clyde m

• Rated 4 stars

“This is my first foray into the legendary novelist Peter Carey. And I must say, he is one of the more unique writers out there. Imagine reading a novel about a kid who is on the run with a woman who has kidnapped him from his grandmother as a favor to his mother. Now of course this woman was part of a core collective movement involved in the overthrow of the US government back in the sixties. But it is now the early seventies and all are on the run and in hiding.
What makes this so interesting is not the story itself, but how he writes this book from the child's perspective, and how it evokes a mood throughout. Here you have this kid, who literally was born with a silver spoon in his mouth whisked away from his Grandmother in upstate New York and taken to Australia to live in a hippy commune. You watch him try and put the pieces together as the adults around him are trying to figure out what to do with him, while trying to secure their own freedom.
Amongst this mess, you have a touching story about what is real and how the various adults come to terms with their past through this innocent boy. Many things are quite unexpected throughout.”

clyde m wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“A gripping thriller about a plot to bring down the federalist government based on real events with two protagonists inserted into the mix. This story was told by two voices, Ethan Saunders, a former spy tarnished with the label traitor just to protect his former fiancee, but left to a life of debauchery; and Joan Maycott, widow of wrongly slain Andrew Maycott who wants to exact her revenge on those that led her husband to her fate.
It is hard to fathom that a group of people, individuals could potentially bring down a nation, but yet again the nation is in it's infancy. It is obvious when you see Ethan Saunders going to stroll in whenever he wants to see the current Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. I mean, could you imagine people being able to just stroll into Timothy Geithner's Office, or visiting Ben Bernanke today?
Ethan and Joan do meet and kind of end up somewhere on different sides of the plot, yet have a begrudging respect for one another and acknowledge each other and their crews as patriots. The ending of this saga is a bit convoluted, but still a worthwhile read. It is a departure from his other novels, taking on big events and having real characters woven in to make it a novel of historical fiction. It is obvious through what was written that David Liss did extensive research and wove it masterfully to relevance for the reader.”

clyde m wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“I read this book for our book club. I enjoyed Blindness, but this book showed what happens when you have an author with a great reputation that editors and translators fear. Why, you ask? Well, from a reader's perspective, I was forced to put it down usually after 10 pages of repetitive prose from a onetime literary giant who is obviously suffering from dementia.
Yes, all of the same characters were in the book, but this could easily have been 50 pages with the story intact and to the point.”

clyde m wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“This was by far the best book I have read this year. Not only was the protagonist, Daniel Sempere portrayed excellently, all of the characters were larger than life. It was like reading a surrealist tinged flavor of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel meeting up with the Noir tendencies of an author that escapes me right now. The depictions of post WWII Franco's Barcelona and the remnants of the civil war are absolutely haunting. But what I enjoyed the most was the importance of books and the theme of how they could keep someone alive stood out.”

clyde m wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Madness and keeping someone institutionalized for the better part of her adult life because of the blundering of males, along with the redemption that comes with it.”

clyde m wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 0 stars

“I could only read about a chapter, but gave up as this kind of genre didn't do it for me in any way.”

clyde m wrote this review Friday, July 24 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“This was an enjoyable summer read, definitely a book club book. Someone in my group chose it and I was actually surprised how much I liked it. I usually choose fiction that is more current, but this based over 2500 years ago was a page turner like any modern suspense novel. You could not help but root for the Spartans and it you can see the reason why from this excerpt, " I will tell His Majesty what a king is. A king does not abide within his tent while his men bleed and die upon the field. A king does not dine while his men go hungry, nor sleep when they stand at watch upon the wall. A king does not command his men's loyalty through fear nor purchase it with gold; he earns their love by the sweat of his own back and the pains he endures for their sake. That which comprises the harshest burden, a king lifts first and sets down last. A king does not require service of those he leads but provides it to them. He serves them, not they him."

This excerpt was told by Xeones, servant warrior to Dienekes, and not even a Spartan by birth, but Spartan in service. He shared this with Xerxes, King of Persia. It is understandable why the Spartans and Greece as a whole defeated the more numerous Persians. There is more than numbers, rigor for freedom and desire to be free united all under the Spartan banner at that time. It is obvious that true democracy had it's origins in Greece, not Rome. Too bad that today democracy is shrouded in corporatacracy, which really is the antithesis of democracy.”

clyde m wrote this review Sunday, July 26 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“This author, a Physicist and Academic by trade had some good points, but for the most part, it was a 149 page ramble. I did like the point he was making regarding patenting the genome and how frightening that is. We really don't have to look farther than Monsanto to see that.”

clyde m wrote this review Sunday, July 12 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Compelling and thoughtful, but with a great need of an editor's stroke. Nonetheless, James Lovelock at 90 years of age is still an intellectual powerhouse and his thoughts come not only from rigorous scientific discipline, but from an ability to make interrelationships across these disciplines for all to see what has come about with our lack of foresight.
The question that humanity should have from reading this work is not if we can change the course that the planet is on from over 150 years of industrialization, overpopulation, and the pollution caused from our Adam Smith based economics, and "tribes driven" world. The question is, how will the remaining survivors post global heating calamity will actually evolve and if we will finally learn to live within the balance of this planet by working with it.
This should be required reading for every high school student, there is no sugarcoating or greenwashing here, just a straight understanding of the human condition and what it has done collectively to the planet and eventually to ourselves.”

clyde m wrote this review Monday, June 8 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 0 stars

“Existentialism in prose that takes a look at the follies within class at it's best, and where else can you find this form of contemplation but in a large arondissment in Paris. Our protagonists in this story, a middle age concierge who is incredibly intelligent but hides it to keep her job, a wealthy Japanese widower who has just moved in, and a precocious 12 year old wiser than her years, yet contemplates suicide take us through all that is ridiculous around them with savoir faire.

The ending was tragic, yet fitting and I won't spoil it for you. It appeared at times within the book that the author took liberties in being verbose and pretentious for her own gratification. But mostly, incredibly astute and enjoyable.”

clyde m wrote this review Wednesday, May 27 2009. ( reply | permalink )