Matthew Selwyn's Blog, page 5

Reading Plan: July 2016

Well, June was quite a month to be a Briton. Predictably, the football team crashed out of the Euros prematurely but slightly less predictably the nation also decided to sever ties with the European Union. Sadly the referendum showed British politics and its people at their worst and to compound the bitterness, division, and lies that have been a hallmark of the debate around Brexit, we now have our major political parties in turmoil. Quite honestly, it looks to me as though the nest 5-10 yea...

Review: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Published in 1972, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream , is the best known work of Hunter S. Thompson and the novel that launched Gonzo journalism into the public consciousness. A mix of reality and fantasy, the story follows Raoul Duke (stand in for Thompson) and his Samoan lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (stand in for Oscar Acosta), as they make a couple of trips to Las Vegas in search of the American Dream. Stoned, delirious, and unpredictable throughout, D...

Review: The Human Stain by Philip Roth

1998 and political correctness and moral indignation run wild across the American conscience as the president is impeached for, undeniably, having sexual relations with that woman. Soaking in the self-righteous atmosphere, Philip Roth ties the nation’s concerns to a smaller story about a college professor who is caught up in a row about racism. The Human Stain (2000) completes Roth’s loose American trilogy and finds Nathan Zuckerman, the now impotent and incontinent writer, narrating for Roth...

Reading Plan: June 2016

As May recedes into the distance I can now say that I have been at this blogging game for a half decade – something that seems improbable. I’ve still not adapted to the ever-changing present and moved into vlogging or whatever the trendsetters are up to now – Zoella is welcome to it – in fact, the longer the blog has been going, the more verbose my reviews seem to have got. Flying in the face of all commonly accepted blogging practice. Bugger. Yet I remain convinced that there is still a plac...

Review: Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth

First published in The Paris Review, Goodbye, Columbus (1959) is the novella that shot Philip Roth into the limelight of the literary world. It is the story of a summer romance between a young Jewish boy of lower-middle-class background and the daughter of a wealthy family who have recently arrived at the upper end of the middle-class spectrum. Neil Klugman works in Newark Public Library and lives with his Aunt Gladys. One day at the swimming baths he meets – in as much as he willingly holds...

Review: The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes’s first novel since winning the Booker Prize in 2011, The Noise of Time (2015) is a fragmented depiction of life as an artist under the totalitarianism of twentieth century Russia. In 1936, Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich waits, suitcase at his side, by the lift in his apartment block. It is the middle of the night and the renowned composer stands vigil, fully dressed, prepared to be taken away to the “Big House” for questioning about his political beliefs. His opera 'Lady Macbe...

Reading Plan: May 2016

There is a troubling trend in my blog’s stats: the less I write, the more people come to the site. Interesting that after five years of blogging (yes, it’ll be five years this coming month!) the trick to gaining an audience is to shut up and be quiet. I always knew there was something I was missing.

You’ll notice I slipped in there that it will be Bibliofreak.net’s fifth birthday this May. If there are any bloggers reading this, what do you do to celebrate the annual renewal date of your doma...

Interview: Ros Barber

Photograph courtest of Derek Adams
Ros Barber is the acclaimed writer of The Marlowe Papers – a novel which was awarded the Hoffman Prize and Desmond Elliot Prize. She has also been nominated for the Women’s Prize. Her second novel was published last year and The Marlowe Papers is about to debut as a stage play. Although her first degree is in Biology, Ros has since gone on to turn her talents to creative writing, writing both prose and poetry. Born in Washington D. C., she was raised in Engla...

Review: Devotion by Ros Barber

It is ten years since the death of Richard Dawkins and religion is on the brink of being classified as a mental disorder. April Smith is a religious fanatic, a murderer who has blown up a busload of atheists. Now a selective mute, she has no words to defend her actions. Before the case is heard in court, Dr. Finlay Logan, a criminal psychologist, is charged with assessing whether April is of sound mind. A serial philanderer, Logan is still submerged in grief following the loss of his daughter...

Review: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

 
With Harper Lee’s death in February and the release of Go Set a Watchman last year, now feels like a particularly poignant time to revisit To Kill a Mockingbird – for so long a staple text taught on syllabuses around the world and held up as a novel of tolerance and good morals. When one pulls back from all the press, from Gregory Peck’s Oscar-winning performance in the film adaptation, how does the novel itself hold up, more than fifty years after its original release?

In the hazy day...