Barry Stewart Levy's Blog, page 2
February 25, 2024
Book Review #142
Theorem
by Pier Paolo Pasolini
This is an excellent companion piece to Pasolini's film "Teorema" in which each member of a bourgeois family and their maid bare their inner desires and true selves when they are (literally and sexually) touched by grace. Pasolini's novel, whose chapters are interspersed with poetry, is spiritual, sexual, political and philosophical and is also as enigmatic as his cinematic counterpart.
by Pier Paolo Pasolini
This is an excellent companion piece to Pasolini's film "Teorema" in which each member of a bourgeois family and their maid bare their inner desires and true selves when they are (literally and sexually) touched by grace. Pasolini's novel, whose chapters are interspersed with poetry, is spiritual, sexual, political and philosophical and is also as enigmatic as his cinematic counterpart.
February 16, 2024
Book Review #141
Boys Alive
by Pier Paolo Pasolini
A slice of Italian Neo-Realism. Not a continuous narrative but instead episodes from the lives of the ragazzi, the urchins, the street boys who live in and around Rome, hustling, flirting, fighting, playing, scrounging for food and money. They steal scrap metal to sell it to buy something to eat or to drink at a bar or to gamble at cards. And all the while the heat is oppressive and there is dirt and filth and squalor everywhere. And yet the book is not depressing. Pasolini's language is propulsive, often coarse, fiery and brimming with life.
by Pier Paolo Pasolini
A slice of Italian Neo-Realism. Not a continuous narrative but instead episodes from the lives of the ragazzi, the urchins, the street boys who live in and around Rome, hustling, flirting, fighting, playing, scrounging for food and money. They steal scrap metal to sell it to buy something to eat or to drink at a bar or to gamble at cards. And all the while the heat is oppressive and there is dirt and filth and squalor everywhere. And yet the book is not depressing. Pasolini's language is propulsive, often coarse, fiery and brimming with life.
January 28, 2024
Book Review #140
Coming Up for Air
by George Orwell
Very British. Very cockney. A jovial, sometimes melancholy, nostalgic novel that almost reads like a stream of consciousness memoir. Not knowing anything about Orwell's upbringing, I wondered if the book was indeed about his own life. In fact, the main character is also named George. But now, as I write these sentences, I see how wrong that assumption was. It is, instead, about an overweight bloke, with a wife and two kids, who sells insurance and who pines over his past. All in all, it was a diverting read that I think is more suited for a British reader.
by George Orwell
Very British. Very cockney. A jovial, sometimes melancholy, nostalgic novel that almost reads like a stream of consciousness memoir. Not knowing anything about Orwell's upbringing, I wondered if the book was indeed about his own life. In fact, the main character is also named George. But now, as I write these sentences, I see how wrong that assumption was. It is, instead, about an overweight bloke, with a wife and two kids, who sells insurance and who pines over his past. All in all, it was a diverting read that I think is more suited for a British reader.
December 15, 2023
Book Review #139
The Deserter
by Nelson & Alex DeMille
The debut novel of the father and son team of Nelson and Alex DeMille. Very entertaining, suspenseful, exciting and unpredictable. With well-drawn characters, vivid settings and highly detailed writing, adding to the story's realism. All in all, a terrific read.
by Nelson & Alex DeMille
The debut novel of the father and son team of Nelson and Alex DeMille. Very entertaining, suspenseful, exciting and unpredictable. With well-drawn characters, vivid settings and highly detailed writing, adding to the story's realism. All in all, a terrific read.
October 30, 2023
Book Review #138
Swimming in the Dark
by Tomasz Jedrowski
Sensual, gripping, powerful, and heartbreaking, this beautifully written novel of two young gay men in love in Soviet Poland is one of the best, most insightful and moving books I have read in a very long time. Jedrowski recreates what it was like to be gay and to live in a repressive Polish society in the 1980s. For a first novel, this is a stunning debut.
by Tomasz Jedrowski
Sensual, gripping, powerful, and heartbreaking, this beautifully written novel of two young gay men in love in Soviet Poland is one of the best, most insightful and moving books I have read in a very long time. Jedrowski recreates what it was like to be gay and to live in a repressive Polish society in the 1980s. For a first novel, this is a stunning debut.
