Chris's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 28 Oct 2024 11:31:05 -0700 60 Chris's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Three Trapped Tigers (Latin American Literature)]]> 223455 487 Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1564783790 Chris 5 3.96 2008 Three Trapped Tigers (Latin American Literature)
author: Guillermo Cabrera Infante
name: Chris
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/10/28
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One of my favorite novels of all time. Cabrera Infante is a wordsmith and a music-maker, and this story is sprawling with all kinds of meaning, laughter, anecdotes, and a portrait of Cuba on the eve of revolution. This is a generational text and I recommend it to all readers.
]]> Nuno 23473751
Born as he was, the son of a suicidal policeman and a self-destructive woman of ill-repute, Nuno arrived in the world with a capable heart and a mind ready to explore the mysteries of life. Nuno is evidence that the human experience can never be untangled from the unfurling of history, that we are all creatures of our time even though time can never define us.

Though our quarrelling natures visit travesties upon the world, we also accept, as Nuno does, that our capacity to connect will ripple outward enriching all who would recognize the infinite within an action. In the juxtaposition of our ferocious capacity for violence and the limitless potential of our capacity for love, Nuno embodies the paradox of the human experience, that our momentary existance is an artifact of eternity.

Through Nuno -in his discovery of love and through his crucible as a political prisoner in communist Cuba- we, the lucky readers who have discovered this tale, are given a chronicle of one man's discovery of both the timeliness and timelessness of the human experience and the healing balm love provides even in the darkest crises of the soul.]]> 226 Carlos Aleman 0990432246 Chris 4 4.75 2014 Nuno
author: Carlos Aleman
name: Chris
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2015/08/18
date added: 2015/08/18
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]]> The Strangest 25992479
“For a line to exist, it would first have to be crossed.â€�

"A smart adaptation indeed of a hallowed classic, repositioning it for a grimmer world three-quarters of a century on." –Kirkus Reviews

"The Strangest is a stark and deliberate analysis of life in the 21st Century. Its evaluation of not just social media, but modern presence and its adaptation of what I’ll refer to here as a the new human condition, is, much like Camusâ€� Stranger, authoritative and convincing. Of the string of, or even genre of, contemporary works concentrated on these themes, I found Seidlinger’s The Strangest to be, thus far, the most concise and expressive." –The Modern Review

"[Seidlinger] takes us into the consciousness of a person so withdrawn that he must have some sort of social anxiety disorder; every bit as affectless as Camus’s Stranger, his smartphone is his only lifeline of communication with people, even when they’re right on the subway with him. I like how the author constructs the protagonist’s consciousness, with the integration of social media being elegant and measured, and I particularly like a few pivotal scenes where what is happening is carefully elided by the author—it’s very effective."-Conversational Reading

“Step back Camus, your anti-hero has been fragmented and dispersed via the free-fall of social media. Michael J. Seidlinger’s re-visioning enters the anthropocene without apology or oxygen masks, and asks us to take the trip toward self discovery as if the self was moving particles. A kick-ass ride. A beautiful dismemberment.â€�
–Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Small Backs of Children

“When I was in high school, I read The Stranger in French. łąâ€™Ă‰t°ùČčČÔČ”±đ°ù. I was not an A student in French. Maybe a B. Minus. My accent was ‘formidable!â€�, my grammar and reading comprehension ‘mĂ©diocreâ€�. I never looked at that book again, in any language. Now I actually have read Michael Seidlinger’s uniquely compelling The Strangest. Am I supposed to now go back read a book of a lesser superlative? This book not only lives up to its title, it does so with impeccable rhythm and a perfectly odd, discomfiting grace befitting of this tale of strangeness updated for our strange present.â€�
–Elizabeth Crane, author of We Only Know So Much

“If anyone at any time is in search of a novel that renders the dysphoria and fragmentation experienced by the first generation to live through social media, then he or she should begin with The Strangest. Like Camus, Seidlinger does not so much describe anomie as write from it; the result is a strangely resonant book that feels, above all else, honest.â€�
–Will Chancellor, author of A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall

�The Strangest is a bold and stirring portrayal of the alienation of contemporary life, how technology amplifies our desire for approval and magnifies the horror of others� judgment.�
–Sarah Gerard, author of Binary Star

“The world that Michael J. Seidlinger navigates in The Strangest is one in which the dying battery of a mobile phone provokes more emotion than a dying tree or child, told by a man whose sole value lies in the affirmation of his online persona, each comment and ‘likeâ€� tallied one by one. Not since Seidlinger’s last book have I encountered the chilling terror of Paul Bowles and his dissonant, virtually toneless minimalism, nor the evisceration of contemporary life that Michel Houellebecq delivers, ruthless as a diamond with a broken heart. Camus himself, I think, would affirm this homage to his famous book, with a solemn nod, perhaps, and the crushing underfoot of his last cigarette. For myself, I’m as nauseated as I am lifted, as redeemed as appalled. If you want a vision of life without a soul yoked to one of ways to smash it, step into this void. The lesson is relatively short, but its benefits are sure to go on and on.â€�
–D. Foy, author of Made to Break]]> 200 Michael J. Seidlinger 1682190005 Chris 0 to-read 4.00 2015 The Strangest
author: Michael J. Seidlinger
name: Chris
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/08/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood]]> 20527019
Richard Blanco’s childhood and adolescence were experienced between two imaginary worlds: his parentsâ€� nostalgic world of 1950s Cuba and his imagined America, the country he saw on reruns of The Brady Bunch and Leave it to Beaver—an “exoticâ€� life he yearned for as much as he yearned to see “la patria.â€�

Navigating these worlds eventually led Blanco to question his cultural identity through words; in turn, his vision as a writer—as an artist—prompted the courage to accept himself as a gay man. In this moving, contemplative memoir, the 2013 inaugural poet traces his poignant, often hilarious, and quintessentially American coming-of-age and the people who influenced him.

