Reviews
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Review of A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin
It was interesting reading these stories at the same time as the Collected Stories of Raymond Carver. There are some similarities, such as the slavery to alcohol, but Lucia Berlin’s have more humor, in my opinion. There is a great deal of personality to these tales. They are on par…
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Review of Complete Stories 1884–1891 by Henry James
This is 1 out of 5 volumes of James’ complete stories. He wrote 112 tales, and most of them are novella length. There are 17 in this volume. As always, the Library of America editions are well-made, readable, and collectible. I reiterate the complaint that their formatting and binding allows…
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Review of That Little Something by Charles Simic
I think Charles Simic’s poetry is for people who don’t like poetry. Of course, people who like poetry can also enjoy it. Like Billy Collins, I consider his small, one-sitting collections to be gateway drugs into the world of poetry. Analyzing poetry has never been fun for me, which is…
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Review of Eyeshield 21 Vol. 37: Ready Set Hut by Riichiro Inagaki, Yusuke Murata
“Eyeshield 21” is a sports manga with wide appeal. Like most great sports stories it understands that the true heart of the game is the people playing it. “Eyeshield” verges on being on a shonen manga due to its clever take on football. Every game is a battle between warriors.…
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Review of The Dark Room by Junnosuke Yoshiyuki
This slim novel is quintessentially enjoyable in the same way that the author’s stories are. It is also easy to criticize. Like Oscar Wilde said: “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.” This book is…
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Review of When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin
“When the Sea turned to Silver” is a tough call. It is better than its predecessor in every way except the most important: the theme. “When the Sea Turned to Silver” is a direct sequel to “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.” It not only follows the same family but…
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Review of Sons (House of Earth, #2) by Pearl S. Buck
After reading The Good Earth, it is hard to imagine a more worthwhile reading experience.Pearl S. Buck, like John Steinbeck, knows how to combine characters, setting, and strong themes with great pacing and balanced prose… usually. Editing a book is like creating a katana, I think. To create these masterful…
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Review of Azumanga Daioh: The Omnibus by Kiyohiko Azuma
“Azumanga Daioh” is not deep, thought provoking, or complex. However it challenges the reader in the best way possible. It challenges them not to laugh till they cry. “Azumanga Daioh” is about friendship, growing up, and living with a “all cats bite me” disability. The jokes come fast, loud, and…
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Review of Tales of Love and Loss by Knut Hamsun
Hamsun is a reliable writer, able to absorb me effortlessly. Several of these stories are memorable, though some of them are less significant than others. A few pastiches and plenty of journeys by train. Hamsun’s personality shines through, especially when referring to gambling, lack of literary appreciation by passersby and…
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Review of The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1) by Rick Riordan
Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero is an engrossing start that improves upon what came before. Though I liked the Percy Jackson series, it feels like an early work in comparison to this. Everything that made the first series fun remains. The mix of mythology and the everyday world is…
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Review of Gesell Dome by Guillermo Saccomanno
Another well-done production from Open Letter Press. Great cover, good book. A Gessel Dome, as the introduction explains, is the two-way mirror used to observe, suspects, children and animals in a “natural environment.” This is the perfect double entendre to describe Villa Gesell, a real place, much like every other…
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Review of Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard
I’m convinced that Ballard didn’t care what people thought. Of course he did, though. His sentences are polished enough that he ironed most of them out like a fussy tailor. He shines best in his short novels, when he just takes one simple idea and draws it out to the…
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Review of Nine Hundred Grandmothers by R.A. Lafferty
My first encounter with R. A. Laugh-ferty. His humor and cleverness are quite astounding. He sets up gags and jokes in the middle of serious situations. His humor is often so unexpectedly outrageous it is harrowing. He made me catch my breath and squint my eyes. It is all a…
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Review of The Samurai by Shūsaku Endō
I only feel comfortable rating this novel 3 stars because I enjoyed a few of his other novels so much more. To be clear, there was nothing bad about it. It was a historical novel about the clash of religion and politics between Japan and Europe. There is much discussion…
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Review of Grass on the Wayside by Natsume Sōseki
Droll and heartbreaking by turns, this so-called autobiographical novel was as easy to read as a series of newspaper articles and only slightly more varied in subject matter. Soseki excels at bringing to life realistic situations. Making use of a fragmented style, the book is reminiscent of serial novels. He…
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Review of Hunter (Hunter, #1) by Mercedes Lackey
For the first novel by this author I have listened to on audiobook, I was entertained most of the way through. Mercedes Lackey has written an infinite number of novels – by which I mean I know I will never be able to read them all. (Seriously, look at that…
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Review of Something Happened by Joseph Heller
Family dynamics and office politics are explored with acerbic wit in the ranting, eccentric ramblings of our sleaze ball narrator in Something Happened. The internal monologue is so steeped in hate and vindictive self-righteousness that it will easily polarize half the readers. But following the main character’s galloping train of…
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Review of Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah’s autobiographical “stories” read like reminiscences. There are moments of wit, and some startling descriptions of life under apartheid. It is an especially brilliant audiobook performance from the author as well. There would’ve been no one more qualified or better able to read his work aloud than himself. There…
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Review of Cynicism Management (Cynicism Management Series Book 1) by Bori Praper
Cynicism Management is an English language novel by a Slovenian author and musician. Its tone is, of course, cynical. A colorful group of pseudo-amateur musicians converge in a spy-tinged romp through modern Slovenia. On the outskirts of these absurdly amusing characters are contracted corporate spies, who treat the affair more…
