The Art of Reviewing: Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain’s impact on food writing. Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Anthony Bourdain
Tag: fiction
Mechanicum (The Horus Heresy, Book 9) by Graham McNeill
The Horus Heresy series continues in Graham McNeill’s epic Mechanicum. Graham McNeill is one of the Black Library’s “dream team” writers. The other members of the trio include the hyper-prolific Dan Abnett and Ben Counter. The trio wrote the first three novels of the Horus Heresy series. The first three novels functioned like a self-contained trilogy, chronicling the Warmaster Horus and his descent into heresy and madness. James Swallow’s Flight of the Eisenstein (Book 4) was a taut thriller with crisp writing and wonderfully orchestrated space battles. Since then, the Horus Heresy has had its ups (Legion by Dan Abnett) … Continue reading Mechanicum (The Horus Heresy, Book 9) by Graham McNeill
Tiny Book Reviews
The Line of Beauty (2004), by Alan Hollinghurst Alan Hollinghurst reveals his mastery of English prose with The Line of Beauty, the 2004 Man Booker Prize-winning novel set in the decadent days of Thatcher’s Britain. In the novel, Nick Guest, a Henry James scholar, spends time as a houseguest of the Feddens. Gerald Fedden is the newly-elected Tory MP and lives with his wife and children in a glorious mansion in Notting Hill. Nick’s long-burning infatuation for Gerald’s son Toby gets extinguished and then transfigured in the two loves he meets. The first love is with Leo, a West Indian, … Continue reading Tiny Book Reviews
Critic’s Notebook: A Demanding Read, Part I (Fiction)
Years of experience has brought with it a fondness for the demanding read. My reading selections are promiscuous, omnivorous, and ecumenical. I’m an enthusiast for the Modern, the Experimental, and the Unclassifiable. I also enjoy reading space fantasy novels published by the Black Library. As a critic, I enjoy plumbing the depths of pop culture, high culture, and places in between. One of the experiences I enjoy I will call the Demanding Read. This essay, the first part of two, will explore the Demanding Read in terms of fiction. The second essay will focus on non-fiction. Given that each reader … Continue reading Critic’s Notebook: A Demanding Read, Part I (Fiction)
The Art of Reviewing Special Edition(TM): The 20 Minute “Avatar” Review
Every blog needs a large-scale project. The Art of Reviewing will explore reviewing as an art form and as a valuable element to understanding society. During this project, I will profile specific reviewers of merit. Several specific cases also explore other facets of reviewing. If you haven’t seen it already, it’s making the rounds on Ye Olde Nettertubes. It’s a twenty-minute review of James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar. Here’s the review, in two parts: *** COMMENTARY This review is a bit long and a bit cynical, but it makes a number of valid points. It is an artful combination of pop … Continue reading The Art of Reviewing Special Edition(TM): The 20 Minute “Avatar” Review
The Art of Reviewing: Nathan Rabin
Every blog needs a large-scale project. The Art of Reviewing will explore reviewing as an art form and as a valuable element to understanding society. During this project, I will profile specific reviewers of merit. Several specific cases also explore other facets of reviewing. Noted Nathan Rabin impressionist David Cross. Nathan Rabin is the hip hop music reviewer for the AV Club. He hails from Chicago and calls himself “the world’s most secular Jew.” His other noteworthy contributions to pop culture criticism include “Nashville or Bust,” a long-term series exploring country music, and “My Year of Flops.” With the latter, … Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Nathan Rabin
Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes by Will Self
A Review with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes 1. A Culinary Introduction Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes by Will Self explores and revels in decay and degeneration, gushing with bile and blood. The quartet of interconnected short stories focus on the liver, a bodily organ with interconnected lobes. The liver functions by processing toxins and connects to the gall bladder. People also consume liver as a delicacy. The dish “liver and onions” is a classic in American cuisine. I have eaten deer liver with onions and I enjoy the taste. Prior to preparing … Continue reading Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes by Will Self
In re Dollhouse Riffs
“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” Things get complicated. Due to the unprecedented awesomeness of Dollhouse, I’ve decided to forgo writing any more Dollhouse Riffs until Season Two concludes. As you know, dear readers, I avoid writing the usual episode summary. “This was cool. This wasn’t cool.” My essays aim for a more critical and analytical perspective. Fortunately and unfortunately, the December episodes of Dollhouse have really threw me for a loop. The reappearance of Alpha, the labyrinthine mindscrew of the Attic (both the episode and as a biotechnological concept), and Adelle’s assembly of a Dollhouse: LA Scooby Gang leave … Continue reading In re Dollhouse Riffs
Journey to the End of the Night (1932), by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
In the black heart of the Great Depression, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler rose to power, Louis-Ferdinand Cèline set the French literary scene afire with Journey to the End of the Night. By turns darkly comical, hallucinatory, and picaresque, the novel charts the misadventures of Bardamu. From the trenches of the First World War to French colonial Africa to New York City and Detroit, Bardamu experiences each place with his own jaundiced eyes. Eventually he returns back to suburban Paris, a small-time doctor working with impoverished patients. Bardamu is not alone. His friend, one Robinson, accompanies him as … Continue reading Journey to the End of the Night (1932), by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
The Temptation of St. Anthony by Gustave Flaubert
A work of singular genius. The plot is simple: Anthony, a monk, goes out to the desert to meditate, gets tempted. But what temptations! Flaubert pulls out all the stops in a decadent, phantasmagorical, hallucinatory, excessively brilliant novel. While the book is written like a play, it is clearly a novel, since staging this would be impossible. (Maybe Terry Gilliam or Michel Gondry could film it?) Our benighted monk gets tempted by all manner of beasts, demons, and sexy ladies, while the reader is treated to a panoply of cults, heresies, and sects, fighting for his attention. While a literary … Continue reading The Temptation of St. Anthony by Gustave Flaubert
The Driftless Area Review 