alison’s, the main character of the book, life was unfolded in a very bizzare manner. The frequent flashbacks and flashforwards and flash sideways with numerous characters required frequent re-reading of pages upon pages to remember who the cahracters were. Perhaps if the book were written in a more time wise fashion, it would have made more sense. It wasnt until the end of the book where all the thoughts came together that the story was easier to read and understand.
On a positive note, I did enoy the way the author, Mary Gaitskill, was able to describe scenes and places in the book which made me feel like I was right there in the story. Her ability to use words to encompass you in participating with the characters was quite evident throughout the book.
My only question that still has me puzzled, is “Why is the book entitled Veronica, when she was only portrayed within only half the book?” The character seemed important enough to Alison, but did not really portray a whole meaningful influence on her life.
Thank you for allowing me to participate in reading this novel…
I am really enjoying this book, which I received over the holidays. I hadn’t had time to post a note about it before, but now that the holiday busyness has slowed down I can hopefully finish reading it soon.
Vicki 
Reviewed by Ari Glogower
Gimlette’s Newfoundland is a stage, a backdrop for successive waves of humanity living out their comedies and tragedies amidst the rock and cod. His Newfoundlanders exude histrionics at every turn. On the boisterous streets of St. John’s, where “drama .. tumbled out of people” taxi drivers soliloquize and bank tellers spin tales of giant dogs and mountainous snowdrifts. In the remote northern outports a fallen opera star once applauded on Europe’s greatest stages makes her way along the harbor. Dressed to the nines in pearls and silk she rides into town on a sledge pulled by her only remaining fan, a pet goat. (more…)
Reviewed by Ari Glogower
Walter Kirn’s latest work “Mission To America” ranges far and goes nowhere. This book, a protean mass of ill conceived images and half-baked humor leaves the reader aching for some tight, neat purposeful prose. The story line follows the adventures of two young men from a reclusive religious community tucked into a Montanan bluff. Their mission, to find new female converts to diversify the community’s inbred gene pool, results in many not-hilarious encounters with modernity and produces trite insights into overplayed themes of gender, commercialism and the like.
Kirn’s problem is not a lack of creativity, and he peppers each page with bizarre details and inventive asides. His description of the community, a new-age theocracy populated by Whole Foods brand reps, encompasses a colorful array of habits and beliefs. The reader meets the deity Lady Vegetalis and an economy based on the exchange of virtue coupons. The reader learns that once, during the spring moon of Snake Emergence the group’s leader Aunt Patricia – with a little help from Lom-Bard-Ok-Thon - halted an epidemic racing through the slums of northern Peru. And so on. (more…)
Reviewed by Rebeckah Groves
Darkly Dreaming Dexter: A Daring Delve into Devilish Deeds
[Note: This review contains heavy alliteration. Not for the faint of heart. –Ed.]
Despite doubts that I had as to the decency of a drama dedicated to despicable dealings, Darkly Dreaming Dexter denied me the delight of dealing disparaging remarks to the book and deeming it dross. Instead, Dexter deftly demonstrates the destiny of the drama devoted to the decidedly devious: delectable, when done daringly. (more…)
Reviewed by Andrew Seal
When I picked up a copy of The Painted Veil to review, I asked a friend of mine what she thought of W. Somerset Maugham.
“He’s a very one book sort of man, I think,” she said. “There’s Of Human Bondage, and then, well, what is there?”
I suppose this attitude isn’t atypical, at least among the current arbiters of the literary canon and among those English-major acolytes (like my friend and I) who pay attention to ponderous old fools like the Modern Library and whatnot.
I am, however, glad to say that Maugham is not a one book man and, upon further reading, may not even be a two book man. Of Human Bondage is an undeniable masterpiece, but The Painted Veil is a fine book as well. (more…)
Reviewed by Melissa Fish
When I first began Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan, I had every expectation that the plot would follow the established pattern for suspense novels: a fast-paced, guilt-free story full of sympathetic characters seeking to triumph over external evils in a world of black-and-white morality. However, I quickly discovered that, even at the root of its premise, the novel defies all “suspense” novel standards, to the point of being almost completely separate from the genre. (more…)
