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”
Tag Archives: Fiction
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”
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”
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”
The Woman In The Dunes-Kobo Abe
Published: 1962 (submitted to Yomiuri Prize) Setting: An unnamed coastal fishing village Summary: This Yomiuri Prize winning novel begins and ends in a dream like sandscape, a place where sand accumulates like time and swallows the visitor whole. Jumpei, an entomologist looking for the next new insect to classify, stumbles upon a desolate village with aContinue reading “The Woman In The Dunes-Kobo Abe”
Will Reviews Things 