Maor
I enjoyed THE (with large capital H&E as well) PPT chapter. to me, the concept was refreshing and well thought out, though a bit repetitive.
I gave it 3.45/5 which is the pause length in “Mighty Sword” by The Frames times 3 (in minutes), rounded down because this book was full of clichés and platitudes.
The library part, which is unfortunately only half of the book, gets 2 stars. To me, it seems that Brautigan could write in a unique and groundbreaking fashion, when he felt like it. Alas, half of this short novel is filled with endless descriptions of Vida's ‘voluptuous' body, and the harm she inflicts on society with her bedazzling looks. It's as if his brain idled for half a book and he just filled these white papers with a bland horny teenager's writing. Maybe this book's success was a 70s thing and abortions were a hot topic, unlike 2024 in which women's free will is not controversial, right?
Divine execution of a subpar book. Paul is a dark magician, luring me with every brilliantly (but not meticulously) placed word and each perfectly timed change of pace. This type of booksis fascinating to me. A book which you have no idea why you couldn't put it down, but all the different twists and turns just worked, mysteriously enough.
A slow burn, which stayed with me, leaving me restless at first and then thoughtful with brooding. McCarthy wrote it in an appealingly terse style. Perhaps this right-in-your-face kind of storytelling is why, for me, this novel hits harder, ‘Out of the park' and then some.
Moreover, Bell made me yearn for a torch of some kind which will light our crazy dark world. Well, unfortunately, we can't whitewash how malevolent humans can get, even in 2023. Naturally, besides benevolence and morals, people have layers of evil and maliciousness rooted deep inside their minds and souls- we have this duality of good and bad. And in some abhorrent individuals when these layers of darkness come to light, a vile tar-colored light that is, these layers of immorality get interweaved by an unknown force into an obscene bracelet, engraved with the word ‘BLACKNESS' on it. Nevertheless, they wear this bracelet of BLACKNESS in sheer pride, oblivious to the pain they cause, the life they take, the humanity they destroy. I hope we're on the right track. At the very least we can be unequivocally certain that the sun will shine tomorrow. No coin flip in that regard.
I obscenity in thy milk Ernesto Hem. I was completely mucking puzzled by the obscene decision to censor every mucking obscene word in this book. it made thy writing looks funny and stupid (see, I wrote it tersely just like thee, Hem(o)). First, Maria was spineless and unbearable (well, she was a woman in an Ernest book so...). Second, ‘Woman', or Pilar, was written actually beautifully but he had to make her obscene (and half of her words are literally obscenity). Moreover she ‘was talking too much' and you have a wonderful scene that she's conversating with one of the manly machos but this muscular superior human being (he has, in fact, a penis) told her ‘Shut up woman, we need to go fighting', even though she was the alleged leader of the tribe and was well aware of the stakes they were in. In addition, the language can be quite dull and boring at times. But (here comes the alas part of my review), that son of a rich wrote superbly with his concise style and created great tension in a beautifully and ingenious way. To sum it up, Fuck man, I was fucking entertained.
Blood-filled, Obscurity-filled, Similes-filled. The ‘Kid's identity gets sculptured with overlapping layers of violence and vile horror throughout the aimless and inhumane journey, across the vast prairie and godless towns. What has the kid become?
Meanwhile, Holden performs his sashay of evil and dark red ash, taking one step at a time, hairless as a baby.
In his second book, Vonnegut created a hilariously sad depiction of the human condition. Winston, a make-believe-all-mighty who refuses to be nicknamed ‘God', tries to whitewash the earthlings' tendency for aggressiveness and violence with the greatest drink-the-kool-aid scheme in the history of earthling history. Alas, he was manipulated by a robot and all his intentions and beliefs were a big fat lie, as obnoxious as the creation of God.
We can agree that 7 years is a long long time. But the greatest illustration of this is the juxtaposition of Player Piano's Kurt and The Sirens of Titan's Vonnegut.
