Published: 1942 (Gallimard) Albert Camus’ novella, The Stranger, follows a man who murdered another for no reason other than the sun. Set in the French colony of Algiers, a French colonist named Meursault attends his mother’s funeral. Not particularly sad or fond of his late mother, Meursault sleepwalks through the funeral arrangements and complains aboutContinue reading “The Stranger-Albert Camus”
Category Archives: Fiction
Chronicle of a Death Foretold-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Published: 1981 (La Oveja Negra) Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novella, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, draws the reader into the recollections and imagination of a town still reeling from a brutal murder. Marquez’s unnamed narrator goes back to the town, 23 years after the murder of Santiago Nasar, to put the pieces together of that fatefulContinue reading “Chronicle of a Death Foretold-Gabriel Garcia Marquez”
Snow Country-Yasunari Kawabata
Published: 1948 (Serialized in 1930’s and 1940’s by Bungeishunjuu and Kaizo among others, translated into English by Edward Seidensticker in 1956) Yasunari Kawabata’s novel, Snow Country, is a beautiful and sobering novel that transports the reader to a place near and dear to my heart, Niigata Prefecture. In Part One of the novel, Shimamura, aContinue reading “Snow Country-Yasunari Kawabata”
Life for Sale-Yukio Mishima
Published: 1968 (Shueisha) Yukio Mishima’s novel, Life for Sale, is a rollicking surrealist novel that follows a young salaryman, Hanio, who fails to commit suicide and then turns to an ad in the paper to do the trick. Hanio, nihilistic and without family, decides that he will sell his life to anyone by any meansContinue reading “Life for Sale-Yukio Mishima”
The Last Tycoon-F. Scott Fitzgerald
Published: 1941 (Charles Scribner’s Sons) F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, transports you back to 1930’s Hollywood where an iconic producer, Monroe Stahr, holds onto his last shred of power and intrigue. The novel starts by introducing our Great Gatsbyian narrator Cecilia Brady, the daughter of Stahr’s co-producer and rival Pat Brady, asContinue reading “The Last Tycoon-F. Scott Fitzgerald”
The Old Man and the Sea-Ernest Hemingway
Published: 1952 (Charles Scribner’s Sons) Ernest Hemingway’s novella is a small story of epic proportions. Santiago, a grizzled and down-on-his-luck fisherman breaks a months long streak of futility by venturing out to the Cuban Gulf Stream to meet his fate, death or otherwise. Hemingway starts and ends his novel with Santiago and his young assistant/friendContinue reading “The Old Man and the Sea-Ernest Hemingway”
Of Mice and Men-John Steinbeck
Published: 1937 (Covici Freide) John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, tells the story of two flawed friends during the Great Depression who stick together until the elements of an uncertain world collide too fiercely to keep their bond alive. George is the caretaker, a quick-thinking and pragmatic man looking out for Lennie, a trueContinue reading “Of Mice and Men-John Steinbeck”
A Farewell to Arms-Ernest Hemingway
Published: 1929 (Scribner) Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, reads like a long sip of whiskey that burns the throat while in the same turn calming the senses. Immersed in tales of the Italian Front of WWI, I read each short chapter staring out at a lake, fitting for a novel that is setContinue reading “A Farewell to Arms-Ernest Hemingway”
The Painted Veil-W. Somerset Maugham
Published: 1925 (Heinemann) Summary: W Somerset Maugham’s novel The Painted Veil is one of those novels that, while not having any real “shock value” or plot twists which are needed to sustain a certain readership, sustain the reader’s attention with perpetual sadness and disappointment. Not the disappointment in a character you learn to love, butContinue reading “The Painted Veil-W. Somerset Maugham”
A Pale View of Hills-Kazuo Ishiguro
Published: 1982 (Faber and Faber) Summary: A Pale View of Hills is a haunting novel about the lengths at which our subconscious will go to unburden ourselves from the miseries of life. Set in Nagasaki, author Kazuo Ishiguro’s birthplace, the author explores the emotional craters which line the city after the atomic bombing of August 9, 1945. BlurringContinue reading “A Pale View of Hills-Kazuo Ishiguro”
Will Reviews Things 