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Review of Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
“This is what would happen if I gave my kids a trust fund.” – said someone, about this book. I fear this frame of mind for our youth. This casual nihilism, this destructive illusion of indestructibility. At times powerful, at other times, just not that compelling. Excessive, isn’t it? It…
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Review of Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
Second Reynolds after House of Suns. This one felt like he was phoning it in by comparison with the first. Still a decent s-f novel with a great concept. If you look at all of his concepts, they tend to be perfect set-ups. The backs of his books often read…
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Review of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
A fascinating look at characters and the brutalities of war and violence that seep into our lives. Murakami’s characters aren’t necessarily deep, but they feel like real people. The women are mediums, he claims, allowing the male protagonist to experience new concepts. They take some getting used to.The whole book…
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Review of The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami
The quiet beauty of a store interior. The intentionality of the setting. The sincere dignity of a retail worker. The cyclical expanse of such a life, confined within shrinking walls, hemmed in by the minutiae of the commercial products of everyday life. Constant exposure to these mundane implements imbues them…
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Review of The Abyss of Human Illusion by Gilbert Sorrentino
A brief, final testament left by Sorrentino, and proof that his dotage was virile and discerning. Broken into 50 scenes, these flask fictions (flash fictions) are reminiscent of Barthelme and even, fragments of Bolano. Often humorous, this “novel” shines with deep human emotions, wry bathos – as the author himself…
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Review of La Grande by Juan José Saer
Long at 500 pages but not-quite monolithic, this scattered Argentinian novel about a confusing literary movement called Precisionism, is less precise than the dependably inaccurate blurbs led me to believe. Jumping from close-knit characters to disparate scenes to clandestine moments of startling imprudence, through days and nights and the tired…
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Review of The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5) by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a series that embodies many of enjoyable aspects of YA fiction and fantasy. The difference between this volume and the first is pretty vast in my opinion. The development of the author is clear throughout the series, more so than in similar sagas. Writers…
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Review of Abyssinia by Damian Murphy
Redolent of mystic awareness. Cryptic and profound. With a highly refined prose style, the author indulges in subtle subterfuge of the reader’s expectations. A quiet and subconscious exploration of inner landscapes, characters bound by association to a storytelling doll, imbued with sententious sentience. Constricted to the confines of a microcosmic…
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Review of The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada
This would have been a fun book. But the short sections are told through shifting first person perspectives, adding unnecessary layers of confusion. I wanted to read about Japan’s Middle class struggles. It is hard to tell if this book is about jaded employees or hallucinogenic workplaces. Overall, it has…
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Review of Mr Palomar by Italo Calvino
Mr. Palomar, Calvino mentions elsewhere, is another one of his literary exercises. It is not as fascinating or developed as Cosmicomics or Winter’s Night, but a worthwhile read. Mr. Palomar observes various phenomena, draws cosmic and personal connections, and then moves on. He is more a mouthpiece or a device…
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Review of Endangered Species by Gene Wolfe
I would question anyone who reads this whole book and fails to rate it 5 stars. What are you looking for in fiction? Sophisticated characters, complex subtexts, compulsively readable science fiction themes, lighthearted fantasy, excellent world-building, truly immaculate imagery, well-defined dramatic scenes, a huge variety of motifs, atmosphere and tense…
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Review of A Captive of Love: A Romance from the Original Japanese of Kyokutei Bakin by Bakin Takizawa
Takizawa Bakin or Kyokutei Bakin is a truly remarkable Japanese author, little known in the West. He lived from 1767-1848 and according to online sources wrote at least 470 books, many of which were quite hefty, according to accounts from other Japanese writers, and the most famous of these works…
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Review of What is All This?: Uncollected Stories by Stephen Dixon
I’m not going to go easy on Dixon this time. But I will read more of his stuff and decide if he deserves the accolades and blurbs. The stories here are artificial because the mechanics of what he is doing are never concealed by the writing. You can see the…
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Review of Man or Mango? by Lucy Ellmann
Man or Mango is my least favorite Ellmann novel. I have gotten through all of her novels aside from Doctors & Nurses and Ducks, Newburyport. This not to say that Man or Mango, a Lament, is not good. It is entertaining, like all of her work, though it lacks focus…
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Review of Sing to It: New Stories by Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel’s award-winning The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel was chock-full of absorbing, somewhat dog-centric tales, with formal artistry and quirky characters. Her latest collection proves that she has been doing something the past thirteen years. The main problem is the brevity and insignificance of what is on display here.…
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Review of The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3) by Rick Riordan
The Titan’s Curse is better than it predecessors and sets up the next entries nicely. Where the last book was weighed down by lackluster stakes, this one brings the conflicts to a new level of urgency. The plot grows in every chapter and the power of the main villain is…
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Review of Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes
A Möbius striptease. Time is a permeable membrane.Cervantes and Caesar, Bosch and Quetzalcoatl.Historical figures rise, maggot-ridden from their tombs to conquer, make love, philosophize and dissolve in the polychromatic strobe of dreams. These fantasies fuse with antiquity, birthed from moldered tomes, exhausting the faiths of pious men, eviscerating kings, and…
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Review of Hammers on Bone (Persons Non Grata, #1) by Cassandra Khaw
An unconventional noir novella with the distinct flavor of Mieville and Lovecraft, and a dash of hashtag Elder Gods mythos thrown in. Entertaining if a bit brief, and ecstatic if a bit forced, it is nonetheless a daring mishmash of fun otherworldly ideas.