April 6, 2023
Book Review #137
The Other Emily
by Dean Koontz
It's a fun read. Koontz knows how to draw you in and keep you reading. Unfortunately, his non-stop metaphors are over-the-top and filled with purple prose. Also, the final chapters which explain the mystery of Emily are silly and come out of nowhere. But the book's last sentence, spoken by David, the novel's main character, is wonderful on more than one level.
by Dean Koontz
It's a fun read. Koontz knows how to draw you in and keep you reading. Unfortunately, his non-stop metaphors are over-the-top and filled with purple prose. Also, the final chapters which explain the mystery of Emily are silly and come out of nowhere. But the book's last sentence, spoken by David, the novel's main character, is wonderful on more than one level.
March 22, 2023
Book Review #136
The Plot
by Jean Hanff Korelitz
As a writer and a former teacher, I could relate to Jake's dilemma and loved the beginning of the novel, along with its humor, cleverness and literary references.
When Jake starts getting his poison pen emails and goes searching for the culprit, the novel becomes a detective story which I enjoyed though not as much as those opening pages.
As the book neared its conclusion, I felt a sense of dread and actually put off reading the final chapters.
Even though I liked and admired most of the novel, the ending, which I found to be cruel and grim, ruined my reading experience. I felt that Korelitz had crossed a line, but one that I cannot reveal without giving away the ending.
In my mind I went over what the reader knew, what Jake knew and what his antagonist knew, and I tried to come up with an alternate ending but could not. So, while the situation was resolved, my feelings, unfortunately, remained the same. Too bad...
by Jean Hanff Korelitz
As a writer and a former teacher, I could relate to Jake's dilemma and loved the beginning of the novel, along with its humor, cleverness and literary references.
When Jake starts getting his poison pen emails and goes searching for the culprit, the novel becomes a detective story which I enjoyed though not as much as those opening pages.
As the book neared its conclusion, I felt a sense of dread and actually put off reading the final chapters.
Even though I liked and admired most of the novel, the ending, which I found to be cruel and grim, ruined my reading experience. I felt that Korelitz had crossed a line, but one that I cannot reveal without giving away the ending.
In my mind I went over what the reader knew, what Jake knew and what his antagonist knew, and I tried to come up with an alternate ending but could not. So, while the situation was resolved, my feelings, unfortunately, remained the same. Too bad...
March 21, 2023
Book Review #135
Tangerine
by Christine Mangan
A very readable, tough to put down, surprising and suspenseful tale of obsession and psychopathy. Unfortunately, some of the writing is annoyingly histrionic, melodramatic, overwrought and cliched. Still, I was impressed that this was the author's literary debut. Great title, by the way.
by Christine Mangan
A very readable, tough to put down, surprising and suspenseful tale of obsession and psychopathy. Unfortunately, some of the writing is annoyingly histrionic, melodramatic, overwrought and cliched. Still, I was impressed that this was the author's literary debut. Great title, by the way.
January 19, 2023
Book Review #134
The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life's Perfection
by Michael A. Singer
This is one of the best books I have ever read and one of the best spiritual memoirs I have ever read. It is surprising, suspenseful, shocking, inspirational and flat out amazing. I think of it as "The Power of Now" meets "The Soul of a New Machine." I cannot recommend it highly enough.
by Michael A. Singer
This is one of the best books I have ever read and one of the best spiritual memoirs I have ever read. It is surprising, suspenseful, shocking, inspirational and flat out amazing. I think of it as "The Power of Now" meets "The Soul of a New Machine." I cannot recommend it highly enough.
October 4, 2022
Book Review #133
A Delicate Truth
by John le Carre
A very good, very British, very clever complex tale told from multiple points of view. It's suspenseful, engrossing and entertaining, with an ending that, at first, I found disappointing, then nebulous and finally open-ended. Overall, le Carre is in top form.
by John le Carre
A very good, very British, very clever complex tale told from multiple points of view. It's suspenseful, engrossing and entertaining, with an ending that, at first, I found disappointing, then nebulous and finally open-ended. Overall, le Carre is in top form.
