A Rather Over-the-Top Love Letter to Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White

Let me start by saying this: if The Woman in White were a person, I’d be hopelessly smitten. Truly, I’d marry it on the spot - or, at the very least, I’d buy it a drink, slide closer, and hope for the kind of long, dramatic romance that novels like this are made of. From the very … Continue reading A Rather Over-the-Top Love Letter to Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White

Utter Bull: A Pretentious Slop-Fest in Bovine Disguise

Another recommendation, and with it, a request for critique. I must admit, I found this one a real struggle. In my ongoing endeavour to step beyond my literary comfort zone and explore more contemporary works, I occasionally find myself questioning the wisdom of my choices - this being one of those unfortunate instances. Having endured … Continue reading Utter Bull: A Pretentious Slop-Fest in Bovine Disguise

A Whistle of Innocence: A Detailed and Wry Look at Whistle Down the Wind

Two new posts today - I've been stacking them while I've been poorly. I'm on the mend now, I think, so I have a lot more to share. When Mary Hayley Bell’s novel Whistle Down the Wind was published in 1958, it came wrapped in an intriguing premise: what happens when a group of naïve children stumble … Continue reading A Whistle of Innocence: A Detailed and Wry Look at Whistle Down the Wind

Pebbles, Prose, and Pointlessness: Beckett’s Molloy and the Art of Going Nowhere

Question: have you ever sucked a pebble? Samuel Beckett’s Molloy is often heralded as a towering monument of modernist literature, though whether it’s a lighthouse of enlightenment or an impassable granite slab is a matter of perspective. This novel, the first in Beckett’s famous trilogy, plunges us into a world where sucking stones takes on existential significance … Continue reading Pebbles, Prose, and Pointlessness: Beckett’s Molloy and the Art of Going Nowhere