Lenon

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“Fantastic. Masterful writing. The title, with it's exclamation would suggest a comedy, and there were plenty of opportunities for Ms. Russell to swerve that direction. Her purpose becomes clearer as the story progresses. We aren't in a funny redneck backwater, we're closer to the Heart of Darkness. Allusions abound to a journey to the hell of Greek myth, Dante, Conrad, even to Harper Lee. The children turn out to be heroes, especially Ava Bigtree, a 13-year old with the heart of a lion, or perhaps an alligator. Look for this book on recommended reading lists and syllabi for years to come.”

Lenon wrote this review 4 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Three and a half stars. Very exciting guilt and murder story. Plenty of trains, Citroens and French shops, plenty of grisly scenes. Your Fontainebleau picture framer protagonist falls short of moral authority, or perhaps not. And Tom Ripley is a polite aesthete who doesn't mind helping a pal commit a few offenses.”

Lenon wrote this review Monday, January 2, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Read this as a teenager, and got my first notion of world history. I'm sure it is out of date now.”

Lenon wrote this review Wednesday, December 21, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“It is suggested that you become a British graphic designer, or at least a Brit who has been around since the 1930s to appreciate this history of the covers of Penguin paperbacks. I am only an American graphic designer, so I am missing a sense of cultural attachment to Penguin, although I have many of its titles on my shelves. You may love the development of the typography and imagery of this enormous and seemingly generous publisher as much as I do, at practically every stage and every era. ”

Lenon wrote this review Saturday, December 17, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Like me, you might first think you're in another dreary dismissal of the postwar suburban world, but the stereotypes turn into portraits of unhappiness you could not have predicted. Brilliant prose, sharp insight into character, moving portraits. This might have been another "Awakening" had the author taken a few steps off his path and written more from Alice Wheeler's viewpoint, but it still rings tragically true.”

Lenon wrote this review Sunday, December 4, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“ A multiverse such as New York City deserves a novel with the many extra dimensions found in Chronic City. It is funny: humorous and peculiar both. Lethem is masterful with words, sometimes a little showy, but I have come to admire his shining intellect and his belief in his own talent. He not immodest, he's simply better at this than almost everyone. For readers who are new to him, he has retained a strain of science fiction in even his serious novels, and it works. Just go with it.”

Lenon wrote this review Saturday, November 12, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Banville/Black plays a mean tune on a sentence, but this symphony is quite short and rather predictable. Three stars for prose.”

Lenon wrote this review Thursday, September 22, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Why watch television when you could be reading such fine entertainment?”

Lenon wrote this review Monday, September 19, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Sharply written and scientifically respectable, this is a portrait of the human impact on the Earth and what powers nature may have to correct the abuses we have visited upon it. Our own power to fix our broken planet may be small and our best hope is to get out of the way, says Wiseman, by reducing our numbers very soon.”

Lenon wrote this review Wednesday, August 10, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“A new kind of seriousness arises after Pickwick's galumphing humor but still many comic characters populate Nickleby, alongside cold and greedy villains.”

Lenon wrote this review Tuesday, July 5, 2011. ( reply | permalink )