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An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
Compared to Ishiguro’s other works An Artist of the Floating World is somewhat slight, both in terms of characterisation and plot. As with other novels by Ishiguro we have a narrator reminiscing about their past, attention is paid to the act of recollecting, and the unreliability of one’s memory. Set in post-World War II Japan…
1940s, 1950s, 1st pov, 20th century, 3 STARS, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, British Japanese author, favourite authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, japan, Kazuo Ishiguro, LITERARY FICTION, male authors, MEMORY, morality, My reviews, published in 1986, read in 2021, reading, unreliable narrators, WWII -
A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
“That was the thing about people on the outside. They thought it cheered him up to see their faces, but it just reminded him too much of freedom when everybody knew it was better to adjust to the kind of freedom available on the inside.” Heartbreaking yet luminous A Kind of Freedom is a truly…
1940s, 1980s, 2010s, 20th century, 4 STARS, A Kind of Freedom, addiction, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Black & Black heritage authors, cheating, Contemporary, family, FAMILY SAGA, fatherhood, female authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, LITERARY FICTION, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, MARRIAGE, motherhood, New Orleans, prison, PUBLISHED IN 2017, RACE, read in 2020, SISTERS, social issues, war, WWII -
The Travelers by Regina Porter
The cast of characters and locations at the start of Regina Porter’s The Travelers is a tiny bit daunting as they promise to cover a far wider scope than your usual family saga. The Travelers explores the lives of characters who are either related, sometimes distantly, or connected in less obvious ways. Porter’s switches between…
1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 20th century, 4 STARS, abuse, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Berlin, Brittany, CHILDHOOD, class, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), f/f side, family, FAMILY SAGA, female authors, FRANCE, friendships, georgia, Germany, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, interconnected stories, intergenerational, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, MARRIAGE, MEMORY, new hampshire, NEW YORK, published in 2019, queer, RACE, rape, read in 2020, Regina Porter, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, tennessee, terrific prose, The Travelers, travel, unrequited love, Vietnam, vietnam war, violence against women, war, war related ptsd, WWII -
Crossings by Alex Landragin
Alex Landragin has written an ambitious tale, one that begins with the following line: “I didn’t write this book. I stole it.”This prologue, written by a bookbinder, tells us of how this manuscript has come to be in his hands. The manuscript in question comprises three seemingly separate books: ‘The Education of a Monster’ written…
18th century, 19TH CENTURY, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, adventure, Alex Landragin, books about books, books about writers, Charles Baudelaire, Crossings, FRANCE, French Armenian Australian author, HISTORICAL FICTION, interconnected stories, interesting structure, ISLAND, MAGICAL REALISM, male authors, MYSTERY, mystery puzzle, on a ship, plot over character, published in 2020, read in 2020, ROMANCE, sea, star-crossed lovers, story within a story, travel, voyage, Walter Benjamin, WWII -
The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai
In The Setting Sun Osamu Dazai captures a nation in transition. Set during the early postwar years Japan this novella is centred on an aristocratic family fallen on hard times. Kazuko, our narrator, and her fragile mother who are forced to move to the countryside and give up their family home. Gentile Kazuko has no…
1940s, 1st pov, 20th century, 3 STARS, ALIENATION, aristocracy, books about writers, class, CLASSICS, cultural dissonance, existentialism, family, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, japanese classics, male authors, modern classics, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, Osamu Dazai, philosophical, published in 1947, read in 2020, siblings, suicide, The Setting Sun, TRANSLATED FICTION, war, WWII -
Abigail by Magda Szabó — book review
“In later years, whenever she dreamed of the fortress and the city the wind would always be present, moving restlessly among human figures obscurely glimpsed in the haze.” Abigail follows fourteen-year-old Gina Vitay’s time as a Matula student in the months leading to the German occupation of Hungary. First published fifty years ago, its English…
1940s, 20th century, 3rd pov, 4 STARS, Abigail, academia, all girls school, beautiful prose, boarding/private school, BOOK REVIEWS, bullying, CLASSICS, coming of age, female authors, female friendships, friendships, HISTORICAL FICTION, hungarian author, hungary, introspective, Len Rix, LITERARY FICTION, Magda Szabó, MEMORY, modern classics, MYSTERY, psychological, published in 1970, read in 2020, Religion, teachers, TRANSLATED FICTION, WWII -
The Charioteer by Mary Renault — book review
“He was filled with a vast sense of the momentous, of unknown mysteries. He did not know what he should demand of himself, nor did it seem to matter, for he had not chosen this music he moved to, it had chosen him.” This is the fifth time I’ve read The Charioteer and once again I’ve been…
1930S, 1940s, 20th century, 3rd pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, academia, beautiful prose, bildungsroman, boarding/private school, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, British author, british classics, CLASSICS, coming of age, england, existentialism, family, favourite authors, female authors, first love, friendships, gay, greek myths, HISTORICAL FICTION, HOSPITAL, identity, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, LITERARY FICTION, Longing, love triangle, m/m, male friendships, Mary Renault, masculinity, modern classics, morality, mothers & sons, My reviews, philosophical, psychological, published in 1953, queer, re-reads, read in 2016, read in 2017, read in 2018, read in 2020, read in 2021, ROMANCE, SEXUALITY, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, The Charioteer, unrequited love, WWII -
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht — book review
“He was alone and hungry, and that hunger, coupled with the thunderous noise of bombardment, had burned in him a kind of awareness of his own death, an imminent and innate knowledge he could neither dismiss nor succumb to.” To begin with I was intrigued by Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife. Obreht’s writing is both…
1940s, 1990s, 2010s, 20th century, 3.25 stars, balkans, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, Contemporary, DEATH, doctors, female authors, FOLKLORE, HISTORICAL FICTION, LITERARY FICTION, MAGICAL REALISM, myths, published in 2011, read in 2020, Serbian American author, story within a story, Storytelling, survival, Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife, tigers, unnamed country, war, WWII, zoos -
The Offing by Benjamin Myers — book review
“That distant stretch of sea where sky and water merge. It’s called the offing.” Written in a verdant prose Benjamin Myers’ novel is an ode to nature. The Offing is narrated by the son of a miner from Durham, Robert Appleyard, who, in his old age, finds himself looking back to the summer which shaped…
1940s, 20th century, 4 STARS, Benjamin Myers, BOOK REVIEWS, British author, coming of age, Durham, england, friendships, HISTORICAL FICTION, history, introspective, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, male authors, MEMORY, nature, philosophical, published in 2020, read in 2020, The Offing, travel, WWII -
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende — book review
Isabel Allende is one of my all time favourite writers. When I was in middle-grade I fell in love with her Eagle and Jaguar series and in the years since I’ve enjoyed other novels by her. Having loved her memoir of Chile, My Invented Country, I was looking forward to A Long Petal of the…
1930S, 1940s, 3 STARS, A Long Petal of the Sea, Adult, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, chile, Chilean American author, drama, family, favourite authors, female authors, heavy on telling, HISTORICAL FICTION, ISABEL ALLENDE, latin america, latin american, latinx author, LITERARY FICTION, MARRIAGE, MELODRAMA, migration/immigration, netgalley, Pablo Neruda, published in 2020, read in 2020, ROMANCE, south america, spain, spanish civil war, TRANSLATED FICTION, WWII
luce [is reading] 