A prismatic and lyrical narrative rich with the colors, sounds, smells, and textures of Miami, Richard Blanco’s personal narrative is a resonant account of how he discovered his authentic self and ultimately, a deeper understanding of what it means to be American. His is a singular yet universal story that beautifully illuminates the experience of “becoming;â€� how we are shaped by experiences, memories, and our complex stories: the humor, love, yearning, and tenderness that define a life. ]]> 249 Richard Blanco 0062313762 Chris 0 to-read 4.26 2014 The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood
author: Richard Blanco
name: Chris
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/05/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 62: A Model Kit 53414 288 Julio CortĂĄzar 0811214370 Chris 1 4.16 1968 62: A Model Kit
author: Julio CortĂĄzar
name: Chris
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1968
rating: 1
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date added: 2014/04/26
shelves:
review:
This is a rare misstep by the master ... CortĂĄzar wrote "62: A Model Kit" several times better; the best version is called "Rayuela" (Hopscotch). The story (what story?) is all over the place, as are the characters/characterization (good luck trying to distinguish between any of the familiar cast of intellectuals here). It all adds up to a literary dud interspersed with several beautiful lines, including prose poetry. This is some raw writing here, and it could have benefited from a more considerate editor. Instead, readers are hit with a lot of the same CortĂĄzar characters, recycled and re-named. CortĂĄzar shows his true range and talent in his collection of short stories; I recommend "Blow-Up (and other stories)" first and foremost.
]]> Blessings 20940900 104 Edward Kearns 0989674630 Chris 5 5.00 2014 Blessings
author: Edward Kearns
name: Chris
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/03/28
shelves:
review:
Blessings is just as its title announces it. This is the ideal book to bring with you on the bus or train, not just because of its size, but because of how well Kearns embodies the urban (Brooklyn) landscape here. He achieves this by writing excellent dialogue and characters we genuinely care about. That all of this is packaged into a story that follows the language and thematics of the greeting card is an added treat. Warmth, joy, and happiness--indeed.
]]> <![CDATA[Cities of the Red Night (The Red Night Trilogy, #1)]]> 23944 332 William S. Burroughs 0312278462 Chris 4 3.77 1981 Cities of the Red Night (The Red Night Trilogy, #1)
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1981
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed Cities of the Red Night. There are enough suggestions here of WSB's previous work but not so many as to be redundant. The beginning and closing pages, in particular, showcase Burroughs true talent and gift: to show humanity even (and especially) through the most wicked and grotesque circumstances of life.
]]> The Room 50274 288 Hubert Selby Jr. 0714530387 Chris 1 3.72 1971 The Room
author: Hubert Selby Jr.
name: Chris
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1971
rating: 1
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
I don't understand how critics have called this "Selby's best book" ... I don't even understand how readers can write critically on this work. Talk about a sophomore slump. The violence is bad, yes, but my main problem with it is that it serves no purpose for the story. This is simply gratuitous bullshit, which unfortunately fans of Selby (and I'm a big one) have to wade through.
]]> <![CDATA[The Ticket That Exploded (The Nova Trilogy, #3)]]> 600506 217 William S. Burroughs 0802151507 Chris 4 3.63 1962 The Ticket That Exploded (The Nova Trilogy, #3)
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1962
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
The Ticket That Exploded is Burroughs' best (and longest) book in his cut-up trilogy. It also is the most experimental and philosophical (if you are interested in the cut-up theory he adopted, this is the book for you). Moreover, it includes art and even writing by longtime friend and collaborator, Brion Gysin, who turned WSB on to the cut-up method. This is a must-read.
]]> Exterminator! 156484
Conspirators plot to explode a train carrying nerve gas. A perfect servant suddenly reveals himself to be the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu. Science-fantasy wars, racism, corporate capitalism, drug addiction, and various medical and psychiatric horrors all play their parts in this mosaiclike, experimental novel. Here is William S. Burroughs at his coruscating and hilarious best.]]> 176 William S. Burroughs 0140050035 Chris 5 3.75 1973 Exterminator!
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1973
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
Exterminator! is very similar to WSB's The Wild Boys. It follows a mostly-linear story, unlike his cut-up trilogy, and it showcases some of Burroughs's best writing and most memorable characters.
]]> Queer 23942 160 William S. Burroughs 0330300164 Chris 4 3.56 1985 Queer
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1985
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
This is a great book, and the most read-able for non-Burroughs fans. Still, it retains WSB's trademark humor and surprising poignancy. Queer is also a wonderful novel to look at alongside everything that would come afterward. All of WSB's lurid fantasies and themes of communication/control are alive here, in nascent stages.
]]> <![CDATA[Naked Lunch: The Restored Text]]> 7437 Naked Lunch is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century, a book that redefined not just literature but American culture. An unnerving tale of a narcotics addict unmoored in New York, Tangier, and ultimately a nightmarish wasteland known as Interzone, its formal innovation, taboo subject matter, and tour de force execution have exerted a significant influence on authors like Thomas Pynchon, J. G. Ballard, and William Gibson; on the relationship of art and obscenity; and on the shape of music, film, and media generally. Naked Lunch: The Restored Text includes many editorial corrections to errors present in previous editions, and incorporates Burroughs’s notes on the text, several essays he wrote over the years about the book, and an appendix of 20 percent new material and alternate drafts from the original manuscript, which predates the first published version. For the Burroughs enthusiast and the neophyte, this volume is a valuable and fresh experience of this classic of our culture.]]> 289 William S. Burroughs 0802140181 Chris 3 3.48 1959 Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1959
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
Most readers gravitate toward Naked Lunch, but I think some of his later works (The Wild Boys, The Ticket That Exploded) are much better. Still, this is a landmark book and one that should be read--at least once. Although I wish about a quarter of it was excised and recycled (WSB's method was to recycle and rearrange much of his work into other stories) elsewhere.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead]]> 23930 The Wild Boys is a futuristic tale of global warfare in which a guerrilla gang of boys dedicated to freedom battles the organized armies of repressive police states. Making full use of his inimitable humor, wild imagination, and style, Burroughs creates a world that is as terrifying as it is fascinating.]]> 193 William S. Burroughs 0802133312 Chris 5 3.56 1971 The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1971
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
It wasn't until I read The Wild Boys that I began to write fiction. 'Nuff said. This slim "novel" is an explosive treat.
]]> Under the Volcano 31072
Under the Volcano remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.]]> 423 Malcolm Lowry 0060955228 Chris 5 3.78 1947 Under the Volcano
author: Malcolm Lowry
name: Chris
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1947
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
Under the Volcano is a series of interruptions (literally and metaphorically) through one drunken day in Mexico. The writing is simply phenomenal: fast-paced, surreal, alternately photographic and cinematic ... this is a book that can be enjoyed by both intellectuals and casual readers.
]]> Pedro PĂĄramo 38670 132 Juan Rulfo 351801434X Chris 4 4.01 1955 Pedro PĂĄramo
author: Juan Rulfo
name: Chris
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1955
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
The author's lone novel, and a haunting detour into the paranormal, spectral landscape. I read that Rulfo wrote this novel through systematically REMOVING text from what was originally a much larger story. This creation via removal is apparent in the overwhelming feeling of absence it transmits to readers. The list of Latino authors that were influenced by Rulfo (Garcia Marquez, most notably) is long, and you'll see the evidence from the first page of this spare, beautiful text.
]]> Covering the Sun With My Hand 18102771 324 Theresa Varela Chris 4 4.71 2013 Covering the Sun With My Hand
author: Theresa Varela
name: Chris
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2013
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
Theresa Varela's Covering the Sun With My Hand is a wonderful read. Varela seamlessly combines subjects and sensibilities as far-ranging as spiritualism and pop culture, the traditions and customs of a Puerto Rican household and the gentrification of a Brooklyn neighborhood, a coming-of-age story and an analysis of mental illness. Varela achieves all of this through lucid, intimate first-person prose and some great narrative stitching. By the time we reach the final page, readers feel as if they know Julia Acevedo, and more than that--readers feel as if they have experienced Julia's life as if it was their own. Varela inhabits her protagonist like a seasoned artist, painting a picture of a very specific time and place, and a very specific life, moving through the years from 1979 to the present, to show how we can learn and grow amid the many obstacles life has in store for us, obstacles that become more like lessons; a life that is intent on teaching us--if we only open our ears to hear it.
]]> Happy That It's Not True 18189963 324 Carlos Aleman 0986023396 Chris 4
In doing so, Aleman has achieved a surprising, heartfelt, emotional literary debut. There were rare times in which I felt the writing was either too heavy-handed or, more often, too expository, but the clever narrative stitching, the wonderful, tightly-drawn characters, the pertinent subject matter (ranging from spiritual and religious concerns to meditations on art, from communication in the digital age to Latino self-prejudice and language, from turmoil in the Middle East to political persecution in Cuba ...), the way that the story made me laugh and cry nearly simultaneously, the way that a romance novel and a bildungsroman masterfully encase all of it ... make Happy That It's Not True a book I felt the urge to re-read the moment I finished the last line, and moreover, make me recommend this book to YOU.]]> 4.60 2013 Happy That It's Not True
author: Carlos Aleman
name: Chris
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/05
date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
So much complexity packed into such a simple book. Simple, of course, is an understatement--or rather, an ironic one. Carlos Aleman seems to make it appear SIMPLE, at least; the way he can pack so many weighty and provocative issues and subjects into a novel which you can read in a week, probably less, due to the wonderful pacing and beautiful prose.

