The Return

Review: The Lesser Bohemians: A Novel Eimear McBride Hogarth 2016 I had no preconceived notions what expect from this book.   Its other reviews were anywhere from brilliant to not so much so.   The prose style, at least initially, accomplished what I think its purpose was---to show the reader the impressions of a person encountering a new experience.   Short, chaotic type snippets from all directions that begin to take shape as she acclimates to her new surroundings.   Had me thinking of a Beckett novel at times, but less serious.   As the book moves forward the prose becomes more like what the reader is accustomed to except where the experiences are new, overwhelming or in some other way acts to unbalance the status quo.    The book descriptions given in the other reviews and elsewhere sum up the story line.   Young girl in a new town, older guy helping find her way.   Yep, that’s it.   Both of their stories seemed to...

Review: The Blue Guitar John Banville Vintage Books 2015 It’s pretty brazen of me to write any sort of review for an accomplished author, but I had to because some of the reviews for this book confuse me.   For me this author portrayed so many of the people I know right this minute, young and old.   They live the good life until it craters and then wonder how they ended up in the mess they find themselves.   Maybe the objections to the protagonist have something to do with looking into the mirror?   Others think another of his books has a better plot.   That may be the case for that other book, but is this book designed to have anything like the other?   It doesn’t seem that way to me.    Whatever the case may be I liked this book for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Banville’s writing itself.   I found it a joy to read and intend to re-read it in the near future.   Yes, Orme drifts into painterly type la...

Review: The Little Paris Bookshop Nina George, translated by Simon Pare Crown Publishers 2015 The end of this book was such a sad moment for me.   There’s a relationship that develops between the book and the reader that you just want to go on even though the story has been told and you know it done.   It’s all about love, loss, and healing.   It’s written for those that have learned what those words mean.   Maybe the last few pages revisits those themes within the reader one last time.   Yes, breathing does come easier now.     The bookshop Perdu operates from a barge sits on the Seine and is as unique as his approach to his customers. He can read the needs of his customers and points them to the books that would most help them and refuses to sell them ones he feels can harm them.   It is a case of “physician heal thyself” though, and through a series of events and some well-crafted characters he meets along the way, who in the...