Writezone Fiction Featured Reviews
- Bridges of Madison County (Calli Pilkington)
Robert Kincaid, a photographer, arrives in Madison County, Iowa, to photograph the area's covered bridges. He stops for directions at the home of Francesca Johnson, a disillusioned Farm wife whose husband and children are out of town. The next four wonderful days awaken a deep, fulfilling love between Robert and Francesca. All too soon, Francesca & Robert must make decisions that will change their lives forever.
- Christine Falls (Virtual Writer)
Review of “Christine Falls” by Benjamin Black Longford Book Club Book of the Month for March “Christine Falls” is John Banville’s first foray into the genre of crime fiction. Banville is well known and respected for his high literary
- The Island (Application Administrator)
- 'The Island' tells the story of four generations of the Petrakis Family. The youngest member of that family, 25 year old Londoner Alexis Fielding, decides to visit her mother�s home place, the small seaside village of Plaka in Crete, in a bid to understand her family history.
- A Place Called Here (Application Administrator)
- 'A Place Called Here' is the story of Sandy Shortt, an obsessive compulsive who is fixated with finding lost things.
- The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (Application Administrator)
- The story is about Bruno, whose father is recruited by Hitler to work at Auswitz. The book describes how Bruno is annoyed at having to move away from his lovely home and all his friends.
- As it is in Heaven (Application Administrator)
- This is a romance. It is the story of how a history teacher in Co Clare met and fell in love with an Italian violinist, Gabriella Castioldi.
- Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper � Case Closed (Application Administrator)
Already a successful writer of bestselling crime novels featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell attempts non-fiction in Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed. Through a series of assertions and hypotheses the author alleges that Impressionist painter Walter Sickert (1860 to 1942), was the notorious Ripper, murderer of at least five prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888.
- Grace and Truth (Application Administrator)
- A woman's journey into truth. A fluently written account of a tortured soul begging to be set free and of those who are resolute in their decision to hang onto the keys of truth.
- Three republished novels (Application Administrator)
Three republished novels By: Richard Yates, John Williams & Patrick Hamilton reviewed by:Allan Hosgood 'REVOLUTIONARY ROAD' by Richard Yates, 'STONER' by John Williams and 'TWENTY THOUSAND STREETS UNDER THE SKY' by Patrick Hamilton These three novels all received critical praise on publication but failed to reac
- Bitter Fruit (Application Administrator)
- The story of a township family whose fragile life is split apart by a figure from the past.
- Youth (Application Administrator)
- In this semi-autobiographical novel, Coetzee charts the development of an artistic mind in a very honest and succinct manner.
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Application Administrator)
- A 15 year old boy suffering from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism sets out to find the killer of his neighbour's dog.
- Summer Pine (Application Administrator)
- A boy. A man. And an extraordinary love. 'Summer Pine' is a complex tale that begins in depression and culminates in resoltution, understanding and freedom.
- Shutter Island (Application Administrator)
- In Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, an escaped murderess vanishes from her cell...
- The Pursuit of Happiness (Application Administrator)
- An interesting love story set in post-war America
- This is not a novel (Application Administrator)
- None given
- The Passion Of Artemisia (Application Administrator)
- This is a gripping story about an Italian female artist, Artemisia Gentileshi. She was born in Italy in 1593 and died in 1653.It is partly a true story, as Artemisia did exist, but very little is known about her life. Susan Vreeland has created a beautiful
- The Hours (Application Administrator)
- A novel inspired by Virginia Woolf's, 'Mrs. Dalloway'.
- This Is Not A Novel (Application Administrator)
- In the opening paragraph, the narrator claims that is not her intention to write a novel but to send a message of love to her brother who was supposed to have drowned...
- The Light of Day (Application Administrator)
- A crime novel which deals less with the crime, than with the emotions of Private Detective Geroge Webb...
- Boat of Stone (Application Administrator)
- No Summary
- Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman (Application Administrator)
- Rose's husband of over twenty years leaves her for a younger woman.