In doing so, Aleman has achieved a surprising, heartfelt, emotional literary debut. There were rare times in which I felt the writing was either too heavy-handed or, more often, too expository, but the clever narrative stitching, the wonderful, tightly-drawn characters, the pertinent subject matter (ranging from spiritual and religious concerns to meditations on art, from communication in the digital age to Latino self-prejudice and language, from turmoil in the Middle East to political persecution in Cuba ...), the way that the story made me laugh and cry nearly simultaneously, the way that a romance novel and a bildungsroman masterfully encase all of it ... make Happy That It's Not True a book I felt the urge to re-read the moment I finished the last line, and moreover, make me recommend this book to YOU.
]]> The Whole 623228 In the middle of America's heartland, a young boy digs a small hole in the ground...which grows into a big hole in the ground...which then proceeds to drag the boy, his parents, his dog, and most of their house into a deep void.
Then, as abruptly as the hole started growing, it stops. So begins the first in a series of events that takes the beautiful-if-not-brainy Thing on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious Hole.
Inspired by visions, signs, and an unlimited supply of pink cocktails served by an ever-lurking "Black Rabbit," Thing and her dogged production crew travel around America, encountering Satanists, an Extraterrestrial/Christian cult group, and a surprisingly helpful phone psychic. Their search for answers could very well decide the fate of the world as they know it.
But the more Thing learns about the Hole, her shocking connection to it, and the mind-boggling destiny that awaits her, the more she realizes that human civilization isn't all it's cracked up to be -- and that it's just about time to start over.]]> 224 John Reed 0743485017 Chris 3 3.14 2005 The Whole
author: John Reed
name: Chris
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2005
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
Really quite hilarious at times. Poignant at others. The whole, though, wasn't as satisfying as its parts. Or maybe I'm still scratching my head.
]]> Before Night Falls 33833 398 Reinaldo Arenas 1852428082 Chris 4 4.17 1992 Before Night Falls
author: Reinaldo Arenas
name: Chris
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1992
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
I never really enjoyed memoirs until I read Before Night Falls. This is hauntingly beautiful, as well as informative: Arenas traces Cuba before and after the revolution, and readers are able to see the devastating effect on a country's (and the author's) psyche.
]]> <![CDATA[Singing from the Well (Pentagonia)]]> 36553 Reinaldo Arenas's "secret history of Cuba," a quintet he called the Pentagonia, Singing from the Well is by turns explosively crude and breathtakingly lyrical. In the end, it is a stunning depiction of a childhood besieged by horror--and a moving defense of liberty and the imagination in a world of barbarity, persecution, and ignorance.]]> 240 Reinaldo Arenas 014009444X Chris 3 3.87 1967 Singing from the Well (Pentagonia)
author: Reinaldo Arenas
name: Chris
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1967
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
I compare Arenas' debut novel (and the first in his Pentagonia) to YA for intellectuals. This is a surreal, fragmented picture of life as a child in Cuba.
]]> Cobra and Maitreya 1187256 Maitreya (1978) continues the theme of metamorphosis, this time in the person of Luis Leng, a humble Cuban-Chinese cook, who becomes a reincarnation of Buddha. Through Leng, Sarduy traces the metamorphosis of two hitherto incomparable societies, Tibet at the moment of the Chinese invasion, and Cuba at the moment of revolution. Transgressing genres and genders, reveling in literal and figurative transvestism, these two novels are among the most daring achievements of postmodern Latin American fiction.

