The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (Penguin, 2010)
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, this novel presents a riveting premise: A man slaps a young boy who is not his own at a friend’s barbecue. The ensuing eight chapters are written from the points of view of eight characters who witness The Slap. The incident goes largely unresolved and serves instead to reveal the lives of the mean-spirited and self-righteous cast of characters who are motivated by drugs, sex and self-gratification in the Australian melting pot of Melbourne. Ultimately, truth doesn’t matter in this world, and the characters fail to evolve and are never redeemed (7.5/10).
Friday, December 31, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
RollnSmoke Reviews: CHRONIC CITY by Jonathan Lethem
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethen (Vintage, 2010)
This New York Times “Best Book of the Year” features Chase Insteadman, a former child television star living off royalties and among socialites in Manhattan, who befriends an eccentric stoner named Perkus Tooth with whom he shares a strange and narcissistic gestalt. Even though he is engaged to Janus, an astronaut trapped in orbit, Chase takes a lover, Oonah, an aloof ghost writer, who is instrumental in his struggle to understand what is real and true. Loaded with pop cultural references and charged with an often absurd existential quest steeped in the improbable, the narrative smacks of "The Truman Story" but which has a grim ending (8/10).
This New York Times “Best Book of the Year” features Chase Insteadman, a former child television star living off royalties and among socialites in Manhattan, who befriends an eccentric stoner named Perkus Tooth with whom he shares a strange and narcissistic gestalt. Even though he is engaged to Janus, an astronaut trapped in orbit, Chase takes a lover, Oonah, an aloof ghost writer, who is instrumental in his struggle to understand what is real and true. Loaded with pop cultural references and charged with an often absurd existential quest steeped in the improbable, the narrative smacks of "The Truman Story" but which has a grim ending (8/10).
Monday, December 13, 2010
COMPLICATIONS by Atul Gawande
Complications by Atul Gawande (Picador, 2002)
This fast-reading collection of nonfiction articles are true, gripping stories that reveal the uncertainty and imperfections of medical science and were written at the end of the Boston-based author’s eight year surgical residency. The Fallibility of Doctors addresses the importance of practice, the reality of human error and burnout and when good doctors go bad and the culture of medicine, especially the unspoken moral burden of practicing on people. The Mysteries of Medicine addresses the nature of pain and nausea, palliative medicine, blushing and hunger & obesity while the Analysis of Certainty Itself addresses autopsies, SIDS and the obligation to share medical knowledge to inform a contemporary patient base. The book is well-paced, and the information is offered in magazine-like bite-sized portions, ideal for the interested layperson (8.5/10).