You are currently browsing the booklit weblog archives for February, 2008.
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Posted in Prizes & Awards
2 responses so far. Keep them coming. »
It's been just over a month now and the judges have obviously read much more of the longlisted titles than me, who seemed more interested in reading everything else rather ... Read more..
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Posted in humanity, anti-war, humour, Bloomsbury, foreign policy, America, politics, non-fiction, war, Vonnegut, Kurt
3 responses so far. Keep them coming. »
It's a mistake to subtitle Kurt Vonnegut's A Man Without A Country (2005) with "a memoir of life in George W. Bush's America" since a) it's not much of a ... Read more..
Monday, February 18th, 2008
Posted in Söderberg, Hjalmar, euthanasia, women's rights, abortion, Anchor Books, death, murder, first person narrator, Sweden, love
7 responses so far. Keep them coming. »
“Life, I do not understand you”, writes Doctor Tyko Gabriel Glas in his diary as events draw to a close in Hjalmar Söderberg’s classic eponymous novel, Doctor Glas (1905), and ... Read more..
Friday, February 15th, 2008
Posted in 1001 Books, Lispector, Clarice, Carcanet, existential, postmodern, fate, poverty, first person narrator, death, Brazil
10 responses so far. Keep them coming. »
Following on from a recent post by dovegreyreader, I spotted a copy of Clarice Lispector's The Hour Of The Star (1977) in Waterstones, knew I recognised the name from somewhere, ... Read more..
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Posted in female perspective, Vintage, Kanehara, Hitomi, first person narrator, award winner, Japan, self-harm, relationships
8 responses so far. Keep them coming. »
It's a little early to be calling, as the cover boldly declares, Snakes & Earrings (2004) by Hitomi Kanehara a "cult classic", but within its pages there's enough to warrant ... Read more..
Monday, February 4th, 2008
Posted in China, jealousy, regret, Telegram Books, Feiyu, Bi, identity, self-harm, opera
3 responses so far. Keep them coming. »
In a world where the arts would appear to be in terminal decline, or at least in a depression, it's somewhat reassuring - though devastating - to discover that it's ... Read more..
Friday, February 1st, 2008
Posted in Kurkov, Andrey, Ukraine, Harvill Secker, humour, first person narrator, corruption, murder
7 responses so far. Keep them coming. »
There is nothing original in the idea of what a person would do if they learned the scope of their finite lives. Invariably they make lists of things they haven't ... Read more..