"Maitreya [is] a mesmerizing literary mosaic fusing the memories of a Caribbean sense of place with a fluid existential state where transmigration is commonplace." (Juana Ponce de Leon, Voice Literary Supplement 5-94)

"Maitreya's outrageous characters maneuver through endless passages and trapdoors, as if in a 'Tibetan Book of the Dead' recited by saucy drag queens. The dialogue can be as sharp as that of divas speculating cock size, but the sentences are sometimes as ornate as the spaces his characters inhabit, rambunctious as their makeup." (Lawrence Chua, Voice Literary Supplement 5-94)

"Sarduy rendered the epiphany of the body luminous, where the pleasure of the void meets the furious fire of the world." (Washington Post Book World 7-31-95)

"Hypnotic, poetic and challenging." (Gay Times 9-95)

"Cobra is composed of jewel-like sentences that unfold like paper origami in convoluted proliferation. . . . Maitreya is one of the most radiant texts I have ever read, and the translation by Suzanne Jill Levine appears as seamless as a single ocean wave, spilling us from high elegance to low camp and back again without pause." (Bruce Benderson, Cups 7-12-95)

]]> 273 Severo Sarduy 1564780767 Chris 3 3.81 1972 Cobra and Maitreya
author: Severo Sarduy
name: Chris
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1972
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
A weird and wonderful book. Cobra seems to be more well-known but the inclusion of Maitreya is the real treat. Severo Sarduy's writing takes time and patience and is not for everyone. The influence of WSB is everywhere and often, pretty blatant. Still, Sarduy's imagination (and humor) is memorable.
]]> <![CDATA[The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations]]> 151878
The book quickly became a bestseller. This edition includes a new afterword, "The Culture of Narcissism Revisited."]]> 249 Christopher Lasch 0393307387 Chris 4 3.92 1978 The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations
author: Christopher Lasch
name: Chris
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1978
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
Lasch's cultural critique remains (especially) relevant today, although you get the sense while reading, the author would have made an even better analysis if he had accounted for his own role in the culture he tries to analyze.
]]> The Balcony 667483 96 Jean Genet 0802150349 Chris 5 3.83 1956 The Balcony
author: Jean Genet
name: Chris
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1956
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
Genet's many wonderful plays can all be summed up into one play: The Balcony. You'll want to re-read this just as soon as you've finished the final page.
]]> Slouching Towards Bethlehem 424 The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of America—particularly California—in the sixties.

It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.

It contains Didion's famous essay, "Goodbye to All That".]]> 238 Joan Didion Chris 4 4.20 1968 Slouching Towards Bethlehem
author: Joan Didion
name: Chris
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1968
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
A few misses, but mostly hits. Didion is a better essayist than novelist and this is the seminal collection to own.
]]> 2666 63032 1128 Roberto Bolaño 843396867X Chris 4 4.22 2004 2666
author: Roberto Bolaño
name: Chris
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
2666 was originally written as five separate books that were to be released one after another. As such, I'm glad it was released the way it was, because each book is very different from its companions, and yet, each book builds and spreads and grows toward the novel's beautiful final pages. The violence in Book 4 is hard to read, but a breeze compared to something by Selby. Humor--one of Bolano's many talents--is on full display, particularly in Book 1.
]]> Travelers Rest 15792056 228 Jonathan Marcantoni 0985250615 Chris 3 3.67 2012 Travelers Rest
author: Jonathan Marcantoni
name: Chris
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2012
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
Traveler's Rest suffers from the same pitfall that plagues Jennifer Egan's Goon Squad; the pieces are interesting, but they aren't explored deep enough. The stories and characters we do meet, however, are remarkable. This is a debut novel that should be revised at length, if only to urge the author/editor to push forward, in a future edition.
]]> Aura 56899 118 Carlos Fuentes 9580469717 Chris 4 3.87 1962 Aura
author: Carlos Fuentes
name: Chris
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
I taught this in my Intro to Fiction class at CSI and the reactions were mixed. A lot of readers are immediately put-off by the second-person point of view but I think this is one of the best examples of it in literature. Fuentes really draws you in from the first page (get the edition with English and Spanish side-by-side!).
]]> The Old Gringo 74232 208 Carlos Fuentes 0374530521 Chris 5 3.55 1985 The Old Gringo
author: Carlos Fuentes
name: Chris
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1985
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
My favorite novel of Fuentes, and coincidentally, the first one I had the opportunity to read. This is both a meditation on memory/storytelling and a picture of Mexico at a particular point in time.
]]> Vlad 9492066 111 Carlos Fuentes 6071105625 Chris 3 3.37 2004 Vlad
author: Carlos Fuentes
name: Chris
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
Hilarious and scary; a real page-turner (unfortunately, there's not too many pages till the end!). The ending, however, is really unsatisfying.
]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 417 Gabriel GarcĂ­a MĂĄrquez Chris 3 4.10 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel GarcĂ­a MĂĄrquez
name: Chris
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/01/25
shelves:
review:
Why is this the most celebrated of Garcia Marquez's works? I urge readers to take a detour to Autumn of the Patriarch and No One Writes to the Colonel. Solitude is a solid novel that could have benefitted from a better editor.
]]> The Rum Diary 18864 The Rum Diary is a tangled love story of jealousy, treachery, and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. The narrator, freelance journalist Paul Kemp, irresistibly drawn to a sexy, mysterious woman, is soon thrust into a world where corruption and get-rich-quick schemes rule and anything (including murder) is permissible.]]> 224 Hunter S. Thompson 0684856476 Chris 3 3.86 1998 The Rum Diary
author: Hunter S. Thompson
name: Chris
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1998
rating: 3
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A portrait of the artist at a young age. This book has a lot of issues inherent in debut novels, but there is something more genuine and poignant about it than many of his later works. I feel the same way about Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise vs. his infinitely more celebrated, The Great Gatsby.
]]> Choke 29059 Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times.

Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “savedâ€� by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him.

When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park.

His creator, Chuck Palahniuk, renowned author of classics like Fight Club, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve.]]> 293 Chuck Palahniuk 0385720920 Chris 4 3.71 2001 Choke
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Chris
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2001
rating: 4
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This is Palahniuk's best book. It is more original than Fight Club, funnier, and fast-paced. You will have a hard time putting this novel down. The movie, of course, sucked.
]]> Fight Club 5759 218 Chuck Palahniuk 0393327345 Chris 3 4.19 1996 Fight Club
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Chris
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1996
rating: 3
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A good book that is overshadowed by Fincher's film.
]]> Invisible Monsters 22290
Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from being a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better, and that salvation hides in the last place you'll ever want to look.

The narrator must exact revenge upon Evie, her best friend and fellow model; kidnap Manus, her two-timing ex-boyfriend; and hit the road with Brandy in search of a brand-new past, present and future.]]> 297 Chuck Palahniuk 0099285444 Chris 1 3.97 1999 Invisible Monsters
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Chris
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1999
rating: 1
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Invisible Monsters has the distinction of being only the second book I've ever had to put down before completion. The other was The Plumed Serpent, by DH Lawrence, so at least Palahniuk is in good company.
]]> Glamorama 9913 “Impeccable . . . cold and pitiless and modern.â€� â€�The Village Voice

“Compelling and scary. A political thriller bursting with conspiracies, double agents and international terrorism. Glamorama is like a Semtex attack on our superficialities.â€� â€�The Face

The author of American Psycho continues to shock and haunt us with his incisive and brilliant dissection of the modern world. In his most ambitious and gripping book yet, Bret Easton Ellis delivers a gripping and brilliant dissection of our celebrity-obsessed culture.

Victor Ward, a twenty-something model in fashion- and celebrity-obsessed Manhattan, is gradually, imperceptibly drawn into a shadowy looking-glass of that society, there and in London and Paris, and then finds himself trapped on the other side, in a much darker place where fame and terrorism and family and politics are inextricably linked and sometimes indistinguishable. At once implicated and horror-stricken, his ways of escape blocked at every turn, he ultimately discovers—back on the other, familiar side—that there was no mirror, no escape, no world but this one in which hotels implode and planes fall from the sky.]]> 546 Bret Easton Ellis 0375703845 Chris 2 3.55 1998 Glamorama
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Chris
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1998
rating: 2
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date added: 2014/01/25
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review:
A mess of a story, overwritten and under-edited, like so much of Ellis's body of work. He critiques a culture without offering anything in response.
]]> A Visit from the Goon Squad 7331435
We first meet Sasha in her mid-thirties, on her therapist’s couch in New York City, confronting her long-standing compulsion to steal. Later, we learn the genesis of her turmoil when we see her as the child of a violent marriage, then as a runaway living in Naples, then as a college student trying to avert the suicidal impulses of her best friend. We plunge into the hidden yearnings and disappointments of her uncle, an art historian stuck in a dead marriage, who travels to Naples to extract Sasha from the city’s demimonde and experiences an epiphany of his own while staring at a sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Museo Nazionale. We meet Bennie Salazar at the melancholy nadir of his adult life—divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed-up band in the basement of a suburban house—and then revisit him in 1979, at the height of his youth, shy and tender, reveling in San Francisco’s punk scene as he discovers his ardor for rock and roll and his gift for spotting talent. We learn what became of his high school gang—who thrived and who faltered—and we encounter Lou Kline, Bennie’s catastrophically careless mentor, along with the lovers and children left behind in the wake of Lou’s far-flung sexual conquests and meteoric rise and fall.

