The setting is the Italian city of Ferrara on the eve of the Second World War. The rich and detached Jewish family of Finzi-Continis keep themselves secluded in their ostentatious property behind an imposing garden wall. The narrator, Giorgio, a poorer member of the Jewish community, falls in love with their lovely daughter Micol. Having met her […]
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani Read More »
James Pawkie, haberdasher in Gudetown (based on Irvine), rises by degree to the ultimate position of local power – that of Provost. This is a brilliantly acute fictional analysis of small town ambition, politics, power and manipulation. The Provost convinces by the realistic deployment of small detail and its ironic touch. Be prepared for the use
The Provost by John Galt Read More »
An elite and detached group of six classics students at a small Vermont college murder one of their number. How has this come about? The students are steeped in the cold, hard, and pure reality of the ancient Greek culture. Their characters undergo small steps and changes of mind that makes it possible for them to
The Secret History by Donna Tartt Read More »
A Passage to India (1924) concerns the ‘disconnects’ between Indian natives and British colonials played out around Chandrapore and the Marabar Caves in the days of the Raj. Forster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._M._Forster) delicately but resolutely sticks the knife into the whole idea of colonial presence in India. The narrative is engaging and the characters memorable, particularly perhaps Miss Adela
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster Read More »
This is an account of an American personal and family tragedy. The author does not disguise the character of this novel – it is a Garden of Eden tale set in the post-war United States with some rather nasty serpents. The Chapter headings are ‘Paradise Remembered‘, ‘The Fall‘, and ‘Paradise Lost‘. Playing by all the
American Pastoral by Philip Roth Read More »
Solzhenitsyn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solzhenitsyn) presents us with a group of cancer patients in a Soviet hospital in 1955. Together they are representative of Russian society of the time. Politics and ideology come under discussion on the ward. It’s the author’s understanding of how patients crumble under the pressure of their disease, though, that gives the novel its power. Vadim,
Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn Read More »
The eponymous dying man is a former soldier of the Mexican Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Revolution) who has become wealthy and powerful through ‘violence, blackmail, bribery, and brutal exploitation of the workers’. The novel explores the corrupting effects of power and criticizes the distortion of the revolutionaries’ original aims through ‘class domination, Americanization, financial corruption, and failure of
The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes Read More »
Millions of people have watched the star studded 1965 David Lean film adaptation (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059113/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm#cast) with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie (Available on DVD at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Zhivago-DVD-Omar-Sharif/dp/B00005MHNO/ref=pd_sim_b_1.) Why not give this classic a read? A love story set amid the swirling chaos of the Russian Revolution. First published in Italy in 1957 Pasternak’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Pasternak) masterpiece was not allowed to
Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak Read More »
Sixteen year old Vladimir Petrovich has a new neighbour at his parents’ country estate – the beautiful and alluring Zinaida. With hormones racing what’s a boy to do but fall hopelessly in love? Love and passion is a tricky and complex business, though, and Vladimir must undergo some character development before he comes to grips with
First Love by Ivan Turgenev Read More »
