Barry Stewart Levy's Blog, page 15
May 14, 2018
Book Review #33
A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway
As much as I wanted to like this book, I cannot understand its appeal nor the acclaim for Hemingway's writing style. Much of the book reads like a badly translated version from a foreign language. Also, the writing is often stilted and repetitious.
Catherine comes across as either mentally unhinged or simply unrealistic. And the ending is so protracted and depressing! No wonder Bradley Cooper's character in the film "Silver Linings Playbook" threw his copy of the novel out the window! I felt like blowing my brains out.
by Ernest Hemingway
As much as I wanted to like this book, I cannot understand its appeal nor the acclaim for Hemingway's writing style. Much of the book reads like a badly translated version from a foreign language. Also, the writing is often stilted and repetitious.
Catherine comes across as either mentally unhinged or simply unrealistic. And the ending is so protracted and depressing! No wonder Bradley Cooper's character in the film "Silver Linings Playbook" threw his copy of the novel out the window! I felt like blowing my brains out.
Book Review #32
The Expats
by Chris Pavone
It is hard to believe that this very confidently and highly entertaining book is Chris Pavone's debut novel. I found it intriguing, suspenseful and tough to put down. I am also impressed that he could write a female protagonist so convincingly and with such complexity. My only quibble is that the final chapters were filled with so many twists and turns and deceptions that I feel as though Pavone was almost too clever for his own good. But for the most part, he has written a helluva fine spy novel, coupled with the dissection of a marriage that is far superior to the one depicted in "Gone Girl."
by Chris Pavone
It is hard to believe that this very confidently and highly entertaining book is Chris Pavone's debut novel. I found it intriguing, suspenseful and tough to put down. I am also impressed that he could write a female protagonist so convincingly and with such complexity. My only quibble is that the final chapters were filled with so many twists and turns and deceptions that I feel as though Pavone was almost too clever for his own good. But for the most part, he has written a helluva fine spy novel, coupled with the dissection of a marriage that is far superior to the one depicted in "Gone Girl."
Book Review #31
Exile and the KIngdom
by Albert Camus
The first story, "The Adulterous Wife," is one of the finest pieces of literature I have ever read. None of the other stories comes close. In fact, in less than twenty-five pages it surpassed the entirety of Paul Bowles' "The Sheltering Sky."
by Albert Camus
The first story, "The Adulterous Wife," is one of the finest pieces of literature I have ever read. None of the other stories comes close. In fact, in less than twenty-five pages it surpassed the entirety of Paul Bowles' "The Sheltering Sky."
Book Review #30
The Drop
by Dennis Lehane
A good book. A fast and suspenseful read, with a complex plot, well-defined characters and tough guy (and often funny) dialogue. Based upon the film's trailer, Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini are perfectly cast.
by Dennis Lehane
A good book. A fast and suspenseful read, with a complex plot, well-defined characters and tough guy (and often funny) dialogue. Based upon the film's trailer, Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini are perfectly cast.
Book Review #29
The Dinner
by Herman Koch
A highly readable, entertaining (if uncomfortably so), cynical and satirical look at Dutch society, class differences, haute cuisine, anger management, parenting skills, political machinations, and the age old question of nature vs. nurture.
by Herman Koch
A highly readable, entertaining (if uncomfortably so), cynical and satirical look at Dutch society, class differences, haute cuisine, anger management, parenting skills, political machinations, and the age old question of nature vs. nurture.
Book Review #28
Dialogues on Reality: An Exploration into the Nature of Our Ultimate Identity
by Robert Powell
I picked up this book about twenty years ago and read the first nine chapters. I put it aside and then, a week ago, reread them and the final tenth chapter. Hopefully wisdom comes with age because I seem to have gotten a lot more out of it this time. It's a very good book that basically says there is no separation between "I" and "You," The Perceiver and The Object, and that we are all Infinite Beings, each of us seeing Reality through our own (mis)perceptions -- and that we need to Wake Up!
by Robert Powell
I picked up this book about twenty years ago and read the first nine chapters. I put it aside and then, a week ago, reread them and the final tenth chapter. Hopefully wisdom comes with age because I seem to have gotten a lot more out of it this time. It's a very good book that basically says there is no separation between "I" and "You," The Perceiver and The Object, and that we are all Infinite Beings, each of us seeing Reality through our own (mis)perceptions -- and that we need to Wake Up!
