In the spirit of completism, I airily decided that my Barbara Pym experience would not be perfect unless I’d read everything. Normally, I’m not so bonkers for an author that I’ll also read their unpublished work, but Pym is a special case. Having read her diary/autobiography, I found the unpublished work to be especially enjoyable and interesting. Civil to Strangers is a collection of Barbara Pym’s unpublished work, including several novels or partial novels that Pym had worked on and either could not find a […]
Another disappointment out of a promising premise
The Chancellor had pointed Viet Thanh Nguyen’s debut novel The Sympathizer to me on one of our weekly library jaunts, and the premise sounded interesting. I’ve been in the process of reading more contemporary Anglophone fiction, particularly in developing my own reading base and curriculum. I was interested in this novel, because it examined the Vietnam War from a different angle. The novel focuses on a Communist sleeper agent who is fronting as a good Vietnamese captain during the Vietnam War. His mentor, a general […]
Soldiers and Valentines and Sheep (Oh My!)
Confession: I only checked out this audiobook from the library because I liked the movie trailer (and it kills me to see the movie first. With very few exceptions, I am a read-the-book-first girl). I have a very loaded history with Thomas Hardy, namely with Tess of the D’Ubervilles. Okay, my beef is really with one Angel effing Clare, the worst human being to ever exist. I never finished Tess, but I did stop about the point when Angel said something horrible and douchey to […]
An intimate glimpse at the life of Barbara Pym
I decided to be a completist and read ALL the Barbara Pym. I’m typically not a stickler for reading an author’s diaries, letters, or miscellany (except for Jane Austen–that woman had a vicious streak in her, and I love every minute of it), but I felt like Pym would be an entertaining correspondent. I was not wrong. A Very Private Eye is a compiled collection of Pym’s letters, diaries from 1933-1979, and other notebook excerpts that featured ideas for her novels. We read about her […]
An original and innovative Jane Eyre adaptation
In recent years, I have looked less favorably upon Jane Eyre than when I first read it in high school. I think that is owing largely to being disillusioned with Mr. Rochester’s douchiness. But when The Chancellor told me that there was an adaptation featuring a half-Korean, half-American young woman, I was highly intrigued. Re Jane is the story of orphan Jane Re, a young woman straddling several cultures. After graduating from a smallish college and being rejected for a job at Lowood, a financial […]
A tale of Dominican oppression, of nerd self-hate, and of my ambivalence.
I’ve heard a LOT about Junot Diaz and his works. Out of curiosity, I decided to read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. And I am super ambivalent about what I just read. Especially since a lot of parts reminded me of Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents–but with an extra layer of self-loathing. The novel is several stories surrounding the titular character, Oscar. He is a Dominican-American young man who is overweight and geeky, with interests in writing, science fiction, […]
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