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REVIEW: The Black Ball by Ralph Ellison
I learned something new today. Ralph Ellison’s full name is Ralph Waldo Ellison and he was named after (so says Wikipedia) Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, lecturer, philosopher. I shall try not to get confused. The Black Ball is the twelfth in the boxed set of Penguin Modern Classics and comprises four short stories, Boy on…
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REVIEW: The Legend of the Sleepers by Danilo Kis
Back to the Penguin Modern Classic collection and this is number 11 of 50 and the first one where I had never actually heard of the author at all. So I Googled it. Because that’s what I do (and what everyone does) and discovered Kis (1935 to 1989) was born in what is now Serbia,…
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REVIEW: The Three Electroknights by Stanislaw Lem
We are onto Penguin Modern Classic numero 9 and I give you The Three Electroknights by science fiction/ fantasy writer Stanislaw Lem. Now I know I have mentioned this before but the font on the front of this collection of 50 classics is so hideous I can barely look at it. The merging of the…
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REVIEW: Three Japanese Short Stories
Three Japanese Short Stories is number five in my box of Penguin Modern Classics so I am classing these five slim volumes as one whole book read for my ‘let’s read 200 books this year goal’ (I’ve fallen a little behind by the way, but it’s still doable). The short stories are Behind the Prison…
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REVIEW: The Custard Heart
Number four in the Penguin Modern Classics boxed set is this gem – The Custard Heart by Dorothy Parker. I love the sharp, sardonic wit of Dorothy Parker and this small book contains three short stories – The Custard Heart, You Were Perfectly Fine and perhaps her most famous short story The Big Blonde. The…
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REVIEW: After the Quake
Haruki Murakami is one of my favourite authors. I have many of his books but I haven’t read any for a couple of years. I couldn’t believe my luck when I found After the Quake and Sputnik Sweetheart in a second hand shop – I almost never find Murakami in second hand shops and was…
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REVIEW: Miscellany One
I have a question. Are you meant to be able to understand Dylan Thomas or was his whole raison d’etre to be confusing and obscure? In my quest to read more non-novels this year, I have just worked my way through Miscellany One, first published in 1963 (my version was 1976), that includes a selection…
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