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, about the stirrings and transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates. In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to PowerPoint, Egan captures the undertow of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption; and the universal tendency to reach for both—and escape the merciless progress of time—in the transporting realms of art and music. Sly, startling, exhilarating work from one of our boldest writers.]]> 274 Jennifer Egan 0307592839 Chris 3 3.70 2010 A Visit from the Goon Squad
author: Jennifer Egan
name: Chris
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2010
rating: 3
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This is a really well-written book, until the last chapter. The story falls off, and although many of the pieces are quite beautiful at the beginning, none of the stories come together to form anything substantial by the end. Egan's best chapters are the ones written in the first-person.
]]> American Psycho 28676 American Psycho is a bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to confront.]]> 399 Bret Easton Ellis 0679735771 Chris 3 3.82 1991 American Psycho
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Chris
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 3
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review:

]]> Snowball's Chance 833201
Written in 14 days shortly after the September 11th attacks,  Snowball's Chance  is an outrageous and unauthorized companion to George Orwell's  Animal Farm,  in which exiled pig Snowball returns to the farm, takes charge, and implements a new world order of untrammeled capitalism. Orwell's "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" has morphed into the new rallying "All animals are born equal--what they become is their own affair."
A brilliant political satire and literary parody, John Reed's  Snowball's Chance  caused an uproar on publication in 2002, denounced by Christopher Hitchens, and barely dodging a lawsuit from the Orwell estate. Now, a decade later, with America in wars on many fronts, readers can judge anew the visionary truth of Reed's satirical masterpiece.]]> 136 John Reed 1931824053 Chris 4 3.60 2002 Snowball's Chance
author: John Reed
name: Chris
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2002
rating: 4
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]]> Mexico City Blues 81582 Jack Kerouac 2267012626 Chris 3 3.70 1959 Mexico City Blues
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Chris
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1959
rating: 3
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Like most of his work, there are pockets of transcendent writing here, which saves the rating from anything below 3 stars. Between these sections, though, you'll be reduced to boredom and/or a nap.
]]> Tristessa 19647
Tristessa es el nombre con el que Kerouac bautizó a Esperanza Villanueva, una joven mexicana católica, prostituta y adicta a ciertas drogas, de quien se enamoró durante una de sus estancias en México, país que visitaba con frecuencia, a mediados de los años cincuenta. Tristessa, en la traducción de Jorge García- Robles, especialista en la generación beat, es el relato de la extraña relación amorosa que tuvo con Esperanza, así como la significativa descripción del ambiente que la rodeaba, en la que aparecen retratos de algunos lugares clave de la Ciudad de México: Plaza Garibaldi, Niño Perdido, la colonia Roma. Escritor «al rojo vivo», como lo calificó Henry Miller, héroe de la generación beat, creador de un modelo de vida que seguirían miles de jóvenes en todo el mundo, místico sui géneris, Tristessa, que hasta hace poco no se conocía en español y que se publicó en inglés apenas hace diez años, es una de sus obras mås frescas y mejor logradas.]]> 96 Jack Kerouac 0140168117 Chris 3 3.68 1960 Tristessa
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Chris
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1960
rating: 3
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Short and kinda sweet. I've never been a fan of Kerouac, but this is bearable, and at times, really beautiful.
]]> <![CDATA[The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion]]> 7628 The Good Soldier relates the complex social and sexual relationships between two couples, one English, one American, and the growing awareness by the American narrator John Dowell of the intrigues and passions behind their orderly Edwardian facade. It is the attitude of Dowell, his puzzlement, his uncertainty, and the seemingly haphazard manner of his narration that make the book so powerful and mysterious. Despite its catalogue of death, insanity, and despair, the novel has many comic moments, and has inspired the work of several distinguished writers, including Graham Greene. This is the only annotated edition available.]]> 368 Ford Madox Ford 1551113813 Chris 5 3.69 1915 The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion
author: Ford Madox Ford
name: Chris
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1915
rating: 5
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Ford Madox Ford's best book. I believe he had been experimenting (along with Conrad) with creating a new kind of narrative, one grounded in what he called Impressionism, and he succeeds marvelously here.
]]> The Return of the Soldier 160010 112 Rebecca West 0812971221 Chris 3 3.70 1918 The Return of the Soldier
author: Rebecca West
name: Chris
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1918
rating: 3
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One of the most experimental novels of its time (particularly the end). A very interesting book to read alongside a study of the psychological concerns and the nascent cinematic age which it revolves around.
]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297
In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.]]> 272 Oscar Wilde Chris 4 4.13 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Chris
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 4
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A professor of mine once posed the question: Is The Picture of Dorian Gray unteachable? One thing is for certain: it is certainly readable. Again and again. And again. Not as funny as some of his plays, and lacking the poignancy of an essay like "Socialism" but witty, complex, and often, terrifying.
]]> <![CDATA[Journey to the End of the Night]]> 12395 Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of violence, cruelty and obscene nihilism. This book shocked most critics when it was first published in France in 1932, but quickly became a success with the reading public in Europe, and later in America where it was first published by New Directions in 1952. The story of the improbable yet convincingly described travels of the petit-bourgeois (and largely autobiographical) antihero, Bardamu, from the trenches of World War I, to the African jungle, to New York and Detroit, and finally to life as a failed doctor in Paris, takes the readers by the scruff and hurtles them toward the novel's inevitable, sad conclusion.]]> 453 Louis-Ferdinand CĂ©line 0811216543 Chris 4 4.23 1932 Journey to the End of the Night
author: Louis-Ferdinand CĂ©line
name: Chris
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1932
rating: 4
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Celine reminds me of Selby, in many ways. Both are fierce, passionate, poignant--and allow their hatred and despair to recede at certain points (usually at the end of their works) in favor of humanity. This book is my favorite of Celine's, and although it stalls in parts, it is a great journey.
]]> The House of Mirth 17728
Lily Bart, beautiful, witty and sophisticated, is accepted by ‘old moneyâ€� and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But as she nears thirty, her foothold becomes precarious; a poor girl with expensive tastes, she needs a husband to preserve her social standing and to maintain her in the luxury she has come to expect. Whilst many have sought her, something â€� fastidiousness or integrity- prevents her from making a ‘suitableâ€� match.]]> 351 Edith Wharton 1844082938 Chris 5 3.97 1905 The House of Mirth
author: Edith Wharton
name: Chris
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1905
rating: 5
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review:
Wharton's true masterpiece. Consumerism, fashion, self-disintegration. As relevant today as it was at the turn-of-the-century.
]]> Voyage in the Dark 487580 demi-monde of Edwardian London. But there, dismayed by the unfamiliar cold and greyness, she is absolutely alone and unconsciously floating from innocence to harsh experience. Her childish dreams have been replaced by the harsher reality of living in a man's world, where all charity has its price. Voyage in the Dark was first published in 1934, but it could have been written today. It is the story of an unhappy love affair, a portrait of a hypocritical society, and an exploration of exile and breakdown; all written in Rhys's hauntingly simple and beautiful style.

