Literatureview.com: Fiction

Crime and Punishment

Mon, 27 Aug 2006 05:26:00 GMT

By Fyodor Dostoevsky
The mind of a criminal reveals much about ourselves
In “Crime and Punishment” we follow Dostoevsky’s complex and conflicted main character Raskolnikov, concurrently capable of heinous savagery and compulsive kindness, from the depth of self destruction to the heights of spiritual redemption.

Shadow of the Wind

Fri, 01 Jun 2006 03:55:00 GMT

By Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Unravelling a mystery in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books
The main character in this new novel is Daniel Sempere who at the start of the book is 11 years old. His father owns a second hand bookstore and his mother has passed away. As the story begins the boy’s father is taking him to a place called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a place that conjures images of Antonio Gaudi’s Casa Batllo. His father introduces him to Isaac who rules this place and he is invited to pick one book that he must keep secret to himself. Daniel buys the book, The Shadow of the Wind by Julien Carax, a Spanish author who published in Paris. Daniel reads the book, become smitten with it and seeks to find other work by the author. The antiquarian booksellers have no copies but one, the wealthy Gustavo Barcelo himself an avid collector, wants to buy the book from Daniel. The story becomes Daniel’s quest to learn of the author and locate his other works, but his quest is being dogged by another sinister character intent of burning every copy of any of Carax’s work.

The Death and Life of Bobby Z

Tue, 22 Oct 2007 01:49:00 GMT

by Don Winslow
Decorated ex-marine and ex-con Tim Kearney impersonates drug dealer Bobby Z with major consequences
Tim is a juvenile burglar that a liberal minded judge decides to sentence to the U.S. Marine instead of juvenile jail. True to his nature, Kierney wins the Navy Cross for heroism during the Gulf War only to get a dishonorable discharge for knocking out a Saudi colonel. Tim objected to the brutal way the colonel was disciplining a Saudi soldier.

Cigarette Girl

Tue, 22 Oct 2007 01:45:00 GMT

by Carol Wolper
Lady screenwriter lusts for Hollywood "bad boy" mogul as biological clock ticks
Cigarette Girl is a screenplay in prose. It’s about lady screenwriter. Elizabeth West who has reached the age when all of her friends are starting to get married and settle down to raise a family. "Before my twenty-eighth birthday hit, I was perfectly happy to live my single life," Elizabeth says. "Work. Work out. And sex."

The Little Prince

Wed, 23 May 2006 05:05:00 GMT

by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince helps an adult artist rediscover how to see with his heart and not with his eyes alone
The notion that "Children are better seen than heard" is discounted in this lovely journey into the imagination called The Little Prince. As an adult, I found myself ashamed at the analysis of the mature mind by the author. We are found to be selfish, closed-minded individuals who possess circular reasoning. We apparently did not think the same way as children. As you journey through this book, you will begin to uncover the author's theory that there exists a battle between the mind of a child, and that of an adult. This is the battle between "matters of consequence" and "matters of importance."

Veronica

Thu, 10 May 2006 06:48:00 GMT

by Nicholas Christopher
In a surreal Manhattan Veronica drafts Leo, named after the Zodiac symbol, to help her defeat an evil magician—her father’s nemesis
Nicholas Christopher’s wonderful book Veronica is a love story, wrapped in an adventure novel, wrapped in an encyclopaedia of magic and the supernatural. The story begins with Leo helping Veronica find her keys "on the sidewalk in front of a brownstone beside the Convent of St Zita," Christopher writes. "She wore a black coat and a wide-brimmed hat from which long black hair streamed over her shoulders." Then there were her eyes. "They were different colors: the right one blue, the left green."

One Hundred Years Of Solitude

Thu, 10 May 2006 06:43:00 GMT

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A family's struggle through a tumultuous century
Some of the most striking occurrences in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude are the sexual relationships. Marquez deals with all of the issues in lives of the Buendia family in a very honest, realistic and matter of fact way and their sexual live are no exception. On one level, the reader is able to identify with the familiar and all too common soap-opera like instances, while at the same time, the literary development of these relationships is important to the novel’s growth and realism. The plot is passionate with out being melodramatic, simple yet filled with graphic honesty.

Pattern Recognition

Thu, 10 May 2006 06:40:00 GMT

by William Gibson
Resolving Web Video Fragments Riddles, Cayce Unravels Her Own Enigma
Cayce, pronounced “Case”, —named after the psychic Edgar Cayce—Pollard suffers from an acute sensitivity to commercial logos—at six she had a phobic reaction to the Michelin man. She meticulous removes all such items from everything she possesses—clothing, jewelry, shoes, etc. In the real world, this might have been a disability, but in the world of advertising and image creation, it is an asset that enables her to live as she pleases, coming into an agency, meeting with a creative team, and giving her reaction to a symbol. If she doesn’t react, you could pretty much tell that the campaign would have to go back to the drawing board.

The Old Man and the Sea

Thu, 10 May 2006 06:36:00 GMT

by Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway’s Old Man & The Sea, Destroyed But Not Defeated
I just finished The Old Man and the Sea, my second reading of the last novel by the Nobel Laureate, who took his life with a shotgun in 1959. I first read the story in my senior year 1962-1963 at Clover Park High School in Tacoma, Washington. I identified with the boy, Manolin back then. This time I identified with Santiago, the old man in the book. Hemingway influenced the generations that grew up reading his work.

The Illusionist

Thu, 10 May 2006 06:25:00 GMT

by Dinitia Smith
Self-made magician captivates women of Sparta, New York, while local bad boy broods
Dinitia Smith’s clever work, The Illusionist begins with a young man named Dean Lily coming into the upstate New York town of Sparta. There he draws attention to himself by performing magic tricks that entertain the locals at the Wooden Nickel Bar in town.