• Rated 4 stars

“Quotable and sexy, grody at times, and almost as good as volume two.”

chu_hi wrote this review Friday, July 13 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I think it's a story about righteousness, identity, and conviction. It covers a range of political topics, from feminism to affirmative action to Haiti, without preachiness or obvious symbols, by bringing them closer to the heart. But it isn't only a manual for righteousness and justice; it's also a very personal and passionate work of fiction.

Playing out Smith's lessons are volitile characters painted in contrasting colors, onto scenes Smith sets in a very classical style. In and around a New England liberal arts college, two parallel families of mixed English and Caribbean descent are crusading for their lifestyles and for public affirmation.

I love Zora Belsey, who is seen by herself as frumpy and awkward, by her father as a robotic misfit who doesn't get the world, and by everyone else as a powerful force and intellectually intimidating.”

chu_hi wrote this review Wednesday, December 20 2006. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“This is a good book to read during Lent, Ramadan, or any other time you might be trying to abstain from drinking alcohol. Boozing and being an irresponsible cad go hand-in-hand in nearly all of these stories! My favorites are "The Sorrows of Gin," "The Day the Pig Fell into the Well," "The Five-Forty-Eight," "Reunion" and "The Enormous Radio."”

chu_hi wrote this review Wednesday, December 20 2006. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“All of the familiar Coupland themes are there: parent-child relationships, the craft of making ones own niche in the world, the less-than-graceful way in which other people enter and exit the stage of your life. Coupland's characters have always been believable, but Liz Dunn's resigned loneliness is so vivid that hits you in the gut. Liz's brother's youth-fountain-seeking occupation tricked me into looking forward to a magical elixer ending, a la All Families Are Psychotic, but realism prevails and I found myself grateful for it.”

chu_hi wrote this review Wednesday, December 20 2006. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Jhumpa Lahiri's novel on the nature of identity is a water-colored odyssey of restlessness, rebellion, and maturity. ”

chu_hi wrote this review Wednesday, December 20 2006. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“As much as I like unpredictability, I'm not sure I like a story that forks with my suspension-of-disbelief so hard. One thing I did like, though, was the treatment of Karen when she re-emerged into the waking world. She had been sleeping for a long, long time, but the people around her behaved as though she had been floating in space for eons, rather than a mere 17 years.”

chu_hi wrote this review Wednesday, December 20 2006. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Someone suggested to me that once you've read a certain number of Coupland novels, the (er) novelty wears off. I haven't found that to be the case, and I was absolutely in the grip of his imagery in this book. ”

chu_hi wrote this review Wednesday, December 20 2006. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 5 stars

“I can't imagine I lived my whole life without this story as a part of me. Two-egg twins with a "siamese soul" and a dysfunctional family of self-centered hypocrites lose their childhood to a series of mishaps and misunderstandings. Their close-knit extended family are scattered around the globe, each alone with their own madness and sadness.

Keeping with the water theme of the book, I can say that this story starts with a few drops of rain, then flows evenly and steadily, then rushing, raging, until it plunges over a waterful, violent and sorrowful. Thank God for the calm pool at the bottom; that is, the ending.

I admire the way authors such as Roy can tell a story without any anchor in time. The story is intriguing, but more so is the writing style. ”

chu_hi wrote this review Wednesday, December 20 2006. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Do you remember the part in The Man in the High Castle when the fan tells the writer the truth about his story? She might have explained it better if she'd handed him a copy of A Scanner Darkly. PKD, as you probably know, was obsessed with the idea that his own timeline (and memories) had been altered without his knowledge. Another idea which gripped him was that time was not a line at all, but rather "round." That he was, for example, living among Romans about 2,000 years ago, but that maybe he wasn't plucked from that setting - maybe the setting had been altered around him, so that he believed he was living in the 1960's. The roundness of time is better expressed in Scanner than in The Man... with such theories such as, "The First and Second Coming of Christ are the same event."

...Fans of Valis, Radio Free Albemoth, and The Divine Invasion will be happy to see the return of the pink rectangle of light on the wall!”

chu_hi wrote this review Wednesday, December 20 2006. ( reply | permalink )