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“Make me,” a schoolyard taunt, is the title of Lee Child’s 20th and possibly final Jack Reacher novel. The first one, “Killing Floor” came out a decade ago (1997) and the series has been on the top of the sales … Continue reading
Tag Archives: magical realism
This book falls into in the category of magical realism by most accounts, but I didn’t see a lot of that, especially compared to Marquez or Rushdie, for example. Instead, the stories told are better characterized as fantastic, amazing, improbable, … Continue reading
Dream or Reality? Murakami, Haruki (1994/1998). The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. New York: Vintage, 607 pp. This novel is writing for the sake of writing. There is a nominal plot, but it’s weak. A Japanese woman and her sister are abused … Continue reading
A Smelly Book Suskind, Patrick (1986). Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. New York: Vintage. (Translated from the German by John E. Woods.) It’s difficult to conceptualize smells and to describe their essence in writing. Even familiar smells, like coffee … Continue reading
Rushdie, Salman (1990). Haroun and the Sea of Stories. London: Granta Books. 212 pp. A Fantastic Essay on Writing This is perhaps Rushdie’s most accessible book, ostensibly a children’s fairy tale, set in a fantasy world far away. An Indian … Continue reading
Magical Story of Humanity Marquez, Gabriel Garcia (1970). One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Harper and Row. It’s difficult to have an opinion about a book that is universally revered as one of the greatest novels of all time, … Continue reading