Ralph Waldo Emerson said about Jane Austen’s novels that they were ‘’imprisoned in the wretched conventions of English Society, without genius, wit or knowledge of the world.’’ It’s true that her books were set in the traditional Victorian society, but Austen’s study and satire of this very society is genius, and full of wit and…
Poetic, Painful, Profound: A Review of Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
The novel opens with a 13 year old Jojo claiming his understanding of death as he stands watching his loving Pop (grandfather) butcher a wild hog. It’s his birthday and he is eager to show himself a man. His throwing up after he helps his Pop clean up shows he’s not quite there yet. Sing,…
More ‘Ghost Story’ than ‘Love Story’: A Review of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca was my first tryst with a thriller, and at the impressionable age of 16, it became fundamental. Not that I hadn’t read my share of the ‘mysteries’ – the Famous Fives, the Sherlock Holmes, even the Miss Marple books, but Rebecca was different. I mistook it for a love story, a classic ‘Cinderella’ tale,…
The Summer That Lasted a Lifetime: A Review of Call me by your Name by André Aciman
No book celebrates summer more lavishly than Call me by your Name, a masterpiece on first love. The slow pace of its narrative is synonymous with the lazy, languid days of the Italian countryside summertime it is set in, where every moment is spent reading, splashing around in the pool, playing the piano, discussing art…
The Witch Who Turned Men into Pigs: A Review of Circe by Madeline Miller
The readings of Greek Mythology, notably Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, sums up Circe as a ‘’witch who turned men into pigs.’’ She is also famous as Odysseus’s lover. She briefly appears in the Minotaur story, when the pregnant Pasiphae (Circe’s sister) calls upon the exiled Circe to help with the birth of the monster, fathered…
