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January 02
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Molly
gave
 
to:
Middlesex (Paperback)
by Jeffrey Eugenides
bookshelves:
finished-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in January, 2006
Molly said:
"This book begins with the voice of Calliope, the hermaphroditic protagonist who narrates her (later his) journey to self identification and, ultimately, acceptance. While the premise I've described may sound schmaltzy, the narrator's self-affected d...more
This book begins with the voice of Calliope, the hermaphroditic protagonist who narrates her (later his) journey to self identification and, ultimately, acceptance. While the premise I've described may sound schmaltzy, the narrator's self-affected distance, which can be trying, and the author's considerable skill, which is often a delight, makes the story an entertaining read. Eugenides is at his very best as he lays the foundation for Calliope's life in the history of her grandparents and their unconventional, but near-wholly convincing marriage. As the novel moves into an exploration of Calliope's adolescence, and particularly her/his young adulthood, however, it becomes less pleasurable and more onerous. Indeed, this reader was left wondering why such compelling supporting characters were written out of the novel so soon. While I would not revisit this work again, I very much look forward to Eugenides' future work: I felt Middlesex was a substantially more-realized novel than The Virgin Suicides, and I am certain his next effort will be even better....less
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Molly
gave
to:
The Inheritance of Loss (Paperback)
by Kiran Desai
bookshelves:
finished-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in January, 2007
Molly said:
"I had to pick this book up after hearing an excellent review of this work on NPR, and finding that I could not get the provocative title out of my head. Although at times disjointed, and although the characters and intertwining plots aren't always c...more
I had to pick this book up after hearing an excellent review of this work on NPR, and finding that I could not get the provocative title out of my head. Although at times disjointed, and although the characters and intertwining plots aren't always consistent and/or balanced, I thoroughly enjoyed the richly textured story. The imagery and poetic language, and the focus on the lives of people living on the margins, reminds me of a more garrulous Ondaatje, and I definitely recommend this book for those who may like to read for language more than characters/plot....less
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Molly
gave
to:
The God of Small Things (Paperback)
by Arundhati Roy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Molly said:
"I first read this book several years ago, but I've since revisited it many times. I think I keep coming back to it because it solicits such strong emotion from the reader. This is due both to the socially relevant and duly complicated story, and th...more
I first read this book several years ago, but I've since revisited it many times. I think I keep coming back to it because it solicits such strong emotion from the reader. This is due both to the socially relevant and duly complicated story, and the intuitively realized characters. Narrated in retrospect, the novel spins the tale of the the manner in which Estha and Rahel, child twins living on the very edge of a still-socially respectable and economically-stable family in Ayemenem (in the Kerala region of India), grow up, grow apart, and ultimately grow alienated from their family, village, country, and selves. On a meta-level, it may indeed narrate the manner in which the twins realize the essential alienation that marks them as inherently apart from all but each other (and that last bit is certainly still up for interpretation). Although the plot I've just described sounds very bleak, the story looks out mostly from the window of Rahel's childhood, and is thus exuberantly narrated. In fact, I cannot think of another novel that communicates the world and language of a child so convincingly. It is this juxtaposition--that of the complex world of adults matched and intertwined with the equally complex work of children that makes this work so compelling and so powerful, even upon the reader's return. ...less
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January 01
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Molly
gave
to:
Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife (Paperback)
by Sam Savage
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in January, 2007
Molly said:
"Again, I must be a voice of dissent here. I loved this novella. It is written from the perspective of a rat who was born in a bookstore to an alcoholic-mother in a litter of other rat-like rats. Firmin is of course different from his brothers and ...more
Again, I must be a voice of dissent here. I loved this novella. It is written from the perspective of a rat who was born in a bookstore to an alcoholic-mother in a litter of other rat-like rats. Firmin is of course different from his brothers and sisters: he possesses a yearning for knowledge and a loneliness that he obliquely recognizes as the loneliness of the human condition--particularly among those humans whose lives he vicariously observes. This makes him a liminal figure at home neither in the world of rats or in the world of humans. Rather than veering into existential and/or overtly philosophical territory, however, the plot remains clever and turns in part on the unreliability of Firmin's claims and narration. This makes the book both more philosophical and more entertaining than the premise might otherwise suggest. I highly recommend it as story that successfully marries the Kafka's Josephine with Disney's Ratatouille....less
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Molly
gave
to:
Life of Pi (Paperback)
by Yann Martel
bookshelves:
finished-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in January, 2007
Molly said:
"I realize I'm a voice of dissent here, but I did not like this book. Although it begins with a very provocative premise, and although that premise drove me to read the book in a record-amount of time, I ultimately felt the plot was gimmicky and that...more
I realize I'm a voice of dissent here, but I did not like this book. Although it begins with a very provocative premise, and although that premise drove me to read the book in a record-amount of time, I ultimately felt the plot was gimmicky and that the story itself didn't live up to the particularly deep exploration of truth and faith the plot promised. That said, because the book reads quickly and the story is entertaining, it is very accessible and would probably make a quality book-club pick. ...less
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December 31, 2007
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Molly
gave
to:
The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel (P.S.)
by Louis Bayard
bookshelves:
finished-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in June, 2007
Molly said:
"My love for this book may stem from the fact that I haven't picked up a detective story in many a long year. That said, I loved this book. Set in the early 1830s during the short period of time in which Edgar Allan Poe enrolled as a cadet at West P...more
My love for this book may stem from the fact that I haven't picked up a detective story in many a long year. That said, I loved this book. Set in the early 1830s during the short period of time in which Edgar Allan Poe enrolled as a cadet at West Point, the story imagines the early convergence of Poe's major loves: literature, death, ghosts, and the detective story. Apprenticed to Detective Landor, Poe learns the ins and outs of detective work and ultimately helps to solve a series of murders haunting West Point. The plot turns on its final, dramatic twist, and because of that, some of my friends have suggested that getting to that final twist takes a bit longer than necessary. However, if you are inherently interested in Poe, or like getting involved in the tension of a case in which nothing breaks until the case itself is solved, you will mostly likely find this a very clever page-turner. ...less
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Molly
gave
to:
Never Let Me Go (Paperback)
by Kazuo Ishiguro
bookshelves:
finished-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in January, 2007
Molly said:
"Similar to Ishiguro's other works, Never Let Me Go is driven forward by a tightly-controlled narrative voice. The voice is eerily similar to that of the butler in the Remains of the Day, and the similarities between the two (the former a butler's in...more
Similar to Ishiguro's other works, Never Let Me Go is driven forward by a tightly-controlled narrative voice. The voice is eerily similar to that of the butler in the Remains of the Day, and the similarities between the two (the former a butler's inadvertent story about the fall of England's aristocratic social order in the midst and wake of its pro-Nazi sympathies, and the latter a "carer's" narrative of her experience as part of the enclave communities of donors, located somewhere in the English countryside, whose lives are committed to supplying a steady stream of healthy organs to those outside), demand close inspection. On another note, I hear this book is slated to become a movie, and I look forward to seeing how the issues of the worthiness of life, art, love, and sex translate to the screen....less
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