Deborah Levy – Cannonball Read 17

It was a relief to hear the animal growl of his engine revving as I stepped back on the pavement

The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy

December 28, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Longslisted for the Booker Prize is a pretty standard blurb for Deborah Levy novels, and this one is a shame because I think it’s very good. And given how weak I felt (one of) the eventual winner(s), this one, along with her other two Swimming Home and Hot Milk were as a well. Maybe in another year. Saul Adler is a young historian who is beginning research project East Berlin in the summer 1988 when he is struck by a car in the same crosswalk pictured on […]

We were to use this in ladylike recreation

December 10, 2018 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I am going to be honest here. I might not hit the word count with each of these reviews. Some books lend themselves to more of a review than others. Annie John – 3/5 Stars Annie John is a short novel by the Antiguan novelist Jamaican Kincaid. Jamaica Kincaid is best known for her thoroughly brilliant and forever anthologized short story “Girl”. “Girl” is so good not only because of the power of the voice and the effectiveness of the images, but because it’s the […]

Funny when you have to remind yourself about things that, not long ago, consumed your every thought.

November 8, 2018 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Brass – 3/5 Stars So on the one hand this book falls a little into the generic kind of circa 1990s second generation immigrant American novel that was big for a good while. I recently read Charming Billy by Alice McDermott, which does this very thing. And then on the other hand, this book is a solidly written novel. Or rather, it is a novel, but it a challenging kind of narrative. For one, the story is good and interesting, but also a little typical […]

Americans have a lot of hangups but

May 31, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

But British readers love to savage books that DEIGN to be nominated for the Booker Prize. I know historically it’s been a relatively conservative prize that gives awards to the elder statesmen (and very few women) or feels like sometimes it rewards trends or underrepresented voices, often ignoring the best books in a given year for books that are a better “fit” for the prize. I mean if you looks through the list of winners and nominees there’s almost always a few you might feel […]

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