Synopsis:
An awkward teen buys a junky old Plymouth that seems to have a life of its own–and sinister plans for Artie and those he loves. Continue reading
Christine by Stephen King
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Tag Archives: Unreliable Narrator
Care and Feeding of Books
The Sunday New York Times Book section had a charming essay called Confessions of a Book Abuser (registration required). Ben Schott opens:
I have to admit I was flattered when, returning to my hotel room on the shores of Lake Como, a beautiful Italian chambermaid took my hand. I knew that the hotel was noted for the attentiveness of its staff. Surely, though, such boldness elevated room service to a new level. Escorting me to the edge of the crisply made bed, the chambermaid pointed to a book on my bedside table. “Does this belong to you?” she asked. I looked down to see a dog-eared copy of Evelyn Waugh’s “Vile Bodies” open spread-eagle, its cracked spine facing out. “Yes,” I replied. “Sir, that is no way to treat a book!” she declared, stalking out of the room.
The essay ends up being a meditation on books as objects, arguing that “it is notable that those who abuse their own books through manhandling or marginalia are often those who love books best.” This behavior is different than book-burning, whose object is the destruction of the ideas within the book. Dogearing and writing in the margins and even spine cracking are, instead, signs of a kind of vigorous reading. Continue reading
Pretending to Read
An article in today’s New York Times on Louis Bayard’s How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read?, a best-seller in France that’s coming our way. Bayard says that his book is a satire, not meant to be taken seriously, though grounded in the truth that it is possible to fake your way through a conversation about literature without having read the book(s) being discussed. Continue reading
I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier
Synopsis:
A teenage boy reconstructs the moment he discovered a secret about his past that might prove deadly.
Review:
Cormier is best known for The Chocolate War (Laurel Leaf Books)
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
Synopsis:
An old spinster teacher narrates her obsession with fellow teacher Sheba Hart, who is having an affair with her 15-year-old student. Continue reading
From a Buick 8 by Stephen King
Synopsis:
When a car that shouldn’t drive appears at a local gas station, the police troop that deals with it discovers that it is a portal to another world, one that seems very, very dangerous.
Review:
I swear I really am reading Anna Karenina. My brain was so fried, however, at the end of this crazy work trip I just took that I needed something for the plane that wouldn’t challenge me. From a Buick 8 is a King that I’d only read once before, and at $7.99 I figured I could bend my “no brand-new books” rule. Continue reading
The Keep by Jennifer Egan
Synopsis:
A ne’er-do-well goes to Prague to work for his cousin, who’s turning an old castle into a retreat-style hotel, but the castle is holding secrets, not to mention the fact that this story’s being written by a prison inmate with a crush on his writing teacher. Continue reading
Glittering Images by Susan Howatch
Synopsis:
When the Archbishop of Canterbury sends a canon to uncover evidence of sexual misconduct in the home of one of his bishops, a mare’s nest of scandal erupts and the canon must face hard truths about the hypocrisies in his life. Continue reading
A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine
Synopsis:
When a true-crime writer comes to Faith Severn asking for corroboration of the details he’s unearthed about her murderess aunt, Faith’s reminiscences build a very different portrait of the family that has been both dear and alien to her over the years, casting new light on very old secrets.
Review:
I have read several books by Barbara Vine and her alter ego Ruth Rendell, and this is by far my favorite. She excels at characterization; none of her creations can be neatly encapsulated by the sort of paradox shorthand that so often passes for nuance. This book is no exception. The portrait of the extended Longley clan is shatteringly precise, as though it were a real history and not fiction. Continue reading