Jean Rhys (1894-1979) was born in Dominica. Coming to England aged 16, she drifted into various jobs before moving to Paris, where she began writing and was 'discovered' by Ford Madox Ford. Her novels, often portraying women as underdogs out to exploit their sexualities were ahead of their time and only modestly successful. From 1939 (when Good Morning, Midnight was written) onwards she lived reclusively, and was largely forgotten when she made a sensational comeback with her account of Jane Eyre's Bertha Rochester, Wide Sargasso Sea, in 1966.

If you enjoyed Voyage in the Dark, you might like James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, also available in Penguin Classics.

'A wonderful bitter-sweet book, written with disarming simplicity'
Esther Freud, Express

'Her eloquence in the language of human sexual transactions is chilling, cynical, and surprisingly moving'
A.L. Kennedy]]> 176 Jean Rhys 0141183950 Chris 3 3.80 1934 Voyage in the Dark
author: Jean Rhys
name: Chris
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1934
rating: 3
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Easy to read but deceptively complex. I had figured this was Rhys' first novel just by how well she inhabits the voice of an adolescent girl with a background not unlike her own.
]]> The Demon 46941
Author of the controversial cult classic Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby began as a writer of short fiction. He plunges the reader head-first into the densely realized worlds of his protagonists, in which the details of daily life rub shoulders with obsession and madness. Although fundamentally concerned with morality, Selby's own sense of humility prevents him from preaching. He offers instead a passionate empathy with the ordinary dreams and aspirations of his characters, a brilliant ear for the urban vernacular and for the voices of conscience and self-deceit that torment his characters.]]> 312 Hubert Selby Jr. 0714525995 Chris 3 3.90 1976 The Demon
author: Hubert Selby Jr.
name: Chris
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1976
rating: 3
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review:
The Demon reads like American Psycho, if Bret Easton Ellis could, for just one book, take his work seriously. The violence here works much better than in Selby's other novels--like the almost-unreadable The Room, for instance--and the protagonist's gradual descent will keep you reading till the end.
]]> Last Exit to Brooklyn 50275 Last Exit to Brooklyn, and this Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting.

Described by various reviewers as hellish and obscene, Last Exit to Brooklyn tells the stories of New Yorkers who at every turn confront the worst excesses in human nature. Yet there are moments of exquisite tenderness in these troubled lives. Georgette, the transvestite who falls in love with a callous hoodlum; Tralala, the conniving prostitute who plumbs the depths of sexual degradation; and Harry, the strike leader who hides his true desires behind a boorish masculinity, are unforgettable creations. Last Exit to Brooklyn was banned by British courts in 1967, a decision that was reversed the following year with the help of a number of writers and critics including Anthony Burgess and Frank Kermode.

Hubert Selby, Jr. (1928-2004) was born in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 15, he dropped out of school and went to sea with the merchant marines. While at sea he was diagnosed with lung disease. With no other way to make a living, he decided to try writing: 'I knew the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer.' In 1964 he completed his first book, Last Exit to Brooklyn, which has since become a cult classic. In 1966, it was the subject of an obscenity trial in the UK. His other books include The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period. In 2000, Requiem for a Dream was adapted into a film starring Jared Leto and Ellen Burstyn, and directed by Darren Aronofsky.

'Last Exit to Brooklyn will explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America, and still be eagerly read in 100 years'
Allen Ginsberg

