Tag: book-review

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

~ Robert ~ 7 Comments

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

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

~ Robert ~ 2 Comments

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

The Painted Veil: A Saucy Dissection of W. Somerset Maugham’s Sublime Slap in the Face

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W. Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil is a bit like finding a deceptively lovely flower in a poisoned Chinese river. Ostensibly a story of love, betrayal, and redemption, it teases the reader with a delicate veneer of romance, only to plunge us headfirst into a cynical, uncomfortably reflective look at the human soul. If you thought you … Continue reading The Painted Veil: A Saucy Dissection of W. Somerset Maugham’s Sublime Slap in the Face

Sex, Solitude, and a Side of Nietzsche: Making Sense of The Unbearable Lightness of Being

~ Robert ~ 3 Comments

Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a novel that deals with such weighty topics that it almost feels ironic to handle them with a title so buoyant as 'lightness.' This text floats through philosophy, politics, love, and betrayal with the kind of existential pondering usually reserved for lonely people in cafes at 2am. It’s a … Continue reading Sex, Solitude, and a Side of Nietzsche: Making Sense of The Unbearable Lightness of Being