Plenty of Quick Book Reviews
The Fall by Simon Mawer: Simon Mawer has given us a good novel, just not a great one. It can be electrifying and dizzying at one point and then detached and mired in its characters’ own lack of inertia the next. A more even novel would have been received better, but The Fall is still an enjoyable read that will leave you guessing the truth until the very end.
The Havana Room by Colin Harrison: Still, The Havana Room manages to capture the soul of a city, although it’s not an honorable one. New York is as complex as the characters within The Havana Room and just as full of secrets and desires for more. Perhaps the city is really the central character here, flawed, beautiful, and impossible to understand. Within its scope, Colin Harrison paints a portrait of a man struggling to understand himself and his place within it, and to give up wanting more and appreciate what he has. Enjoy the secrets of The Havana Room.
The Diviners by Rick Moody: There are those who will probably enjoy this book more than I did. Those who know the people and industries satirized here or are part of that big city madness to make money, be seen at the right events, and profit at your adversary’s mistakes. Perhaps more of those “aha” moments ring true to those intimately involved with them. For me, though, The Diviners was a disappointment on a promising premise that never played out to my satisfaction.
His Illegal Self by Peter Carey: His Illegal Self is not an easy story to read, and it’s tedious at times waiting for any sense of hope to come to its characters’ lives. It’s the characters that are the highlight of this novel, though, and Peter Carey’s expert handling of their relationships and emotions that binds it all together in a flurry of emotions that buffets the reader as well.
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon: While the usual thematic elements of good versus evil are played out in Gentlemen of the Road, there are no deep issues at work here. Michael Chabon has created a short, adventure novel (less than 200 pages) that delivers all the expected pleasures of the best of the genre, making Gentlemen of the Road a pleasureful way to pass an afternoon. It’s almost enough to make you wish you could read the further adventures of Zelikman and Amram, but perhaps that’s too much of a good thing. The morsel of temptation provided by Michael Chabon attains that desired effect – leave them wanting more.
Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes: Easter Island is a satisfying read that explores the mysteries of the human soul in the most isolated place in the world, the navel of the earth. Both Elsa and Greer find that searching for oneself can be fraught with peril, since no man, or woman, is an island.
Islands of Silence by Martin Booth: The chapters in this novel alternate between the present-day Alec and his story as a young man, striking out on his own as an archaeologist in 1914. The elder Alec tells of the discipline necessary to maintain his silence, the kindly doctor who wants to draw Alec out of his shell, his dreams that content or frighten him, and the horrors and evil he has seen in the past. He is a man most certainly sane, lucid in his thoughts, and convinced of the nature of evil that exists outside of his controlled environment.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a wonderful, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable novel. I am glad I came under Susanna Clarke’s enchantment and I’m eager to press this novel into the hands of family and friends and urge them to read this book.
Annette Lybacki hopes that you found this piece helpful and invites you to read her articles on Do You Need a DUI Lawyer? for some Hints and Tips on DUI Lawyers.