Book Review #27
Departures
by Paul Zweig
A beautifully written, evocative and ultimately very moving series of essays about Zweig's love affair with France, living there as an expatriate Jew from Brighton Beach who is forced to face his own mortality.
by Paul Zweig
A beautifully written, evocative and ultimately very moving series of essays about Zweig's love affair with France, living there as an expatriate Jew from Brighton Beach who is forced to face his own mortality.
Book Review #26
Death in Venice, California
by Vinton Rafe McCabe
In all honesty I had intended to reread Mann's novella (the last time was in college) but could not get into it. And so I read McCabe's wry and sardonic take on it instead. It is a well written book with a mix of unlikable characters who encourage Jameson Frame, McCabe's prissy, rigid, semi-celebrity protagonist, to indulge in various forms of SoCal hedonism (drinking, drugs, plastic surgery and porn). Frame falls hard for Chase, his Tadzio, in this version of Mann's tale of obsession with youth and beauty. There are some truly lovely passages and very erotic ones too but also some that were so painful I had to put the book aside. McCabe puts his main character through a crucible of physical and emotional suffering to the point where I was hoping against hope that, despite the title, Jameson Frame would survive the purgatory he goes through throughout the book. But by the end this learned man of letters and poet by profession, who quotes Shakespeare, Coleridge, Eliot and others, falls victim not just to the tempters around him but to his own self-destructive tendencies, leaving his body ravaged and his mind in a state close to madness. As McCabe puts his main character through hell, by extension he does the same to the reader, pulling Jameson Frame and us from one near death experience after another, until his lonely protagonist succumbs to his pitiful, fateful destiny and literally dies of a broken heart.
by Vinton Rafe McCabe
In all honesty I had intended to reread Mann's novella (the last time was in college) but could not get into it. And so I read McCabe's wry and sardonic take on it instead. It is a well written book with a mix of unlikable characters who encourage Jameson Frame, McCabe's prissy, rigid, semi-celebrity protagonist, to indulge in various forms of SoCal hedonism (drinking, drugs, plastic surgery and porn). Frame falls hard for Chase, his Tadzio, in this version of Mann's tale of obsession with youth and beauty. There are some truly lovely passages and very erotic ones too but also some that were so painful I had to put the book aside. McCabe puts his main character through a crucible of physical and emotional suffering to the point where I was hoping against hope that, despite the title, Jameson Frame would survive the purgatory he goes through throughout the book. But by the end this learned man of letters and poet by profession, who quotes Shakespeare, Coleridge, Eliot and others, falls victim not just to the tempters around him but to his own self-destructive tendencies, leaving his body ravaged and his mind in a state close to madness. As McCabe puts his main character through hell, by extension he does the same to the reader, pulling Jameson Frame and us from one near death experience after another, until his lonely protagonist succumbs to his pitiful, fateful destiny and literally dies of a broken heart.
Book Review #25
Daydreams
by Linda Amnawah
Full Disclosure: I met Linda Amnawah at a book fair. She's a lovely person; and this book is obviously a heartfelt novel, a kind of memoir. Her self-publisher, iUniverse, did not serve her well. The text is filled with dozens of spelling, grammatical and typographical errors. Too bad...
by Linda Amnawah
Full Disclosure: I met Linda Amnawah at a book fair. She's a lovely person; and this book is obviously a heartfelt novel, a kind of memoir. Her self-publisher, iUniverse, did not serve her well. The text is filled with dozens of spelling, grammatical and typographical errors. Too bad...
May 12, 2018
Book Review #24
The Cuckoo's Calling
by Robert Galbraith
I was not impressed. At 575 pages it is way too long. Plus, it lacks suspense and forward momentum.
by Robert Galbraith
I was not impressed. At 575 pages it is way too long. Plus, it lacks suspense and forward momentum.
