Man, I like Murakami. That being said, I don’t think I understand him. This is a cool book, though. Like A Wild Sheep Chase, it has a Sheep Guy, so there’s that. It has freshly-made doughnuts. It has a wack labyrinth. It has beautiful illustrations and a cool cover. I don’t know what the fuck it’s about, but I’m giving it 4 stars because it’s strange and wonderful regardless, and because I love the way he uses strangely stilted language (or his translator does?) and […]
Pretty good. Not great.
This is “review” #6, and I still don’t know how to do this properly. I’m not really interested in giving a synopsis, but I guess there aren’t any rules, so once again, this is just kinda what I thought about this. On Neil Gaiman’s amazon bio, he says, “I make things up and write them down.” Which is awesome. Obviously (?) he’s being a least a little disingenuous, but with this book it doesn’t seem too far off. I believe this was his first novel, […]
Mesmerizing, like driving in a snowstorm but in a good way. Yeah.
I really enjoyed this book. Without giving too much away, a couple has moved to Alaska in search of a fresh start, fleeing from general unhappiness stemming from the loss of a child. This loss, in the wife especially, led to years of feeling inadequate and out of place in an extended family very unlike her own. Alaska proves more demanding than anticipated and in the midst of a punishing winter they’re able to find some moments of real joy in which they play, making […]
Worth the ten minutes
Lorenzo Mattotti’s illustrations make this very straightforward retelling of Hansel & Gretel worth the very small time investment. This is not to say Neil Gaiman isn’t awesome, because, come on. The drawings are dark, literally as well as figuratively, and pretty eerie. They’re in heavy ink and feel wild, windy, even. There’s a short feature in the back of the book, “Hansel and Gretel…A Changing Tale,” that’s pretty interesting. You won’t wish you had your ten minutes back, but you aren’t going to feel like […]
OMG #didn’tlikeitmuch
Yeah, I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Admittedly, I don’t read much in this genre and picked it up mainly because it’s set in Detroit. It’s in extremely short sections following the story as it unfolds among 5 or 6 different characters — I don’t even remember and I don’t care. The author weaves the different components together well, and a couple of the characters are as appealing/unappealing, as they need to be. There’s a supertough detective, you see, who’s on this […]
Spare, Tense, Haunting
So, he’s done it again. From the title, which serves both as reference to a 1989 Act regarding child welfare, and also (maybe) a handy, short sentence reminding us of children’s – or this child’s? – real, though limited, power and determination, to the very last paragraph, there are simply no extraneous words. Marvelous. I don’t even want to go into the plot. I just want to say that the building tension is so expertly executed you hardly notice it’s happened. I think it’s Margaret […]
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