Uncovering Writing

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beautiful writing and an experimental method that really worked and didn't feel forced or workshopped. A great quote towards the end is:

"That's the difference between love and hunger," she says. "Hunger is a story you get stuck in. Love's the story that takes you somewhere new."

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Visceral, beautiful, featherweight, heart-wrenching, perfect writing. And the afterword was a perfect essay, further cementing her credentials as a gifted writer in fiction or nonfiction formats.

4 of 5 stars

An enjoyable collection of short stories from the 19th and early 20th century (1830-1922). I bought the book originally to get a copy of “The Yellow Wall Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This story did NOT disappoint: an excellent tale that still resonates today with respect to women’s physical and mental health and how men often downplay women’s own understandings of their bodies and minds. The collection is worth it for this story alone.

There are some other great pieces. Marjorie Bowen’s “Scoured Silk” is a creepy and excellent read. I found Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Curious If True” to be an enjoyable piece of cotton candy, eminently enjoyable while consuming but it left little afterward. This is not a complaint, it was the perfect piece of horror consumed and enjoyed like a ferris wheel ride. Amelia B. Edward’s “An Engineer’s story” was fantastic. The Hall Bedroom by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was great, just a perfect campfire “ghost” story. You can’t ask for much more.

The “Cold Embrace” was probably quite scintillating in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s time, but it doesn’t stand up as much in the 21st century. I do absolutely love this author, especially her novel Lady Audley’s Secret, a piece worth seeking out. It was the second time I read “Transformation” by Mary Shelley. I gave it 2-3 stars on its own and I felt the same way this time. Not bad but not great.

The other pieces left me saying “ok” or “meh”. That’s just my opinion. But, the pieces mentioned above are well worth savoring and I think some would be enjoyable to revisit on a cold, dark evening in front of a fire…

5 of 5 stars

Simply a joy to read. This was a gift from my love. The prose is stylish and full, like many novels from this time period, but it flows beautifully and the plot moves along with just the right level of excitement. I actually stayed up late to finish it since I just had to. Definitely worth the investment in time to find out Lady Audley’s Secret.

5 of 5 stars

A fantastic read, best book of the year and definitely in my favorites now. Without a doubt, it is a Brontë book: dense, dark, moody, exhilarating. But, having read Jane Eyre (by Charlotte) and Wuthering Heights (by Emily), this is simply the best of the three. I love how it’s framed in letters and journals. I cared for the characters, both primary and secondary. I was interested in the plot and couldn’t wait to see how it played out. And, I liked the critical commentary and satire. Well done!

3 of 5 stars

I picked this up on some friends' recommendations. It was a good read that reminded me a lot of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s works, though without the final follow through at the end. Lots of tension in build up in the two longer novella pieces which sandwiched two quick short stories. Fengriffen, the title story, was good and I’d have given it a 4 if it didn’t end so quickly. I liked Anachrona, the first short story. I thought it was cute and would make a fun story to tell over a fire with a nice glass of scotch. I didn’t like The Foreign Bride that much. The final piece, The Dead End, was a hard one for me to rate. It reminded me a bit of The Island of Dr. Moreau (by H. G. Wells). The sexism and racism really detracted from the story, which was a pretty interesting horror piece, especially at its ending. It reminded me of a Night Gallery episode.

3 of 5 stars

In another year, I might have rated this 2 stars but my 2 star books so far this year were much worse than this. I wanted to finish this book unlike those. The writing is good but I felt the plot was weak, sometimes contrived, and then too neatly and quickly wrapped up. I really enjoyed Prose’s Blue Angel.

4 of 5 stars

While I wasn’t a believer in the subject matter, I couldn’t stop reading this book. Stephen King is an amazing weaver of tales and simply a fantastic writer. Everything flowed like a waterfall from start to finish: strong, pure and fast.

