First-rate literature needs to succeed on more than one level. Regardless of the issues or themes a book may explore, they are irrelevant if the author doesn’t draw in and keep the reader with the story, characters or writing. Italian author Antonia Tabucchi’s Pereira Maintains, set in Portugal in the summer of 1938, succeeds on […]
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You’re likely to get an odd look when someone asks what you’re reading and you tell them it’s the “new” Jules Verne novel. After all, Verne died 106 years ago and all of his work has been published. Yet therein is a tale itself. The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz is a novel Verne hoped would […] Perhaps book reviewers are meant to relegate themselves to commenting on what’s inside a book. Yet there are times the publishing process plays a role in a book. Unfortunately, that process damages Kris Saknussemm’s latest novel, Enigmatic Pilot: A Tall Tale Too True. (Full disclosure: Saknussemm is a “Facebook Friend” of mine but I know […] How important is character to a novel? You can find an answer in what comes to mind when you hear names like Holden Caufield, Jay Gatsby, Rabbit Angstrom or Atticus Finch. Gin Boyle Toad, the central character of Goldie Goldbloom’s The Paperbark Shoe, may never rank up with those names. She is, though, one of […] Young adulthood is often a search for both self and meaning. As such it is prime ground for literary exploration. Yet while Justin Taylor’s The Gospel of Anarchy gives a somewhat different take on the subject it’s an exploration that falls short. The story is built around David’s search for self, which brings him into […] |
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