Archive for the ‘Speculative (Beyond Reality)’ Category

SUDDENLY IN THE DEPTHS OF THE FOREST by Amos Oz

Any writer who can so completely capture the essence of cowness, even in translation (here by Sondra Silverston) is most certainly worth reading, and I am entirely pleased to make the acquaintance of Israeli novelist Amos Oz. Never mind that this airy little story of 2005, which the author describes as “A fable for all ages,” is almost certainly merely a footnote to Oz’s work, barely reflecting what I understand to be the seriousness of his major work, let alone the outspoken commitment of his political writings. It is still a story worth reading once for its charm and twice for its meaning.

March 21, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Allegory/Fable, Speculative (Beyond Reality), World Lit

ONE OF OUR THURSDAYS IS MISSING by Jasper Fforde

In Jasper Fforde’s ONE OF OUR THURSDAYS IS MISSING, the fictional Thursday Next takes center stage. Although she and the real Thursday look alike, they differ in a number of ways. The real Thursday Next is a veteran agent of Jurisfiction, fiction’s “policing elite.” She’s tough and ruthless towards her enemies, and will do anything to protect the integrity of the BookWorld. Her fictional counterpart, on the other hand, is gentle and dignified. She would rather hug than fight.

March 8, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Humorous, Literary, Sleuths Series, Speculative (Beyond Reality), Unique Narrative

WITCHES ON THE ROAD TONIGHT by Sheri Holman

Witches on the Road Tonight by Sheri Holman is a tale of intergenerational witches that takes place in four different time frames between the 1930’s and the present. The plot moves back and forth between generations and characters. This requires a bit of concentration, but is well worth the effort. It has something of the fears that rise from ghost stories told around a campfire.

March 3, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: Horror, Reading Guide, Speculative (Beyond Reality), US South

THE ILLUMINATION by Kevin Brockmeier

Many believe that in today’s tortured times, humanity is mortally wounded. What if our pain manifested itself as visible light, and what if that pain was the most beautiful thing about us? What if the pain would cease and the light would radiate from us all?

In Kevin Brockmeier’s incandescent novel, his characters struggle to adapt to a new way of experiencing pain and loss and indeed, life itself. The author employs overlapping, fable-like narratives starting with Carol Ann whole life “seemed like one long litany of wounds.” Carol Ann had “known days of happiness and beauty, rate moments of motionless wonder, but trying to relive them was like looking out the window at night from a partially lit room.”

February 3, 2011 · Judi Clark · One Comment
Tags:  Â· Posted in: Allegory/Fable, Contemporary, Reading Guide, Speculative (Beyond Reality)

NATION by Terry Pratchett

In interviews, Terry Pratchett has said that he had to write NATION. He pushed aside earlier scheduled work to accomplish this. The momentum of this need translates itself into a headlong rush which the reader experiences quite shortly after picking up the volume… until the end.

December 19, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Coming-of-Age, Speculative (Beyond Reality), y Award Winning Author

LUKA AND THE FIRE OF LIFE by Salman Rushdie

What a father Salman Rushdie would make! Imagine being read to from a book that opens with “a boy named Luka who had two pets, a bear named Dog and a dog named Bear.” And then to learn that the former “was an expert dancer, able to get up onto his hind legs and perform with subtlety and grace the waltz, the polka, the rhumba, the wah-watusi, and the twist, as well as dances from nearer home, the pounding bhangra, the twirling ghoomar (for which he wore a wide mirror-worked skirt), the warrior dances known as the spaw and the thang-ta, and the peacock dance of the south.”

November 18, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: Speculative (Beyond Reality), World Lit, y Award Winning Author