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Review of The Waitress Was New by Dominique Fabre
Fabre is a French novelist. He has written a lot, from the looks of it, but English translations are slow in coming. His biographical data reveal that he chooses to focus on describing life on the periphery, on neglected people in society. For this slim novel, the main character works…
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Review of Requiem by Daniel Ståhl
The only other collection of Sonnets I’ve read is Shakespeare’s. One would think that any other would pale by comparison. But this is one impressive collection. A stand-out among all the poetry I’ve read. Flipping quickly through the book, you will see that the hands of a clock on the…
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Review of Hemming Flames by Patricia Colleen Murphy
A devastating collection of poems dealing with tough topics in a way that leaves a memorable impression, written by a contemporary poet unafraid to openly discuss humanity’s deepest fears. You would be hard-pressed to find a better debut collection published in recent years. The last lines of the book deliver…
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Review of Fluffy’s Revolution by Ted Myers
Blade Runner X Homeward Bound. This was top-tier dystopian science fiction. The stakes are high in this wryly humorous anthropomorphic adventure. In its future world like Poul Anderson’s Brainwave, with a touch of Orwell’s Animal Farm mixed in, I was intrigued and won over by the charming and witty characters,…
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Review of Hotel World by Ali Smith
While I appreciate Ali Smith’s experimentation, I’m not a fan of the quotidian rhythm of her narrators. Whether they are waiting at the airport, or sitting around on their home computer, or flopping on the bed of a sleazy hotel room, I find myself waiting for something interesting to happen…
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Review of Zeroville by Steve Erickson
Abandoned at 65%. I’ll only comment on the positives and negatives I noticed listening to the audiobook version. Don’t know about the ending, but was not sufficiently engaged to finish it. Beginning showed a quirky voice. I liked the cine-centric commentary and obsession with old film stars running through the…
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Review of Buddha, Vol. 1: Kapilavastu (Buddha #1) by Osamu Tezuka
Tezuka manages to sustain a gripping pace while inserting subtle philosophy and universal themes. If the other 7 volumes are as good as this one it might be his greatest series. I like this first volume more than most of the volumes of Phoenix. While the narrative is not bound…
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Review of Old Floating Cloud: Two Novellas by Can Xue
A rare scatological mosaic elevated to the highest levels of artistic expression. Can Xue is my favorite contender for the Nobel Prize. Rising out of humble beginnings in China to become in the space of a decade, a force to be reckoned with in world literature. A titan of disjointed,…
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Review of Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
This book is loud. I do not mean that as a bad thing. A lot of books are not quiet. A book full of voices need not be silent. This reminded me in some ways of Black Leopard, Red Wolf. This has a similar aura, but a different tone. (Those…
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Review of Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror, Vol. 1 by Junji Ito
Many of Junji Ito’s themes and motifs are simple and even nonsensical, but they tend to stick in the mind. They have the ineluctable quality of nightmares, of good horror films. His concepts have the same staying power as a cheesy slasher flick, with the advantage of impressive artwork. No…
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Review of Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1) by Tomi Adeyemi
“Children of Blood and Bone” is an interesting study of themes that is dragged down by odd storytelling decisions and a bloated length. It’s at its best when it is using its themes. The idea of slavery and oppression go hand-in-hand with this world’s characters, creating a deep perspective on…
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Review of Lila by Marilynne Robinson
While I admire M. Robinson’s writing ability I found the messages in this book plain as day. The ideas and character emotions were well-conveyed but did not require much analysis or interpretation. What I’m trying to say is that cut and dry situations, and some repetitive concepts added up to…
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Review of The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1) by Rick Riordan
Nothing beats a good adventure story. Whether it’s the adventure of discovery like in Ringworld, the adventure of slaying a dragon in The Hero and The Crown, or a hybrid like Brave Story, you can get into these journeys so long as they are done well. Which is why, though…
L. S. Popovich 