My first response to this book, published in 1959, was to praise it as an early contribution to what was soon to be launched as the modern-day feminist movement, as it is a penetrating study of a woman trapped by her own outdated middle-class conventions. But then I realized that it would do this book an injustice to define it so narrowly, as Connell in his understated way brilliantly strips bare the racist, classist, xenophobic and intolerant mindset that afflicted much of middle and upper-class […]
An archaeological dig into suburban life, teenage angst, and death
A startling, depressing, funny, painful glimpse into teenaged angst, The Virgin Suicides is Eugenides’ first novel and well-written but not a comfortable read. If you expect deep psychological insights into the phenomenon of suicide, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, the author reflects on adolescence, loss, regret, and the all too swift passage of time. One learns right from the beginning that the five teenaged daughters of the Lisbon family have all killed themselves, and with that horrifying fact now out in the open, the author proceeds […]
Life goes on after a global disaster … or does it?
While a lot of readers have used the word “subtle” to describe Perrotta’s book, I think it is a bit too kind. Yes, The Leftovers has an intriguing plot—the world has undergone a “Rapture” of a sorts, with millions of men, women and children, even babies, suddenly disappearing in front of their families, friends, in classrooms, at the workplace, driving their cars, taking showers, and leaving no clue as to what happened to them. The real story is what happens to those left behind, or […]