blauracke – Page 11 – Cannonball Read 17

“I forgive no one, and no one forgives me.”

Human Acts by Han Kang

August 23, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

The Gwangju Uprising was a popular revolt calling for the democratization of South Korea in 1980. Students who protested against the martial law government were imprisoned, tortured, raped, or executed by government troops which led to citizens taking up arms against them. The murder of fifteen-year-old Dong-Ho by soldiers is the event that loosely connects the individual stories in this book that take place during the uprising itself and then over the following 30 years. This is a book that can make a reader lose […]

No Room for Exceptions

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

August 12, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

Keiko, 36 years old, unmarried, and childless, has been working at the same convenience store for the last 18 years. Aware of her own unusualness, she only feels at home in the store where she understands how to interact with people, and how to appear normal. Still, the pressures of society to conform by getting married, having children, or at least getting a more appropriate job, are always present. This is a sweet and short book that is on one hand firmly rooted in Japanese […]

That Invisible Frontier

Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin

August 12, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

Leo Proudhammer, a 39-year-old, black, successful actor, suffers a heart attack on stage. This prompts him to look back on the events and people that shaped him, from growing up poor in Harlem to trying to make it big in the theatre as a young man, and from his turbulent relationship with his older brother Caleb and his long lasting liaison with the white actress Barbara to his affair with the young revolutionary Christopher. The way James Baldwin dissects race relations in America may be […]

Real Life Takes Place in Movement

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk

July 28, 2020 by blauracke 1 Comment

An elderly professor gives lectures on Greek history on a cruise ship, a Polish family vacations in Croatia with dramatic consequences, an immigrant tries to build a new life on a remote island in the north. In the 17th century, Filip Verheyen discovers the Achilles tendon, and Frederik Ruysch revolutionizes embalming techniques, while today, plastination makes it possible to preserve bodies in an incredibly detailed and lifelike fashion. These are just some of the stories told in this book, and in between, there are musings […]

Temptation and Seduction

In Praise of the Stepmother by Mario Vargas Llosa

July 24, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

Don Rigoberto’s and his second wife Lucrecia’s relationship is built on physicality and sexuality. When the prepubescent Alfonsito begins to insistently pursue his stepmother, she strongly resists. One day, however, she gives in. An entry into the erotic novel genre, Mario Vargas Llosa, obviously not satisfied with adhering to any conventions, immediately puts his own spin on what should be possible in such a tale. For instance, much of the eroticism is overdone in a way that borders on the grotesque which to me made […]

“Somebody always leaves a banana-skin on the scene of a tragedy.”

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

July 17, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

In Cuba, shortly before the end of the Batista regime, James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman, is recruited for the Secret Intelligence Service by an ambitious agent. He begins to fabricate information in order to earn money for his daughter’s education, but soon finds himself in more dangerous waters than he expected. This is a pretty good black comedy that makes fun of intelligence services and is genuinely hilarious, with the standout scene for me the one in which the agent who recruited Wormold notices […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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