Archive - June 28, 2019

As is my custom at the halfway point of the year, I am devoting this post to the books that I have read so far in 2019. You will notice a preponderance of dark and Transgressive Fiction. This is because they are my favourite genres.

I hope you find something that is of interest to you. Click on the links to read my reviews.

Spencer’s Risk by Andy Greenhalgh

Genre: Black Comedy

Spencer’s Risk is a third person, thespian-themed work that offers an authentic insight into the mind of a compulsive gambler.

My Review: Spencer Leyton’s life is spiralling downhill. He has split from his wife, is virtually estranged from his kids, his career is in tatters, and he has a serious gambling problem …(more)

My Opinion: Humorous but turgid

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Genre: Transgressive Fiction

Survivor is an innovative and erudite social commentary, brimming with satirical observations.

My Review: Tender Branson, the last survivor of the Creedish Church cult, has hijacked an aeroplane, which is now flying on autopilot. His objective: to dictate his life story onto …(more)

My Opinion: A satirical extravaganza

Neon Empire by Drew Minh

Genre: Dystopian/Sci-Fi

The author may well have created an accurate reflection of where we are invariably heading as a society, but it comes at a heavy price.

My Review: Set in the near future, Neon Empire is a dystopian sci-fi novel based in a high-tech city called Eutopia. The place is a latter-day combination of …(more)

My Opinion: Convoluted and confusing

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

Genre: Southern Gothic

Child of God is a tautly written and concise work of ‘country noir’. Themes include loneliness and necrophilia.

My Review: Having been dispossessed of his land, Lester Ballard is now homeless and eking out an existence in the backwoods of Sevier County, East Tennessee. For food, he steals and forages. For … (more)

My Opinion: Excellent

Job by Joseph Roth

Genre: European Literature

This fableesque story with its obvious parallels to the Biblical character by the same name will appeal to fans of the Austro-Hungarian author. 

My Review: Biblical teacher Mendel and his family are Jews residing in the town of Zuchnow, in Tsarist Russia. Mendel has a wife called Deborah, three sons and …(more)

My Opinion: Okay

The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami

Genre: Short Stories

This curious and comical Kafkaesque hotchpotch of a collection encompasses a variety of themes including relationships and loneliness.

My Review: This compilation of seventeen first-person short stories are set for the most part in Japan during the economic boom of the eighties. These tales, which blend banal …(more)

My Opinion: Bizarre and amusing

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Genre: Historical Fiction

This tome is in essence an elegy to the death of The American Dream. Much of it is devoted to detailed character exploration.

My Review: ‘The Swede’ Seymour Levov is a towering, athletic blond-haired Jew with striking good looks. The affable high school baseball phenom seems destined for …(more)

My Opinion: Arduous but rewarding

Women by Charles Bukowski

Genre: Dirty Realism/Transgressive Fiction

The story follows the exploits of ageing lowlife and Bukowski alter ego, Henry Chinaski.

My Review: Fat, ugly fifty-something Henry Chinaski is a degenerate drinker, gambler and womaniser residing in downtrodden East Hollywood.
After a lifetime spent toiling in …(more)

My Opinion: Good

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Genre: Post Apocalyptic/Dark Fiction

The Road is a near unrelentingly bleak novel about a father and his young son travelling south in search of something better.

My Review: A cataclysmic event has left the world in ruins, and almost everything and everyone is dead. In the absence of food, the remaining humans are reduced to…(more)

My Opinion: Depressing but good

The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort

Genre: Biography

This five hundred plus page tome is teeming with escapades that entail stock manipulation, brushes with the law, prostitutes and more besides.

My Review: In 1989 Jordan Belfort and two of his friends founded a brokerage house on Long Island by the name of Stratton Oakmont. The company was in essence a ‘boiler room’ …(more)

My Opinion: Entertaining for the most part