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The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
“‘How do you feel?’ ‘All right.’ But I didn’t. I felt terrible.” I feel incredibly conflicted over Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. On the one hand, I found it to be an ingenious and striking read, one that immortalizes in exacting detail a young woman’s slow descent into psychosis and offers a piercing commentary on…
1950s, 1st pov, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, ASYLUM, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about writers, BOSTON, CLASSICS, DEPRESSION, doctors, ennui, female authors, feminism, feverish, HISTORICAL FICTION, HOSPITAL, introspective, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Massachusetts, MEMORY, mental health, modern classics, NEW YORK, paranoia, problematic, PSYCHIATRISTS & THERAPISTS, psychological, published in 1963, read in 2021, reading, self-destructive, self-harming, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, suicide, sylvia plath, terrific prose, The Bell Jar, unreliable narrators -
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
That I choose to re-read this confirms that I do indeed have masochistic tendencies. “I did not want him to know me. I did not want anyone to know me.” In a striking prose, James Baldwin unfurls a disquieting tale of cowardice and self-deception. In many ways, Giovanni’s Room reads as a confession of sorts,…
1950s, 4 STARS, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, american classics, beautiful prose, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, CLASSICS, existentialism, favourite authors, forgiveness, FRANCE, gay, Giovanni's Room, GUILT, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, introspective, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, m/m, male authors, masculinity, modern classics, My reviews, Paris, psychological, published in 1956, queer, re-reads, read in 2016, read in 2021, reading, ROMANCE, SEXUALITY, terrific prose, tragedy -
Sula by Toni Morrison
They were solitary little girls whose loneliness was so profound it intoxicated them and sent them stumbling into Technicolored visions that always included a presence, a someone, who, quite like the dreamer, shared the delight of the dream. Toni Morrison’s Sula revolves around the eponymous and fraught character of Sula Peace. Within the novel, Morrison…
1910s, 1920s, 1930S, 1940s, 1960s, 20th century, 4 STARS, addiction, affairs, ALIENATION, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, cheating, CLASSICS, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), distressing reads, family, female authors, female doubles, female friendships, feminism, forgiveness, friendships, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, illness, LITERARY FICTION, madness, modern classics, motherhood, mothers & daughters, My reviews, ohio, published in 1973, RACE, re-reads, read in 2018, read in 2021, reading, self-destructive, SEXUALITY, SMALL TOWN, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, suicide, Sula, terrific prose, TONI MORRISON, tragedy, trauma -
Quicksand by Nella Larsen
“As the days multiplied, her need of something, something vaguely familiar, but which she could not put a name to and hold for definite examination, became almost intolerable.” re-read:Larsen excels at disquiet atmosphere. The unease is positively palpable here. Larsen’s presents her readers with an unstinting character study of a deeply alienated woman whose estrangement…
1920s, 20th century, 3 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, ambivalent mood, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, Black & Black heritage authors, Chicago, CLASSICS, cold tone, cultural dissonance, Denmark, ennui, female authors, Harlem, harlem renaissance, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, introspective, loneliness, Nella Larsen, NEW YORK, otherness, psychological, published in 1928, Quicksand, RACE, re-reads, read in 2021, read in 2022, the female malaise, travel -
Carol by patricia highsmith
“My Angel,” Carol said. “Flung out of space.” Fans of the film adaptation of Carol may find the novel to be not quite as polished or romantic. I, for one, find the novel’s elusiveness and opaqueness to be entrancing. Unlike other books by Highsmith Carol is not a thriller or a crime novel, however, it…
1950s, 20th century, 3rd pov, Adult, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, Carol, Claire Morgan, CLASSICS, cold tone, f/f, female authors, first love, heartbreak/breakups, HISTORICAL FICTION, introspective, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, LITERARY FICTION, NEW YORK, Patricia Highsmith, published in 1952, queer, re-reads, read in 2021, road trip, ROMANCE, sapphic, SEXUALITY -
Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson — book review
Life Among the Savages is a collection of comic essays by Shirley Jackson originally published in women’s magazines. Rather than a memoir Life Among the Savages reads as a series of episodes focusing on Jackson’s chaotic family life: children squabbling, disagreements with other parents, daily chores, and family dinners. Jackson renders the cacophony of her…
1950s, 1st pov, 20th century, 3.5 STARS, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BOOK REVIEW, books about writers, CLASSICS, family, favourite authors, female authors, HUMOR, Life Among the Savages, light reads, MARRIAGE, MEMOIR, modern classics, motherhood, New England, published in 1953, read in 2020, SHIRLEY JACKSON, SLICE OF LIFE -
Old School by Tobias Wolff — book review
“A true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life.” Old School presents its readers with a concise exploration of the complexities of writing and interpretation. Tobias Wolff exerts exquisite control over his prose, evoking through his sparse yet vivid language the rarefied world in which his unmanned narrator moves in.…
1960s, 1st pov, 3.5 STARS, academia, Adult, all boys school, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, boarding/private school, books about books, books about writers, BOOKS ON WRITING, coming of age, dark academia, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, introspective, jealousy, LITERARY FICTION, male authors, modern classics, morality, Old School, philosophical, PRIVILEGE, psychological, published in 2003, read in 2020, Tobias Wolff, unnamed narrator -
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald — book review
“It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has its entertaining moments. The narrative seems intent on evoking a certain atmosphere. The people populating this novel meet up over drinks or dinner, where they divert themselves…
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The Touchstone by Edith Wharton — review
Having read a few works by Edith Wharton, I’ve become familiar with her beautifully articulated style. Still, I was nonetheless impressed by just how accomplished The Touchstone is considering that it is Wharton’s first published novella. The story revolves around Stephen Glennard, a New York lawyer, who doesn’t have enough money to marry his sweetheart,…
1900s, 20th century, 3rd pov, 4 STARS, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, beautiful prose, books about writers, CLASSICS, Edith Wharton, female authors, GUILT, HISTORICAL FICTION, introspective, MARRIAGE, morality, NEW YORK, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, psychological, published in 1900, read in 2020, ROMANCE, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, the touchstone, unrequited love -
The Sundial by Shirley Jackson — book review
“I mean, why should I figure I’m so special, the world is going to end while I’m around?” In The Sundial, perhaps Shirley Jackson’s most comical novel, twelve rather disagreeable individuals are cooped together in a mansion waiting for the end of the world. “The house would be guarded during the night of destruction and…
1950s, 20th century, 4 STARS, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, apocalyptic, CLASSICS, creepy setting, dark humor, family, favourite authors, female authors, House As Character, Kafkaesque, madness, manor/big house, modern classics, modern gothic, paranoia, psychological, published in 1958, re-reads, READ IN 2019, read in 2020, SHIRLEY JACKSON, SMALL TOWN, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, surreal, SUSPENSE, The Sundial
luce [is reading] 