Category Archives: British Literature

Your Roots are Showing by Elise Chidley

British Literature December 11, 2008 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: Lizzie wishes her husband hadn’t accidentally gotten that email complaining about him, because now he wants a divorce and she can’t figure out how to win him back. Review: Your Roots are Showing belongs firmly to the Bridget Jones school of chick lit. Lizzie is pudgy, disheveled, and fashion unconscious. She’s prone to charming outbursts of clumsiness, and despite her lack of self-awareness she still manages to be self-deprecating. And of course she always wins the heart of the hottest guy in the room.…

The Sister by Poppy Adams

British Literature July 17, 2008 Superfast Reader 4 Comments

Synopsis: When elderly Ginny’s sister returns home for the first time since she was a girl, old memories surface that threaten Ginny’s carefully ordered existence. Review: I’m incredibly thankful for the Queens Library for getting The Sister to me so quickly–I can’t remember the last time I read a book so recently published. The review in the New York Times made me think that it’d satisfy my aching desire for more books like Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale. Gothic intrigue. Family secrets. Opaque narration. Superfast…

The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith

British Literature April 12, 2008 Superfast Reader 5 Comments

Synopsis: While working on a novel in Tunisia, a writer encounters his own heart of darkness. Review: I had written a truly brilliant review of Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery, but it got eaten. Fie! The salient points were: Patricia Highsmith plays cat and mouse with the reader just like her most famous creation Tom Ripley played cat and mouse with anyone he encountered She is a master of nuance characterization The final third of the novel is a tour-de-force of subtle character dynamics…

Live Flesh by Ruth Rendell

British Literature October 16, 2007 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: After his release from prison, a troubled man befriends the man he crippled, and awakens his demons with tragic result. Review: Though strong in characterization (as always), Live Flesh doesn’t hold up as one of Ruth Rendell’s strongest. On its publication in 1986, I’m sure it made much more of an impact, but in today’s serial killer-saturated culture, this story now feels like old hat.

Three Crafting Books

American Literature, British Literature October 4, 2007 Superfast Reader 1 Comment

Reading is only one of my many loves. I also enjoy knitting, cooking, and running. I am not superfast at any of those. In fact, when it comes to running, I’m superslow. I received review copies of three DIY books from the publisher Watson-Guptill, and I’m going to my best to let you know whether or not they will bring crafting goodness into your life. Super Stitches Knitting The first is Super Stitches Knitting by Karen Hemingway. It opens with the requisite “Knitting Basics,” covering…

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

British Literature September 27, 2007 Superfast Reader 6 Comments

Synopsis: The last of a dying breed, a proper English butler reflects on his life in service. Review: I had no idea I would love The Remains of the Day as much as I did. To be honest, I love Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go so much that I was afraid that if I didn’t like this book, my love for that one would be tainted irrevocably.

The Minotaur by Barbara Vine

British Literature September 20, 2007 Superfast Reader 1 Comment

Synopsis: Hired to be an au pair to a schizophrenic man, a Swedish girl watches as interfamilial tensions come to a boiling point, with deadly results. Review: Barbara Vine (the alter ego of best-selling crime novelist Ruth Rendell) has carved out a niche as deft portrayer of tightly interwoven groups of people who are all set to go poof! in spectacular and surprising ways. The Minotaur concerns a family that revolves itself around the supposed schizophrenia of the only son and heir to the family…

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

British Literature September 6, 2007 Superfast Reader 5 Comments

Synopsis: One man’s harrowing journey up the Congo in search of enlightenment. Review: Blogging really wasn’t invented for talking about a book like Heart of Darkness. I am utterly incapable of coming up with anything approaching an instant reaction to this book. I need to sit with it for a long time, then read it again, then sit with it some more, then read it again. Then maybe I can talk about it. I promise to let you know if I come up with anything…

The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks

British Literature August 25, 2007 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: On the eve of the sale of the family’s multimillion dollar business, black sheep Alban makes his way home where he will have to confront the truth about his mother’s death and the love that lingers for his cousin Sophie. Review: I was intrigued by the plot of The Steep Approach to Garbadale, hinging as it does around a family that built its fortune on a successful Risk-type game. That kind of staggering wealth and the ramifications on relationships sounds fascinating to me, particularly…

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

British Literature August 9, 2007 Superfast Reader 4 Comments

Synopsis: A young man with severe amnesia comes to realize that he is being stalked by a conceptual shark (which is much, much scarier than you might think). Review: What surprised me most about The Raw Shark Texts was how fast it moved. For all its high-minded metaphysical aims and experimental underpinnings, the book has the pacing of an airport thriller or Stephen King horror book. There were some sequences in this book, such as protagonist Second Eric’s Sanderson encounter with Nobody, that were are…

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