HOMER & LANGLEY by E. L. Doctorow

As one reads HOMER & LANGLEY and is swept along on its strange tide, one tries to raise one’s head intermittently to admire the craft. But that craft is, like the shoes made by the elves in story, so seamless, so perfect, that it’s hard to grasp until one is deposited on the other shore and left to linger for a while.

The novel uses the theme of the real-life case of the Collyer brothers, Homer and Langley Collyer, who lived on 5th Avenue in New York from the 1880s to 1947. A case of great notoriety, the brothers (suffering from extreme compulsive hoarding disorder) effectively mewed themselves up within their house. Over the decades this filled with newspapers, collections of mainly non-functional items, and garbage. They disassociated themselves from the outside world to the extent that their electricity and water supplies were cut off – a situation they did not attempt to rectify. After their death (caused directly by the accumulated items within the house), over 100 tons of hoarded rubbish were removed from the house.

September 6, 2010 · Judi Clark · 2 Comments
Tags: , , , , ,  Â· Posted in: Contemporary, Facing History, New York City, y Award Winning Author

THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVA by Adrienne McDonnell

THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVA by Adrienne McDonnell is an interesting novel that takes place in Boston, Trinidad, Florence, Venezuela, Milan, and other exotic places during the very early 20th century. It opens in 1903 and ends in 1914. The novel is loosely based on the life of the author’s husband’s great-grandmother, a diva who lived a very unconventional life for her time.

August 5, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Debut Novel, Facing History, Reading Guide

MY WIFE’S AFFAIR by Nancy Woodruff

If you’ve got a hot work project with an overdue deadline, a soccer game that you simply must attend, or any “must do” commitments in the next couple of days, whatever you do, DON’T pick up this book. It will grip you, entice you, and place you under its spell. And in the end, it just may break your heart.

July 22, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: Contemporary, Family Matters, United Kingdom

THE QUICKENING MAZE by Adam Foulds

Somewhere toward the end of this inventive and imaginative novel, peasant nature poet John Clare muses about “the maze of a life with no way out, paths taken, places been.”

In reality — and much of this book IS based on reality — each of the characters within these pages will enter into a maze — figuratively, through the twists and turns of diseased minds, and literally, through the winding paths of the nearby forest. Some will escape unscathed and others will never emerge. But all will be altered.

June 28, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, Facing History, Man Booker Nominee, United Kingdom, y Award Winning Author

DIRECTOR’S CUT by Arthur Japin

Federico Fellini’s oeuvre is widely recognized as a major contribution to modern culture. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, his movie, 8 ½ is ranked the third best film of all time by the British Film Institute (2002). His last movie, made in 1990, three years before his death, was La voce della luna (The Voice of the Moon). He was having trouble raising the funds for the movie and made a commercial for an Italian bank. The woman in the commercial bore a striking resemblance to his last lover, Rosita Steenbeek, a young Dutch actress. This period, leading to the end of his Fellini’s life is the story being told in DIRECTOR’S CUT.

June 8, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Facing History, italy, Literary, Translated, World Lit

CONSPIRATA by Robert Harris

Spanning five years, Harris’ second crisis-driven installment in the life of Cicero (after IMPERIUM — both can be read on their own) begins in 63 BC as Cicero is elected consul of Rome and finds himself caught between two factions scheming for power, the patricians and the populists. Tiro, his slave and loyal secretary, continues to chronicle his master’s exploits as powerful forces range against him, including the wily and ruthless Gaius Julius Caesar.

May 28, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: Facing History