Still Alice by Lisa Genova (Pocket Books, 2009)
This poignant debut novel by a neuroscientist from Harvard features a 50-year-old psychiatry professor who is ensnared in the early-onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. At first she (and her family) dismiss her forgetfulness as stress and over-programming, but as her symptoms flood her life, there is no way anyone can deny her awful spiral into dementia. In the course of the novel, Alice is forced to relinquish a highly esteemed career, her independence and her very sanity so that she comes to feel “bored, ignored and alienated.” While the writing itself is less than extraordinary, the simple and sad story of Alice’s genetic and devastating disease – she is, after all, more than she can remember – is told honestly and with enormous respect for its victims. “I can’t stand the thought of looking at you one day,” Alice says to her beloved husband early on. “This face I love, and not knowing who you are.” (8/10).
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
RollnSmoke Reviews: OUR MAN IN HAVANA by Graham Greene
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (Penguin, 2007; originally pub. 1958)
Greene’s most widely-read novel was written before the rise of Fidel Castro, and his characters were developed before the advent of 007. His main character, James Wormold, is a single man, living in Havana, Cuba, selling vacuum cleaners and raising a devoutly Catholic, 17-year old daughter. When he is randomly pinned to serve as a secret service agent, he jumps at the opportunity and develops fictional local agents and draws fake weapon plans out of vacuum sketches in order to collect a sorely needed income. The novel is written in a disjointed manner, loaded with characters from all over the world who gather in a depraved Havanna that writhes with drugs and murderers and prostitutes, all in an effort to establish larger, less appealing farce (7.5/10).
Greene’s most widely-read novel was written before the rise of Fidel Castro, and his characters were developed before the advent of 007. His main character, James Wormold, is a single man, living in Havana, Cuba, selling vacuum cleaners and raising a devoutly Catholic, 17-year old daughter. When he is randomly pinned to serve as a secret service agent, he jumps at the opportunity and develops fictional local agents and draws fake weapon plans out of vacuum sketches in order to collect a sorely needed income. The novel is written in a disjointed manner, loaded with characters from all over the world who gather in a depraved Havanna that writhes with drugs and murderers and prostitutes, all in an effort to establish larger, less appealing farce (7.5/10).
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
RollnSmoke Reviews: THE CORPSE WALKER by Liao Yiwu
The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China from the Bottom Up
by Liao Yiwu (Anchor Book, 2009)
Yiwu stitches together a series of 28 interviews with common, hard-working, down-trodden Chinese citizens that reveals a full and often sad portrait of Contemporary China. All of the interviews share common threads: Mostly elderly, male citizens work at the bottom of society – as The Human Trafficker, The Public Restroom Manager, The Abbot, The Former Red Guard, The Migrant Worker -- and usually suffer under a (failing) Communist system. In the course of telling these stories, Chinese customs and superstitions come to light and history unfolds, from Mao’s takeover, to the Great Famine of 1960, to the Great Leap Forward, to the present shift in political power. The stories are sometimes so similarly ghastly that the reader has a hard time believing they can possibly be true; alas, they are (8/10).
by Liao Yiwu (Anchor Book, 2009)
Yiwu stitches together a series of 28 interviews with common, hard-working, down-trodden Chinese citizens that reveals a full and often sad portrait of Contemporary China. All of the interviews share common threads: Mostly elderly, male citizens work at the bottom of society – as The Human Trafficker, The Public Restroom Manager, The Abbot, The Former Red Guard, The Migrant Worker -- and usually suffer under a (failing) Communist system. In the course of telling these stories, Chinese customs and superstitions come to light and history unfolds, from Mao’s takeover, to the Great Famine of 1960, to the Great Leap Forward, to the present shift in political power. The stories are sometimes so similarly ghastly that the reader has a hard time believing they can possibly be true; alas, they are (8/10).
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... a cold Kalik, anyone?
