Annihilation is the first in a trilogy about the mysterious Area X; cut off from the rest of civilization for decades, nature is taking over the landscape and hiding the area’s many secrets. An expedition of four women is sent to investigate, and they realize very quickly that all is not as they’ve been told. For one thing, there’s a mysterious underground tower that’s not marked on any map and what they find there will quickly divide the group as they try not to be contaminated […]
Great American Novel, This is Not
I picked up Purity because I heard that it had a great female character, and in that regard I was not let down. I would actually argue that there are two. From what I know of his other books (which I’ve never read, but The Corrections is in that ever-growing pile of books-I-own-and-will-definitely-maybe-someday-read), Franzen is incredibly talented at filling his books with fully realized characters. Purity features a main cast of five very complex characters who you get to know very well and I really wish that I […]
Beautifully Sad (and Maybe Too Much So)
Sputnik Sweetheart is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever reluctantly finished. Murakami (and a lot of credit for this goes to the book’s Japanese-to-English translator Philip Gabriel) has a true gift for prose and it’s that single characteristic more than anything else that compelled me to finish the book. I’ve never read one of his books before but from what I know about him, Sputnik Sweetheart is pretty typical of his body of work. It’s narrated by K, a young teacher in Japan with […]
A Modern Pagan Folk Story
A recent article in The Atlantic argues that British children’s stories are better than American ones, because the British often tap into fantasy and paganism in a way that really captures a child’s imagination. The heroes of these stories are not setting out to learn a moral, but are “trickster[s] who triumph through wit and skill.” Well in the case, Good Omens is the story of that British child growing up and viewing religion and fantasy with common sense and a deep understanding of humanity. And that child […]