Leo had been avoiding his wife, Victoria, who was barely speaking to him and his sister Beatrice who wouldn't stop speaking to him—rambling on and on about getting together for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. In July. Leo hadn't spent a holiday with his family in twenty years, since the mid-'90s if he was remembering correctly: he wasn't
What the blurb tells us: Mr. Pooter is a man of modest ambition, content with his clerkly lot. So why is he always in trouble with disagreeable tradesmen, impudent young clerks and wayward friends? And what is he to do about his son Lupin's distinctly unsuitable choice of bride? However hard he tries, life piles
"I have to keep convincing myself", Helen said when they got outside, "that this is really happening. You're all so matter-of-fact about it, but the truth is that he is dying in there and I have to go and tell my mother." Helen's beloved little brother is dying. This brings the family together again
These heavy boots are not made for walking As mentioned before, Wonderguy gave me Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer as part of my "Goin' to New York" vibe. At first I was skeptical because I'm not particularly interested in child protagonists/narrators. But Oskar is a very special kid and we got
What the sort-of blurb tells us: "The Book of Other People is just that: a book of other poeple. Open its covers and you'll make a whole host of new acquaintances. Nick Hornby and Posy Simmonds present the constantly diverging writing life of Jamie Johnson; Hari Kunzru twitches open his net curtains to reveal
People believe, thought Shadow. It's what people do. They believe, and then they do not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjuration. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe; and it is that rock solid belief, that
What the blurb tells us about A Visit from the Goon Squad: A Visit from the Goon Squad vividly captures the moments where lives interact, and where fortunes ebb and flow. Egan depicts with elegant prose and often heart-wrenching simplicity, the sad consequences for those who couldn't fake it during their wild youth – madness,
Thou shalt not be mistaken… From what I’ve written in some of the blog post before, one may assume I am a (more or less) sophisticated reader thanks to my academic ventures (*cough*) in the field of comparative literature. Well, sometimes I am. Depending on my mood, my ADHD, the lunar phase, and the
What the blurb tells us: Elf and Yoli are two smart, loving sisters. Elf is a world-renowned pianist, glanorous, wealthy, happily married: she wants to die. Yoli is divorced, broke, sleeping with the wrong men: she desperately wants to keep her older sister alive. When Elf's latest suicide attempt leaves her hospitalised weeks before
I haven't the courage, or perhaps the hardness, to withstand the tremendous pathos of this life. I love life's casual beauty — fear its awful strength. — Jack Kerouac The Sea is my Brother What the blurb tells us: In the spring of 1943, not long after his first tour as a Merchant Marine, twenty-one-year-old