Stunning and sensitive, this book would have been perfect but for the ending, which I felt petered out in a way that was meant to be philosophical but which just felt oddly disconnected given all the emotions that had filled the pages till then. I mean, honestly, I’d cried three times before even getting halfway …
Category: Literature
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/31/did-you-ever-have-a-family-by-bill-clegg/
Oct 28 2015
The Clasp by Sloane Crosley
The weird thing for me with this book is how little I care for the story that inspired it, Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace. That famous tale is essentially an account of vapid people doing stupid things, to their own detriment, exactly the kind of thing I have little patience for (looking at you, Fates …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/28/the-clasp-by-sloane-crosley/
Oct 14 2015
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
I get the distinct feeling that Harper Lee only allowed this book to be published because a) she just didn’t care any more, and b) maybe it would stop people from pestering her about publishing (and honestly, shame on those people squeezing a profit out of this!) Go Set A Watchman is not a complete …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/14/go-set-a-watchman-by-harper-lee/
Oct 09 2015
Hild by Nicola Griffith
For real, if I’d known this novel would be the first in a series, I wouldn’t have bothered reading it till the rest came out. As it is, the book ends well before the… oh jeez, how to explain without spoilers? I know this is all based on what might as well be ancient history, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/09/hild-by-nicola-griffith/
Oct 01 2015
Fates And Furies by Lauren Groff
Meh. I loved The Monsters Of Templeton and eagerly looked forward to meeting that same humanity and kindness displayed there again here in the pages of Fates And Furies, but instead all I got was a book about a naive dude and his bitchy wife with her unrelentingly poor choices. If anything, it reminded me …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/01/fates-and-furies-by-lauren-groff/
Sep 24 2015
The Price Of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
I don’t think I understand Patricia Highsmith, but that could be due to the fact that I haven’t read any of her suspense novels, so haven’t yet enjoyed the sense of atmosphere most people ascribe to her writing. The Price Of Salt is more romance novel than any other genre, and I get that it …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/24/the-price-of-salt-by-patricia-highsmith/
Sep 19 2015
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
This book was haunting in a different way than I usually use the word. In general, I’ve found that I use it when I mean poignant and memorable, but in this case, there’s an actual tinge of fear in my description. I’m not sure if that’s just an intensely personal reaction, but Ruth’s description of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/19/housekeeping-by-marilynne-robinson/
Sep 11 2015
This One Is Mine by Maria Semple
After the wise and charming Where’d You Go Bernadette? I really wanted to delve into this author’s back catalog and be as similarly enthralled. Alas, Maria Semple’s debut novel This One Is Mine lacks the wit of WYGB, instead drawing on a cast of unlikeable characters who spend most of the book being mean or …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/11/this-one-is-mine-by-maria-semple/
Aug 31 2015
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I gained an incredible amount of depth and nuance from re-reading this book as a minority member of American society with African-American friends and neighbors and co-workers, with firsthand experience now of their culture and struggles, as opposed to my first encounter with To Kill A Mockingbird when I was a 13 year-old member of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/31/to-kill-a-mockingbird-by-harper-lee/
Aug 23 2015
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
It is so very difficult for me to review Marilynne Robinson’s works, because I always feel like my own prose is inadequate to describing hers. I cried a lot reading Lila, because I understand what it feels like to fall in love with someone even when you don’t trust love or people or existence, when …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/23/lila-by-marilynne-robinson/
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