L.S. Popovich's Blog, page 4

Review of Life of Chuck

Life of Chuck is a symphony dedicated to the quite awesomeness of living that hits a discordant note in its structure. Still, many people will forgive its missteps and find it a worthwhile watch. Life of Chuck is an exploration of what gives our relatively short lives meaning, while constantly reminding us of the cosmic timeline, going as far as explaining […]

Review of Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart

I would normally drool over a book about a rabid watch-collection, because I have been a rabid watch enthusiast (at least in theory) but found my eyes rolling of their own volition while enduring this second novel I’ve read by the author. While it’s fun to say to yourself, I can visualize the watch he […]

Review of M Train by Patti Smith

Coffee-addict Patti Smith returns with another engrossing memoir-thing. She writes well about writing. I find my reading tastes lining up with hers. She conveys her burgeoning obsession with visiting writers’ graves in far-flung places, touching down in Japan and hunting down the resting place of Akutagawa, Dazai, Ozu and others. I have never done that […]

Review of The White Book by Han Kang

Han Kang describes white things well. But it would’ve been more intriguing if the pages were black and the text was white. You can achieve this by getting an ebook and turning your kindle to Dark Mode.I would not call these interconnected stories, but rather, observations orbiting a theme. An obvious compilation of memory and […]

Review of The Onyx Book of Occult Fiction by Various

The first modern anthology brought to you by Snuggly Book in their definitive series, numbering 6 volumes thus far. The editor is none other than the pre-eminent author of the occult working today. In his introduction, Damian Murphy invokes a wide-range of authors tangential or central to his understanding of literature of the occult persuasion. […]

Review of Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

I often wish JCO would write more science fiction. This felt a bit like A Handmaid’s Tale. The initial sections describing the system of rewards and punishment, how society has morphed into this recognizable, twisted near-future I found less compelling than the love story at the heart of the novel. This not her most popular […]

Review of Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland by Carlton Mellick III

One of his longest works, something labored over for longer, it seems, and continued in an equally long sequel, I found myself at times missing the brief length of his accustomed method and not necessarily wanting it to go on as long as it did.   It had its moments, but ultimately could not rank with […]

Review of Breathe by Joyce Carol Oates

A heart-rending meditation on grief. Our protagonist’s battle with losing her partner encapsulates all the stages, every sidereal and ethereal sentiment imaginable.Shaped within the austere landscapes of New Mexico, through achronological snippets of her university life, in and out of the hospital as Gerard succumbs to a generic illness, our protagonist recounts her days intimately, […]

Review of Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

Shteyngart knows how to bring the beef. Politically incorrect ranting, raving, and livestreaming.Much chuckle-worthy correspondence featuring an upper middle-class Jewish American, a Korean American and her family, and an upper-upper-upper-upper class American CEO-type with sub-human morals. Highly polished, irreverent bashing of this, that, and the other. Prescient, but really just an extrapolation of what you […]

Review of Black Boy by Richard Wright

A harrowing memoir of a sensitive artist. Having read most of Wright’s books by now, I wasn’t expecting to be blown over by this as I was.Memoirs don’t often strike home for me, but this may be my favorite of the handful I’ve read.A rounded picture of the author is presented here. He doesn’t shy […]