Lives of the Saints
If you think of the themes of a novel like a complex spiderweb, most of the time an overzealous use of repetition is akin to the author shoving the reader into the centre of it.
Women Authors
Most old books are written by men. These books were written by women.
Cool For You
While their stories are funny tales of minimum-wage teenage drudgery, they are also stories of chafing at the world one inherits from their parents.
Fair Play
When you hear the name Tove Jansson, you probably automatically think of Moomin, but Jansson was much more than the exploits of everyone in Moomin Valley.
Grace Period
Leaving Lisbon and revisiting the small town he remembers only vaguely, he is accosted both with the familiarity and strangeness of locations he left so long ago.
Lulu in Hollywood
One of the things I need more of in this time of much overtime? I need more films — even if I don’t have the time for them.
Motion Sickness
Like the narrator, the novel wanders between past and present and often between locations themselves.
Forbidden Notebook
Forbidden Notebook is a testament to repeating patterns that keep women down and prevent them from being who they truly want to be or even seeing themselves as people at all.
The Fate of Mary Rose
I first encountered her writing in McNally’s re-issue of The Stepdaughter, and I loved how Blackwood could pack so many layers into such a short novel. So I was excited to try another of her books..
Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black
One of the best parts of the collected editions like this (especially when they’re arranged chronologically) is that you can follow Mueller through her life and watch her evolve as a writer.
Seduction and Betrayal
Literary criticism is a bit off of the beaten path of what I normally review, but when I find a volume that really complements my reading, then I make an exception.