Charles Lamb: Essays of Elia

The 19th century was a great century for writers. If I could only bring one century of writing with me to a desert island, I would choose the nineteenth without hesitation. Not only for the literature but for the essays: the essayists of the 19th century were wide-ranging in…

Albert Camus and Fallen Justice

The Fall by Albert Camus is a clever, scathing, and chilling one-sided conversation between the reader and the narrator, Clamence, about the notion of justice. For there to be justice, there must be rules. But rules imposed from outside, societal dictates or religious…

The Duppy by Anthony C. Winkler: Jamaican Heaven

Yesterday I read The Duppy by Anthony C. Winkler. It is a wonderfully funny look at the afterlife (“duppy” means “ghost” or “spirit” in Jamaican patois), presenting a heaven much more appealing than the vision of a judgmental Peter at the gate…

Kyril Bonfiglioli: Nastiness on the Isle of Jersey

Yesterday I read Something Nasty In The Woodshed by Kyril Bonfiglioli, an author recommended to me by a Read All Day reader who reads a lot. I picked this Bonfiglioli from his three-part series of Charlie Mortdecai mysteries because of its…

Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett: Crime and Purpose in Barcelona

Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett is one of Spain’s most popular writers and after reading Death Rites, the first in her Petra Delicado crime novels, I can understand why. Gimenez-Bartlett masterfully combines a twisting plot with existential…

Marshall Jon Fisher: A Great Book in a Terrible Splendor

David Small: Stitches and Scars

If I could draw as well as David Small, I would draw this review of Stitches first as panels showing views of my face, with my jaw dropping further and further down, and a tear building slowly at each corner of my eyes. The final panel of the review would begin with me…

Serena Williams and her Tennis Family

Yesterday I read On the Line by Serena Williams and Daniel Paisner. This is probably not a book for you if you don’t love tennis, and it is certainly not for you if you don’t like Serena (unless you have an open mind, and then this book may swing you into her…

Sia Figiel: Pacific Dysfunction

Yesterday I read Sia Figiel’s They Who Do Not Grieve, a very rich and disorienting and disappointing novel from a Samoan writer. Rich because of the multitude of really bizarre characters and motivations and plot lines; disorienting because of the multitude of betrayals…

The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal: Responsibility Wrought by The Past

From the first sentences of The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal, I was tightly wound within the grip of this novel, and it held me close through to the end. The narrative voices of the two brothers — one…