5 of 5 stars

Beautifully written, nicely plotted with a few twists that were not always unexpected, and just a joy to read. She worked diligently to have this flow from start to end. It’s kind of like The Craft meets The Secret History meets Heathers, but this isn’t derivative and is a worthy read.

2 of 5 stars

Drinking, screwing, puking, and tea time do not constitute character development. I never cared about any of the characters, nor do I feel did the author. I gave this book 2 stars since the “hook” is why I read to the end instead of dropping it within 50 pages. Sadly, the hook wasn’t really that great.

I wonder if the last chapter was the first piece written and submitted for the book proposal. The tone and fluidity of the last chapter was fantastic, powerful and visceral. But I have to ask, where was that strength for the rest of the novel? This could have been a 4 star book, easy.

Walking home, 8 minutes past sunset, listening to Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd). Feel like Teagan walking, retracing Quin walking before he dies. Her state of mind.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An exceptional revisiting of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, at times frayed at the edges, yet always making you think and rethink from another point of view. It’s a hard read, and by that I mean emotionally, but again, it’s worth the price of entry. Some of the stories I found particularly interesting to me were: Daphne, Tiresias, Syrinx, Io, Scylla, Medusa, Arethusa, Procne and Philomena, Baucis (a happy one), and Eurydice. I really thought the story of Thetis would be great for retelling, but I didn’t like this one. It read more like an exercise in writing rather than thinking. Overall, an excellent entry into this blossoming field of revisiting the classics from different points of view.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved Beowulf (esp. Seamus Healy’s translation), and now I love Grendel. Beautifully written and well executed.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read the Inferno sometime during high school or college. I was trying to pick my brain as to whether it was for a class or if I was just being pretentious. At the time, I thought it was pretty cool, mapping out hell, and placing various people, be they contemporaries or Dante or historical/mythological characters, in various states of torture and distress. Reading it a second time, I came away very differently. It comes off as part laughing, little boy torturing ants with a magnifying glass, part high school clique sniping, and finally, part poorly written propaganda.

One thing that saved the book were the notes that concluded each Canto. I didn’t like or dislike John Ciardi’s translation … it was okay. But, his notes were really useful and I believe the first time I read the Inferno, there were few notes so it was quite difficult figuring out who was who among the more contemporary characters.

If you’re interested in exploring similar matter at a higher level, I’d wholeheartedly suggest Milton’s Paradise Lost, with fully developed characters, incisive philosophical and political commentary, problematized dilemmas, and just a damn fine read.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther, and I really do enjoy the story. Maybe even more so this second time. Great flow of emotions, especially through the first part and most of the second.

I went with 3 stars for this review solely based on the translation, where sometimes more modern day phrases were used. One examples dealt with Werther contemplating suicide by talking about “blowing my brains out” (p. 51). In the 1850s translation by Thomas Carlyle and R.D. Boylan, it was rendered as “when I am ready to commit suicide” (p. 25 of Dover Thrift paperback edition). In Dr. Pratt’s 1813 edition, it was “when the desponding soul meditates its own destruction.” Now, the 1813 edition is simply too outdated for today, but the 1850s version, I think, is the best of the three.

I had 3 copies of Werther open while reading, and while it makes for slow going, for me, it was a joy to compare the different choices that each translator made, some of which expressed their current cultural mores. One instance of different choices (besides not explicitly referring to suicide in the 1813 edition) regards Werther pointing a pistol at his head. In the 1813 edition, it was unconsciously done, and not premeditated. In the 1850s and 1962 version, it was definitely an intentional act.

The translator’s choices reminded me a little of my negative reaction to Stanley Lombardo’s updated text for the Iliad and Odyssey. I can understand trying to make the text more accessible, but for me, there’s also a meta-understanding that this is an older text and that some modern language doesn’t fit with the experience. Then again, as I’ve said with other reviews, if this is what it takes to lasso in a younger, new reader, than perhaps that’s what might be needed. Then, after they’re hooked, they might be willing to explore the book more fully through other translations or the original.

For me, I will likely come back to Werther again.