0558 | The History of Tom Jones | Henry Fielding
Anyone with a modicum of experience reading literature knows that a “very influential novel” from nearly 300 years ago will consist of pretty much every stereotypical literary device that could…
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0557 | The Life and Death of Harriett Frean | May Sinclair
This is a very short novel but that doesn’t stop Sinclair constructing a complex character who spends her life bound by moral boundaries. Harriett grows up with parents who ensure…
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0549 | The Human Stain | Philip Roth
This is Philip Roth in his element, cruising along drawing on contemporary themes in public and political USAnian life and distilling them through the lens of a single individual who,…
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0548 | Cat and Mouse | Günter Grass
I know, I know, I should have read The Tin Drum before this as that’s the first of the trilogy and this is the second book. But, charity store book beggars…
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0546 | Adam Bede | George Eliot
The only reason that this got a “good” rating from me and not “okay” was the legacy of the novel in terms of its depiction of country life at the…
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0545 | Slow Man | J M Coetzee
What at first seems like a fairly straightforward novel about a guy dealing with the loss of his leg takes a quite unexpected turn when a character turns up to…
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0537 | Michael Kohlhaas | Heinrich von Kleist
There’s a lot to glean from this tale of injustice because the issues that the story raises are just as relevant today as they were when this was written over…
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0531 | Girl with Green Eyes | Edna O’Brien
A looooong time ago in the decade old life of Arukiyomi, I read August is a Wicked Month. That was my first taste of O’Brien’s work and it’s been too…
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0528 | Keep the Aspidistra Flying | George Orwell
Orwell’s flawed but nevertheless important novel about a young man’s single-handed struggle against capitalism is an easy and often amusing read. Gordon Comstock, whose inflexible philosophy drives him further and further into…
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0526 | Tender is the Night | F. Scott Fitzgerald
A lot more readable than The Great Gatsby which I read many years before Arukiyomi was born, this was a decent enough novel. I found that as long as I…
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0525 | Less Than Zero | Bret Easton Ellis
Written when he was just 21, Easton Ellis, made quite an impression on the literary scene with this tale of the morally impoverished youth of wealthy Los Angeles. In it, he…
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0519 | No Laughing Matter | Angus Wilson
You know you’re in the presence of literary genius when there are large parts of a novel you feel out of your depth in. I felt like I fell into…
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0510 | The Third Policeman | Flann O’Brien
This starts off as normal as you like and then suddenly, like Alice down the rabbit hole while taking LSD, takes you on a mind-bending and, at times, literarily taxing…
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0508 | A Visit from the Goon Squad | Jennifer Egan
This was not at all what I expected from the title. In fact, even having finished it, I really have no clue as to why it is called this at…
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0506 | Bonjour Tristesse | Francoise Sagan
This is France’s answer to Catcher in the Rye and, considering it was published when Sagan was only 18, is astonishing for that. The writing shows great maturity and insight…
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0505 | The Diary of a Nobody | George & Weedon Grossmith
This is a wonderful little breather from the typical weighty tome on the 1001 Books list. A lighthearted look at urban Victorian everyday life with a character which has had…
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0503 | Wide Sargasso Sea | Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys was a bit of a character and this novel, set in the Caribbean she grew up in, features a misunderstood woman who falls victim to both her Creole…
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0502 | Like Water for Chocolate | Laura Esquivel
I’ve never been inspired by novels written either by South American authors or set in South America. However, Esquivel is Mexican, and as that’s very definitely part of North America, she didn’t fall…