‘The Color of Magic’ is a highly imaginative, sometimes a little funny fantasy that I just did not enjoy. I’m not really sure how reflect on the book. It’s satisfactorily well written. The characters are at least mildly interesting and the plot movements are OK. I just could not keep my attention from drifting throughout Read More …
Tag: book review
Review of Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo
Richard Russo is one of my favorite contemporary writers, mostly for Empire Falls and Bridge of Sighs, though I’ve loved everything of his that I’ve read. So, I suppose it’s a little odd that I’m just getting around to this, one of his earlier books, now. But be that as it may, I’m sure Nobody’s Fool would have Read More …
Review of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
I had a bit of a fright reading Rosewater; for, at some point, I found it comparable in approach to the worst novel in the English, or perhaps any, language, Atlas Shrugged. Like those of Ayn Rand, Vonnegut’s characters are one-dimensional caricatures, and the universe in which he places them resembles reality only to the degree that he Read More …
Review: The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall-and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill by Greg Mitchell
The deepest impression this book had on me was the reminder, perhaps the confrontation with the reality, of the soulless repression of Soviet-style communism in the mid-20th century. Mitchell’s narration and his description are not particularly enthralling, but his matter-of-fact manner of laying out the details of the tunnel missions of the early 1960s makes Read More …
Review of ‘Breakfast of Champions’ by Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions has long been one of my favorite Vonnegut books, if only for the lovely eloquence about Armistice Day and Veteran’s Day in the preface. But it’s also been decades since I read it, and I’ve wanted for a long time to jump back in and enjoy it again. And, boy, did I. Read More …
Book Review: A Sense of Wonder: Van Morrison’s Ireland
“A Sense of Wonder” is the third biography of Van Morrison I’ve read, and the best of the three. All of them pretty much describe a self-absorbed loner with little respect for his fans, but this one focuses much more on his song writing and its sources. In appreciating his music, I’m more interested in Read More …
Review of “Becoming Madison” by Michael Signer
The author doesn’t say so in so many words, and I’m not astute enough to know whether it was his intent or not, but it’s next to impossible not to read Becoming Madison / The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father as a reflection on the conflict between government and the equivalent of the modern-day Tea Read More …