Finished reading on 4th of July. Man what a book. For me, this read was a fascinating research on American history (while searching every character online and sorting facts from embellishments by Delillo). The way he created all these characters and conjoined all their stories into one complex plot was stunning. When an author can deal with a story so convoluted and make it his own, he has to be among the greats.
A myriad of different hues of darkness woven together into a beautifully concocted dystopian world, a world filled with horrifying and traumatizing elements, where goodness is shrouded by sadness, cannibalism, and pure evil. But a father and his son trudge stubbornly along an endless road in search of food and ‘good people'. Alas, the human race is just an ‘away team' in nature's home court, and in this disadvantagous game for these vain mammals, ‘bad people' thrive. For me, this book was as remarkable as its darkness, especially the relationship between the son and his papa.
To me, it felt like a giant snowball of unconvincing characters, wove together to a ridiculously unrealistic plot. The so-called “psychological” reasonings of the characters were uncanny, especially when it was our psychotherapist-secret-agent-detective Theo's “brilliant” revelations. In spite of that, periodically I was entertained. Indeed, Michaelides created suspense and his writing style is quite engaging. Finally, The infamous plot twist was underwhelming IMO. Well, I guess I feel all of this because my parents were ridiculous snowballs...
This dystopian novel has some foreshadowings of Vonnegut's imminent writing style. It is definitely the most non-Vonnegut book he wrote, which makes sense considering it was his first. The last third of the book is a little bit clunky IMO. Nonetheless, the ending is quite powerful and filled with sobering and accurate remarks about our so-called intelligent species known as ‘humans'.
Second read, Steinbeck is one of my favourite authors of all time. I marveled at the way he observes his surroundings, and his indestructible appreciation for the beautiful nature and the divine redwood trees. He describes best the sheer absurdity of us – same species that is “smart enough to split the atom, but not clever enough to live in peace with itself”.
This book is a Pacific Ocean of remarkable insights, and like many great books, still pertinent today.
4.5/5
Edith is the perfect mentor, inspirational speaker and coach.
Unlike a lot of these so called ‘influencers', I actually have an immense trust in her words and advices.
She'd been through a lot, oh man what she's had to endure. from dancing in front of Mengele, surviving Auschwitz, dealing with the brutal murders of her parents and being left for dead after American soldiers had liberated her concentration camp, Gunskirchen.
Against all logic and reason, Mrs. Eger has persevered and has celebrated her life since, becoming a psychologist at the age of 51 (!) and treating people with PTSD.
When I'd read The Choice- my first meeting with Edith (her books always feels like a conversation with an incredible woman), I'd started idolizing Edith from the very first pages. One gets drawn to Edith through her refreshing honesty and her profound love for those involved with her, be it her family, friends or patients. Reading her books is an authentic transformative experience, and it's even not a make-believe ‘mentoring seminar'. And there's the obvious part- this WONDERWOMAN is 96 years old and counting. Wow
It reads like a fever dream filled with lots of subplots that ultimately do not matter. My main question is why? I've read some books with partial non-endings, but when the majority of the narrative is merely an embellishment for the narrator's memory, I'm afraid King took it one step too far. Nevertheless, a good thought-provoking book.
Overall, an incredible book. That said, it was longwinded and I'd cut at least 200 pages. I still pity the lost subplots that never got developed. What a shame! 3.9/5
לדעתי “עשו” הוא ספרו הטוב והייחודי (והמוזר) ביותר של מאיר שלו. למה בדיוק? את זה נשאיר לקורא המיומן שיודע להסיק מסקנות ולקרוא בין השורות, כמו ששלו אמר מספר פעמים בספר.
Would I recommend reading this masterpiece? My answer would be a decisive, certain, clear as day YES. As a non native English speaker, this book was tough, to say the least. Surprisingly, the exertion paid off. IJ is filled with the best characters I've met, most authentic and touching scenes I've read and the funniest representations of society's flaws I've seen. Alas, this book is WAY TOO LONG and sometimes turgid- a word which was introduced to me by DFW. We'll meet again after my second read...