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Book Review

Beloved by Toni Morrison

BelovedBeloved by Toni Morrison

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book once, 10 years ago, and to be honest I dreaded having to reread it for a class. My first experience was frustrating. I felt confused and alienated to the story. Then again, I felt confused and alienated about most things: I was in my early twenties.

I’m so glad this book gave me another chance. After a decade of digital, this book was like vinyl. Funny how I couldn’t connect to the story a decade ago, yet today, the raw and powerful feelings of emotional desperation coursing through these characters have resounded in me like an echo of some familiar, intimate history of my own – though, admittedly, a milder, bourgier one.

There are complicated scenes in this book. By that I mean, scenes that aren’t meant to be passed through quickly, but can stay with you and resolve themselves through you as you live, if you’re interested. I love these kinds of novels. They are the best kind. They are more like companions than stories, companions who start up long conversations with you and continue asking questions long after you’ve moved past them to other books and other places.



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Under the Volcano by Malcom Lowry

Under the VolcanoUnder the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although I read this book straight through, with relatively few interruptions, I’ve never been more aware of Nabokov’s dictum that “one cannot read a book: one can only reread it.”

I barely scratched the surface of this novel. The prose expertly balances the natural dissolution of each character’s thoughts with effortlessly structured literary devices – weaving metaphor and allusion into the settings and interior life of each character – and Lowry is able to keep all of it just beyond the grasp of everyone involved.

There was so much going on in this novel that it was too hard to navigate without a guide. However, there’s no better guide than a first reading and I’m curious to see what I get out of this book the second time around.





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Some thoughts from Goodreads.com

Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and CriticismPractical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism by M. Keith Booker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked the idea behind this book. There are very few surveys of literary theory that approach the subject in practical degrees (from very general introductions to specific applications) with an aim towards professional academic usage.

However, Prof. Booker leaves much to be desired, and I still don’t exactly understand why the second part (“Introduction to the Application of Literary Theory,” where he goes through and treats specific works with a touch of the previously introduced literary strategies) even exists. I would have liked to read more seminal essays within each theory, which would mean shrinking part two into brief introductions and expanding the third part of the book.

Although I did like the way he was able to keep straight some of the potentially tortuous psychoanalytic concepts of Lacan, there are more sophisticated surveys available.

All in all, if you’ve never read lit theory, I’d recommend the introduction and the opening chapters as a useful handbook to supplement your interests. The essays in the back are great, but only relevant if you happen to be studying that particular text and/or working in that literary strategy for the first time.



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