I Am Pilgrim is yet another book bought to fulfil the ‘3 for a pound’ offer at a car boot sale. I’d vaguely heard of it around, and I now realise that this ‘around’ is my English teacher’s cupboard. Nestled in among his collection of novels, poetry anthologies, Random Bits of Crap and novelty hats is… Read More Judging a Book by its Cover: I Am Pilgrim
I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. Or its blurb. And I have learnt my lesson, because in my opinion, both the blurb and the cover of this novel are utterly misleading. Luckily, it’s a decent book, not the lukewarm of petty domestic dissatisfaction that I was expecting. I only… Read More The Green Road by Anne Enright
Yes, I know that I’m late on this Booker bandwagon, considering that this novel won the award back in 1997. I wasn’t even a thought at this point, let alone a foetus. But this is a very, very good book indeed. Set in India, Roy’s writing is vivid and colourful, combining razor-sharp images of this rural town with… Read More The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Well. Well. Was I the only person who expected this novel to be, quite frankly, worse? I had expected a skin-crawling, watching-sex-scenes-with-the-parents cringefest, in regards to the relationship between Paul Morel and his mother. Stupid me for expecting Lawrence to write something so crass as that. And, thank Christ, that means no Oedipus-complex sex. This is… Read More Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
Dear Oxfam Bath – You probably know me as the weird kid Coraline dress-a-like. I dash in once a month, flitting from fiction to classics to poetry to drama, instantly regretting the fact that I spent three quid on a latte when I could have used that on another book that I wouldn’t read for… Read More A Love Letter (to my favourite bookshop)
In my opinion, all the best things are chunky. Kit Kats. Chocolate chip cookies. And now this novel, which is a lot larger than I had realised. This has been lying around on my bookcase for years. Although I’ve enjoyed much of DH Lawrence’s other works – his poetry and short stories especially – I… Read More CR: Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
A little WordPress notification popped up, thanking me for sticking around for two years. Blimey. I can’t quite believe that I’ve made it this far. Looking back at my earlier posts makes me cry a little bit inside, but that shows I’ve grown as a person, a reader, and hopefully a writer. In those two… Read More 2 years!
