What a subtle, poignant, sad book. In post-WWII England, Stevens, a butler of a formerly great aristocratic house takes a road trip through the country and has the opportunity to reflect on his tenure of servitude. Through these memories — many with another employee, Miss Kenton — Stevens sketches a life left rather unlived through the endless pursuit of dignity, that intangible, elite quality embodied by the foremost butlers. What is dignity? No one can put it into words, not even Stevens, but based on […]
A really good read, but I don’t get all the fuss.
This was a really good book on a lot of levels: 1. Good as historical fiction. Excellent particularly because we get POV characters on both sides of the conflict. 2. Good as literary fiction (at least, according to my standards). I prefer my lit-fic to be on the accessible side, and not to focus exclusively on middle-aged white man problems. But it’s also got extra levels if you want to go digging. 3. Good as writing, in the sense that the sentences strung one after […]
My skepticism comes first
Disclaimer: I received this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I believe many people are familiar with the meme (courtesy of South Park) that more or less goes: Step One ??? Profit! Well, the minds behind Consilience/Positron in this book have adopted that mantra as a lifestyle and business model. The proposal is this: crime is bad, and in a recession — particularly an extended one as has befallen the world — crime rises, and the jails become overpopulated and create an […]
Surprise, bitch. I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.
To be honest, I’m still not totally sure what to make of this book. I really, really wanted to like it more than I actually did. It started out slow with glimmers of interesting plot threads, but ultimately The Robber Bride just kept stringing me along. Every time I started to get into the plot, the story would move in another direction. Atwood’s inspiration came from a Brothers Grimm tale in which a villainous man devours three women after luring them into his lair. In […]
And another one…
Arthur Leander, ageing movie-star, dies of a heart attack on stage at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto. On stage is eight-year-old Kristen Raymonde, witnessing the death of a man who had been nothing but kind to her. Jeevan Chaudhary, former paparazzo photographer and entertainment journalist, now an EMT in training, jumps up on stage tries to save Arthur’s life with CPR. Later that evening, travelling home in the snow, he receives a phone call from a friend, working in the ER. There is a flu […]
“But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.”
Fiona Maye has had a long and successful career as a High Court judge. She works in the Family Division, deciding what is best for children in messy divorce cases and matters of religion. Professionally, Fiona is “almost ironic, almost warm,” and she is respected for striking a balance between compassion and distance, understanding and objectivity. But after years of parents “dazed to find themselves in vicious combat with the one they once loved” and children used as “bargaining chips,” Fiona has become ever so […]