Masterpiece
Excellent
Very good
Just okay
Not for me
Definitely not for me'd' titles
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008Review: Daughters of the North
Daughters of the North, known as The Carhullan Army in the UK, is a dystopian novel set in an environmentally and economically ravaged Britain. Citizens are forced to be registered in cities where they are assigned work for the good of the state. Contraception is mandated and every female is fitted with a device for that purpose. Not only that, but they must also submit to periodic checks to insure the device is in place. Unable to remain where she is under such circumstances, “Sister” escapes to an all-female commune that she knew about as a child. Her reception there is at first strained, as the members of the group want to insure she is not a spy sent by the state. As “Sister” gains their trust and tells them of the conditions in the nearby city, it becomes uncertain whether the group will be able to remain in their isolated location for long. A decision must be made to stay or fight.
Author Sarah Hall was nominated for the Booker Prize for her book The Electric Michelangelo. I recommend this title to readers who enjoy dystopian fiction with a feminist slant. While not nearly as captivating as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, it is worth a look if you enjoy reading the dystopian genre.
2008 in the U.S., 240 pp.
Rating: 
Popularity: 18% [?]
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Review: Detective Story
Written in 1977 but published in the US for the first time this January, Detective Story by Nobel laureate Imre Kertesz tells the story of a group of men who, while working for an unnamed Latin American country’s government, go too far to stop their political enemies. While I thought Kaddish for a Child Not Born by Kertesz was brilliant, I must admit I didn’t get into this one too much. I’m willing to confess the fault might lie with the reader rather than the writer, however. Luckily, this one was short, but it didn’t pack the same punch for me that Kaddish did.
1977 [2008 for the English translation], 112 pp.
Rating: 3/5
Popularity: 68% [?]
Sunday, January 6th, 2008Dreamers of the Day
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell is a fictional story about Agnes, a middle-aged woman from Cleveland, who finally gets the courage and means to travel on her own. Her choice is Cairo, and while there she meets up with Winston Churchill, Gertrude Bell, and T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) while they are drawing the new map for the Middle East after World War I. Russell’s descriptions of Egypt are spectacular. I have been to Cairo myself, and some of the points made were still true from when I traveled there. I enjoyed the setting of the book and the historical accounts from this period tremendously. From this conference in Cairo, the boundaries for present day Iraq and other countries in the Middle East were set. The book has encouraged me to explore more about this era of history and re-view the movie Lawrence of Arabia.
However, there were several things I did not like about Russell’s writing style. Normally I don’t care if a book is written in first or third person. This book was written in first person with Agnes as the narrator. It just didn’t work for me, especially when she speaks directly to the reader. I felt it would have been better had the book been written in third person. In addition, I did not care for the ending at all and actually thought it was quite silly. I can’t describe more, though, without giving spoilers. I’ve read Russell’s books The Sparrow and the sequel The Children of God, and together they were my most thought-provoking books of 2006. I have not read A Thread of Grace, but I have heard good things about it and still plan on reading it. I’m sad to say, however, that I was disappointed in Dreamers of the Day. It could have been an excellent book if it had taken a different path. I’m still rating it a 3.5, though, because the descriptions of Cairo made me miss it tremendously, and because it did make me interested in the history of how the present Middle East was formed.
2008, 251 pp.
Rating:
Popularity: 21% [?]
Friday, August 17th, 2007A Death in the Family
A Death in the Family by James Agee
1957, 310 pp.
1958 Pulitzer
Rating: 4.5
Jay Follett, a dutiful husband and father, travels to his parents’ home because his father is dying. On his way back to his wife and children, he is killed in a car accident. The reaction to this tragedy by his family is told with heartbreaking prose. I was especially moved by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of his son, Rufus. This novel was largely autobiographical for Agee as his father died in a car accident when he was six years old. Sadly, Agee himself died of a heart attack at the age of 45, leaving behind young children of his own.
This novel profoundly touched me as my own father died of heart complications at the age of 44. The death of someone so young affects a family very deeply for many years. It is a tragedy I hope few people have to experience.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Friday, July 6th, 2007The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
The Door in the Wall
by Marguerite de Angeli
(1949, 121 pp.)
Newbery Medal
Rating: 4
My favorite passage sums up this book nicely:
“Fret not, my son. None of us is perfect. It is better to have crooked legs than a crooked spirit. We can only do the best we can with what we have. That, after all, is the measure of success: what we do with what we have.”
Robin is a boy whose father expects him to be a knight. When his father goes off to war, Robin is left alone and falls ill. His legs are slightly crippled afterward. Some monks come to his aid and he learns to “do the best with what he has.” Recommended.
- 1. Nicola - July 7, 2007
- Oh, I remember this one. I read it to my oldest son a long time ago. Skippack School by her is also very good.
- 2. Debi - July 9, 2007
- This one has never caught my eye before, but it sounds wonderful! Thank you!
Popularity: 17% [?]