- Atomised (Application Administrator)
- Controversial winner of Ireland's IMPAC Award
- Shroud (Application Administrator)
- In a quest for identity, Axel Vander travels to Turin to confront a woman determined to unmask him as a man with a secret past who has re-invented himself.
- The Time of Our Singing (Application Administrator)
- The latest 'Great American Novel'
- Love Letter (Application Administrator)
- The love letters of of Leonard Woolf and Trekkie Ritchie Parsons 1941 � 1968.With comments where necessary by Judith Adamson.Publisher Pimlico
- Vertigo (Application Administrator)
- What is fascinating about the travelogue premise of Verigo is the labyrinthine
and haunting sense of loss, of metaphysical misgiving, of rootlessness. He goes on to talk of other historical misfits, a Dr. K, Deputy Secretary of the Prague Workers� Insurance Company, and describes Dr. Rambousek as �one of those who are born to liead inconsolable lives.� - Simple Stories (Application Administrator)
One of the first questions I had when reading Simple Stories, is why is it called a novel and why is Schulze�s first book hailed as a collection of stories. Both books wield a similar narrative strategy: �short� chapters involving different characters that some times, surprisingly, haphazardly, and even incidentally, reappear in later chapters.
In any case, if this technique sounds familiar, perhaps it is because of the cinematic precedents. I�m thinking of Robert Altman�s brilliant film adaptation of a number of originally unrelated Raymond Carver short stories in �Short Cuts,� or even manically and bombastically so in Paul Thomas Anderson�s new film �Magnolia.�
And maybe that is where the difference and degree of success lies. �Simple Stories,� is not a book like many other books of fiction today which claim to be novels, but are in actual fact a series of tentatively linked short-stories. These chapters taken independently or together with the chapters where characters re-emerge cannot be read as individual short-stories per se the chapters are too anecdotal in form and tone. They give you the impression you are over-hearing an intimate conversation or observing a seemingly random event. That�s great. But, as for development or epiphany, well, forget it. In other words, what we are getting here is an irresolute slice of life. And yet this is what might be the most ingenious aspect about the novel, that in the wake of �reunification,� there are such disparate and fragmented experiences which Schulze has managed admirably to represent.
But is that enough? Or is it that surprising even? It is no secret that post-war German novelists have shied away from the metaphysical narrative for which they had been so trenchantly known. And �Simple Stories,� consolidates such a state of affairs.
There are a few, too few, historical allusions to keep the pre-Wall days in focus. �I stare at the veneer of his old Stasi desk - the furniture was handed over to Helping Hands Inc., who sold whatever they couldn�t use - all cheap junk,� a character called Danny tells us in chapter three which is named -- every chapter is titled with the kind of epigrammatic explanation of what is to come that was characteristic of the English novel in the eighteenth century � �a really good story for once.� Some of the better chapters include explanations like, �Martin Meuer tells about seeing his real father again after twenty-four years. An unexpected confession. Believers don�t get sick too often and they live longer. Pot holders and the act of an apostle.�
And yet the point of view which is largely first person is curiously similar in each story, understated, bland even. And this is the book�s greatest weakness. Yes, the characters sound too much like each other. The tone is always reserved, the language laconic, no matter what character is narrating. What makes up for the narrators� sameness is the dialogue. It is accurate and engaging,
but the situations are common-place and without great insight. For example, Lydia tells of Dr. Barbara Holitzschek, who claims that she has run over a badger. So though the form may share something with the cinematic examples I gave, there is nothing of their drama, vivaciousness, even if it is overplayed in Magnolia.
In other multi-narrated novels, whether it is Graham Swift�s Last Orders or Faulkner�s As I lay dying,� there is within the shifting perspectives a story that is developed, important revelations, progressions. You care about the characters in those novels. They sound and act differently to one another. But in Schulze�s effort those important ingredients are missing. The stories I yearn for remain in this collection static. It is almost like looking at a collection of well executed photographs. So in a way this is a very unconventional novel, but with a very unrevolutionary result.- Send in the Devils (Application Administrator)
- New novel from exciting young Irish author.
- Wild Decembers (Application Administrator)
- Edna O�Brien�s Wild Decembers.