'An urgent tickertape from hell'
Spectator]]> 290 Hubert Selby Jr. 0747549923 Chris 4 3.94 1964 Last Exit to Brooklyn
author: Hubert Selby Jr.
name: Chris
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1964
rating: 4
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review:
Selby's best book. Everything he wrote afterward reads like deleted scenes from this main attraction. Selby was definitely an early influence for my writing and this novel will show readers why.
]]> By Night in Chile 63031 118 Roberto Bolaño Chris 4 3.94 2000 By Night in Chile
author: Roberto Bolaño
name: Chris
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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A hurtling tour-de-force, for certain. This book, I believe, is meant to be read in one sitting (there is one paragraph break, and it occurs on the final page). Bolano pulls off so much in such a short space. Definitely recommended for anyone looking to enter the canon of Bolano or those who've already read the more-heralded (and much longer!) 2666 and The Savage Detectives.
]]> <![CDATA[To Assume a Pleasing Shape (American Readers Series)]]> 11733140 125 Joseph Salvatore 1934414557 Chris 4 4.38 2011 To Assume a Pleasing Shape (American Readers Series)
author: Joseph Salvatore
name: Chris
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2011
rating: 4
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I've taught this book in my Intro to Fiction class at the College of Staten Island, along with Barthelme, Cortazar, and Bolano--and for good reason. Salvatore is a master of the short story. He deftly combines humor/irony and tragedy, along with a poignancy that will make you ruminate on these stories well after you've finished reading them. "Late Thaw" is particularly beautiful.
]]> Blow-Up and Other Stories 53410
Axolotl
House taken over
Distances
Idol of the Cyclades
Letter to a young lady in Paris
Yellow flower
Continuity of parks
Night face up
Bestiary
Gates of heaven
Blow-up
End of the game
At your service
Pursuer
Secret weapons.]]> 277 Julio CortĂĄzar 0394728815 Chris 4 4.23 1968 Blow-Up and Other Stories
author: Julio CortĂĄzar
name: Chris
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1968
rating: 4
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review:
There are only a few "misses" in this wonderful collection, and fortunately, it picks up steam as it moves along. More importantly, it includes some of Cortazar's best writing. This is a can't-miss book for fans or newbies (his short stories are, on the whole, a lot more accessible than something like Hop Scotch) of his work. Continuity of Parks, The Gates of Heaven, Blow-Up, End of the Game, The Pursuer, Secret Weapons ... all phenomenal tour-de-forces and a must-read.
]]> The Broom of the System 6750 467 David Foster Wallace 0142002429 Chris 3 3.84 1987 The Broom of the System
author: David Foster Wallace
name: Chris
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1987
rating: 3
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Hilarious at times, fascinating at others. Really starts to lose steam with about a hundred pages left. DFW's main talent is dialogue.
]]> <![CDATA[The Palace of the White Skunks]]> 142028
"A beautiful, heartfelt book by a passionate and epic writer at the height of his powers." --Oscar Hijuelos]]> 384 Reinaldo Arenas 0140097929 Chris 4 3.96 1972 The Palace of the White Skunks
author: Reinaldo Arenas
name: Chris
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1972
rating: 4
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One of the best books I've read in awhile--and also one of the most challenging. The comparisons to Faulkner are inevitable but Arenas is more experimental and at the same time, more accessible/rewarding for readers. This carries the same emotional weight as his more famous memoir, Before Night Falls.
]]> Mad Love 110455 Mad Love has been acknowledged an undisputed classic of the surrealist movement since its first publication in France in 1937. Its adulation of love as both mystery and revelation places it in the most abiding of literary traditions, but its stormy history and technical difficulty have prevented it from being translated into English until now. "There has never been any forbidden fruit. Only temptation is divine," writes André Breton, leader of the surrealists in Paris in the 1920s and '30s. Mad Love is dedicated to defying "the widespread opinion that love wears out, like the diamond, in its own dust." Celebrating breton's own love and lover, the book unveils the marvelous in everyday encounters and the hidden depths of ordinary things.]]> 131 André Breton 0803260725 Chris 4 3.87 1937 Mad Love
author: André Breton
name: Chris
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1937
rating: 4
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]]> Pompeii 880
But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta's sixty-mile main line—somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Attilius—decent, practical, and incorruptible—promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at work—both natural and man-made—threatening to destroy him.

With his trademark elegance and intelligence, Robert Harris, bestselling author of Archangel and Fatherland, re-creates a world on the brink of disaster.]]> 274 Robert Harris 0812974611 Chris 3 3.85 2003 Pompeii
author: Robert Harris
name: Chris
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2003
rating: 3
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]]> Endgame 12287 Endgame, originally written in French and translated into English by Beckett himself, is now considered by many critics to be his greatest single work. A pinnacle of Beckett's characteristic raw minimalism, it is a pure and devastating distillation of the human essence in the face of approaching death.]]> 60 Samuel Beckett 0571070671 Chris 4 3.83 1957 Endgame
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Chris
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1957
rating: 4
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date added: 2013/10/13
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]]> Watt 104613 256 Samuel Beckett 0714506109 Chris 4 3.93 1953 Watt
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Chris
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1953
rating: 4
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date added: 2013/10/13
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]]> Krapp's Last Tape & Embers 104627
In the second, a man walking along the seashore recalls his dead father while other familiar voices speak to him from the past.]]> 48 Samuel Beckett 0571062091 Chris 4 4.03 1958 Krapp's Last Tape & Embers
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Chris
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1958
rating: 4
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date added: 2013/10/13
shelves:
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]]> The Man in the High Castle 216363
This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.]]> 259 Philip K. Dick 0679740678 Chris 3 3.64 1962 The Man in the High Castle
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Chris
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1962
rating: 3
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date added: 2013/10/13
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]]> The Rules of Attraction 9912 From the bestselling author of American Psycho comes this satirical black comedy about the death of romance.

Set at an affluent liberal arts college during the height of the Reagan eighties, The Rules of Attraction follows a handful of rowdy, spoiled, sexually promiscuous students with no plans for the future—or even the present. Three of them—Sean, Paul, and Lauren—become involved in a love triangle of sorts within a sequence of drug runs, "Dressed to Get Screwed" parties, and "End of the World" parties.

As Bret Easton Ellis trains his incisive gaze on the kids at the self-consciously bohemian Camden College, treating their sexual posturing and agonies with a mixture of acrid hilarity and compassion, he exposes the moral vacuum at the center of their lives.]]> 283 Bret Easton Ellis 067978148X Chris 4 3.74 1987 The Rules of Attraction
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Chris
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1987
rating: 4
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date added: 2013/10/13
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]]> Less Than Zero 9915
Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs, and into the seamy world of L.A. after dark.]]> 208 Bret Easton Ellis Chris 2 3.62 1985 Less Than Zero
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Chris
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1985
rating: 2
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date added: 2013/10/13
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]]> Disgrace 6192 220 J.M. Coetzee 0143036378 Chris 3 3.86 1999 Disgrace
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Chris
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1999
rating: 3
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date added: 2013/10/13
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]]> Kiss of the Spider Woman 588242 281 Manuel Puig Chris 3 3.99 1976 Kiss of the Spider Woman
author: Manuel Puig
name: Chris
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1976
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/10/13
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nova Express (The Nova Trilogy, #2)]]> 23931 192 William S. Burroughs 0802133304 Chris 3 3.67 1964 Nova Express (The Nova Trilogy, #2)
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1964
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/10/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Soft Machine (The Nova Trilogy #1)]]> 23937 184 William S. Burroughs 0802133290 Chris 3 3.48 The Soft Machine (The Nova Trilogy #1)
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.48
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/10/13
shelves:
review:

]]>