Tag Archives: Literature and Fiction

...as J. K. Rowling has proved, if you write it (a good story) they will read.

...to fathom the contempt George Orwell would have held for current standards of reportage.

We could call this summer Men In Black 3 or the Birth of Mask ...

There is a certain organic quality to the way this tale is progressing; it's like watching the development of an exceptional plant from a green and tender shoot to the point that it bears fruit.

Ashok K. Banker's adaptation of the 3,000 year old epic of the Indian sub continent Ramayana could appear to be too exotic and unapproachable for a Western reader who knows little or nothing about that history or culture. But the author has ensured that no ones enjoyment be diminished by their background

Umberto Eco is one of those authors who frustrates me. I truly enjoyed The Name of the Rose. I liked Foucault’s Pendulum as much, if not more. On the other hand, I gave up on Baudolino after about 100 pages. I did not give up on Eco’s new work, The …

Cloud Atlas is a novel perhaps unlike any other. In essence, British author David Mitchell links six novellas together in one fashion or another and, thus, seeks to form a whole. The novel starts with the diary of an American traveling on a schooner in the South Pacific in the …

Good ol’ Dev Degraw, the Governor’s son. He is the ne’er-do-well meandering through a disintegrating life in Wonderdog, a comedic novel by Inman Majors. Dev is the 33-year-old son of the long-time governor of Alabama, who faces a re-election campaign this year. Try as he might, Dev can’t escape that …

About a third of the way through this book, I was still thinking: I just don’t get it. What I didn’t get is the praise for the book and the fact it won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I must still admit that I sometimes think I just don’t …

It’s a crisp, moonlit October night. Outside, a wind stirs the skeleton shapes of leafless trees and a black cat hurries home after the evening’s hunt. Inside, you’re curled up in your favorite chair by the hearth, a blanket on your lap and a cup of tea close at hand. …