16th October, 2008
September’s Book Installment, sponsored by October
Sadly, more poor works to report. Although there is a good one at the end.
Circle at Center by Douglas Niles.
I first read Douglas Niles’ book Darkwalker on Moonshae when I was a senior in highschool. I recall enjoying it and the rest of the Moonshae trilogy. From what I remember, the stories were well constructed with solid characters and an involving plot. Not so much with CaC. Instead, I found the equivalent of a straight-to-DVD movie release, seemingly churned out in a weekend’s time to meet an editor’s deadline, CaC doesn’t have much to offer a reader except for a pile of words strung into grammatical order. Don’t bother with this one.
1/5 gogs.
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.
Mr. Rushdie may be a much-celebrated author worldwide, drowning in awards and fame, but I just could not get into this novel. His writing style in this book, that of page-long paragraphs, comma-less lists and sentences that stretch to the moon made it very difficult to parse. To be fair, my knowledge of Indian history is pretty limited and my reading experience was certainly hampered by this as it an allegory of India’s independence, but the torrent of thoughts, ideas and wordplay that he has included in his story was simply too much to enjoy.
2/5 gogs.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris.
Finally, something good to talk about; David Sedaris’ new collection of stories. As usual, Sedaris spins fantastical recountings of his life, liberally peppered with his dry sense of humor as well as some perceptive commentary on all things human. My only complaint is that the book is relatively short ~300 pages in a small form factor. Definitely recommended.
4.5/5 gogs.
Posted at 10:05 am |
On November 5, 2008 at 21:34 Mike said:
November 5, 2008 at 21:34
I thought the new Sedaris book was good, as usual, but I was a little disappointed by how much material seemed to be recycled from earlier books.