The title suggests a historical novel, for the Middle Passage was the sea route used by slavers going from West Africa to the Caribbean. The book does invoke important aspects of the slave trade, life at sea in the 1830’s, … Continue reading
This is my second Murakami experience and it was a good one. I read Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and found it relentlessly inventive but not much else. Hard-Boiled, however, has plenty of chewy meat beneath the author’s famous razzle-dazzle style. The … Continue reading
Interesting writing kept the pages turning for me. Nguyen has a knack for unexpected description and creative simile. A random example: Two men are talking but notice the chairs: “As usual, he reclined in an overstuffed leather club chair that … Continue reading
Ta-Nehisi Coates Meets Thomas Pynchon “Who am I? And how can I be that person?” Those were the questions the main character’s father always asked and which the narrator, Bonbon Me, holds dear. They’re also the meta-questions he poses about … Continue reading
This is a fine postwar novel in the tradition of others that expressed dehumanization and even nihilism after the catastrophic death and destruction of World War II. Unlike many others (such as The Sheltering Sky, The Stranger), in this one … Continue reading
This is the kind of airport novel I used to read when I traveled a lot. Since then I’ve learned how to read literature with characters who develop self-awareness over time and stories that illuminate the human condition. I’m afraid … Continue reading
This is supposedly more accessible than Gravity’s Rainbow, the ponderous postmodern exercise for which Pynchon won the National Book Award in 1974, although the Pynchon style is the same. This is a lighthearted detective story, with the PI, Doc Sportello trying … Continue reading
Funny, Imaginative, and Vulgar This is my first Palahniuk novel, and to my surprise, I enjoyed it. Surprised because it’s not the sort of thing I normally like, a hodge-podge of urban punk, violent, humorous, sci-fi, horror of an experimental thing. … Continue reading
Wandering Through the Nonsense Lavalle, Victor (2010). Big Machine. New York: Spiegel & Grau (366 pp.). At least a meandering river will reach the sea. This tale just meanders, as the cover art suggests. The first-person narrator, Ricky Rice, is a … Continue reading
Mild Angst in the Suburbs Barthelme, Frederick (1990). Natural Selection. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint. White, employed, middle-class, American, suburban guy is annoyed at popular culture. His wife and kid become exasperated with his constant complaining – about TV, magazines, people at work, … Continue reading