en-US Sat, 09 Mar 2024 18:13:41 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Friend1391495848 Sat, 09 Mar 2024 18:13:41 -0800 Review6168867636 Sun, 14 Jan 2024 17:42:07 -0800 /review/show/6168867636 Stephen gave 4 stars to Bel-Ami (Paperback) by Guy de Maupassant
A wonderful portrayal of a scoundrel obsessed with wealth and women, especially women who can assist his acquisition of wealth! To say there is no moral center to Georges Duroy goes without saying. Why would there be, since morality doesn't even enter the picture? Yes, it is a cynical and devastating portrait of the rich and powerful in belle époque France, but Duroy is not so different from certain figures in our own money-worshipping society. At any rate, Maupassant, as ever, writes with power and a kind of perverse humor. There is truly something rather humorous about Duroy's shamelessness, although one, I suppose, should feel somewhat embarrassed about being amused. ]]> Review6157333731 Thu, 11 Jan 2024 12:01:46 -0800 /review/show/6157333731 Stephen gave 4 stars to Like Death (Kindle Edition) by Guy de Maupassant
One of the great writers of marital infidelity, tackles a curious situation. The painter Olivier Berlin has carried on a long affair with Anne, the Countess de Guilleroy, who is married to a politician. Originally they fell in love while Olivier was painting her portrait. He is "faithful" to the Countess but finds himself sorely tempted years later when her daughter begins to look exactly like her mother at the time Olivier originally painted her. Yes, you guessed right, Olivier begins to fall in love with his mistress's daughter, who is, after all, an almost precise replica of his much admired painting of the younger, beautiful Countess. Of course Olivier tries to deny what is happening, and nothing much does happen except overwhelming longing. The Countess, however, sees precisely what her lover is now feeling and is both devastated and, at the same time, understanding. In a very real sense, Oliver's love for the daughter is driven by his old love for the mother, which does linger on in a somewhat more mature fashion. Anyway, no more, I don't want to issue spoiler alerts. But, it is a Maupassant novel--you really can't expect a happy ending. ]]> Review6082057441 Tue, 26 Dec 2023 13:45:35 -0800 /review/show/6082057441 Stephen gave 4 stars to The Razor’s Edge (Paperback) by W. Somerset Maugham
So, after struggling a bit with Paul Lynch, I turn back eighty years or so (1944) to Somerset Maughan's "The Razor's Edge." Two absolutely unforgettable characters in this novel: Elliot Templeton, a snobbish art collector and social butterfly, who for all his knowledge and energy remains entirely superficial, even empty; and his, opposite, Larry Darrell, an intense young man who has real if sometimes rather elusive values, forged in unhappy World War I experience, and cares nothing for the wealth or the attention of others. They are at the opposite ends of residents abroad, one concerned with all the right people and proper social moves, the other on his own spiritual journey, which even leads him to India. And in the middle is the character, Maughan, obviously an extension of the real author, who is friends with both of these men and narrates their adventures. Somerset Maughan is a delight to read--he writes with grace and knows well how to pace a novel. He may not be an innovator, but he has mastered the art of the novel--especially the ability to create vivid, interesting characters. ]]> Review6081985639 Tue, 26 Dec 2023 13:26:10 -0800 /review/show/6081985639 Stephen gave 3 stars to Prophet Song (ebook) by Paul Lynch
This book just won the "Booker Prize" for 2023, so I was eager to read it. I confess to being somewhat disappointed . . . or perhaps it is more that I was disappointed in myself for struggling to stay with it. No doubt, Prophet Song is exquisitely written and tells of a type of tragedy we all should fear just now--the rise of an authoritarian regime that ends all pretense of equal treatment under the law. Perhaps I desired more top-down information, material that would enable me to see how this "Irish" terror had all come about, when the author's real intent, and an important one, was the view from the bottom . . . one family's desperate struggle to stay together first as opponents of the state and second as refugees, their numbers terribly diminished by violence, real and supposed. It is an intimate and harrowing story, but I began to wonder as I found myself struggling to finish this book, why I was not feeling more emotion and drive to reach the end. Perhaps, I have little faith these days that any of our world's various flirtations with authoritarianism can have a happy ending and what I was bogged down in was my own unhappy visions of what could lie ahead for all of us. ]]> Review5899997077 Tue, 10 Oct 2023 11:53:20 -0700 /review/show/5899997077 Stephen gave 4 stars to Trilogy (Paperback) by Jon Fosse
Embarrassed to say that I hadn't read any Fosse until he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature just a week ago. Well, now I have, selecting for my first dive into his work the three interlocking stories of "Trilogy." The raw power of his stories is astounding. A reader begins to understand what is going on "off screen" in the first of these stories and finds it both appalling and mystifying. But love can never quite look under the stones to ascertain what ugliness might be there, nor, perhaps, does love care. In the second story, we know Asle is guilty, but he moves through a strangely abbreviated nightmare towards his demise. The relentless, rhythmic movement of Fosse's stripped down language, the meandering of the narrative through time and space, and the hints at a mythic, Biblical influence make for a powerful mix. So, I've ordered "Septology" and eagerly await its arrival at my doorstep. ]]> Review5884729067 Tue, 03 Oct 2023 11:52:01 -0700 /review/show/5884729067 Stephen gave 4 stars to Old God's Time (Hardcover) by Sebastian Barry
Barry, as I have noted in other reviews, is an extraordinarily gifted stylist. I continue to be dazzled by his prose, but what struck me most in this novel is how deeply he empathizes with his characters and their circumstances. This story of a retired detective who is beset with painful memories and a profound sense of loss unfolds slowly and in a world of mystery where dream and reality mix, but what moved me the most is the vividness of the portrayal of the central character--his dread, his despair, and how deeply and personally he is troubled by the grave injustice that so many priests have largely escaped punishment for decades of child abuse. This is a moving novel and one with a powerful message about the crimes of the past and the horror inflicted upon so many innocent lives. Once again, despite the brilliance, this made the Booker longest, but not the shortlist. So the bar is now quite high for my future reading from the latter list! ]]>