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Editor's Note: The following are all essays about actual books. Any review under http://www.thesatirist.com/books is a genuine critical work or review. For reviews of imaginary works, see Satires under http://www.thesatirist.com/satires Reviews by Subject An Accidental Family -- Fyodor Dostoevsky Powerful, underrated portrait of adolescence in crisis. The Air-Conditioned Nightmare -- Henry Miller. Henry Miller's On The Road. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland -- Lewis Carroll Fun classic, but slightly over-rated. The Celestine Prophecy -- James Redfield New Age Piffle A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess Interesting little book would've been forgotten but for Kubrick’s movie. Cracking India -- Bapsi Sidhwa An engaging and extremely well-written story of a young girl growing up in Pakistan, at the time of the partition of India. The Corrections. -- Jonathan Franzen A funny, convincing portrait of an American family at the end of the 20th century. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues -- Tom Robbins Clever words, no story. Read Skinny Legs and All The Crying Of Lot 49 --Thomas Pynchon. Thomas Pynchon's short satire of the distortion of communication. September, 2002 The Fourth Hand --John Irving John Irving must have quickly dashed off and polished this funny, feather-light book. October, 2001 The Handmaid's Tale -- Margaret Atwood Compelling Feminist Negative Utopia. Hapworth 16, 1924 -- J.D. Salinger In this 30,000 word letter, young Seymour Glass asks his parents to send him 40 volumes at summer camp (including all of Proust) because his 5 year old brother Buddy needs to reread them before starting kindergarten! Life After God -- Douglas Coupland Gen-X Fast Food Look Homeward, Angel -- Thomas Wolfe Beautiful passages, pasted together by Scribners editor Max Perkins. Outer Dark -- Cormac McCarthy McCarthy's vision is unrelentingly dark. The Picture of Dorian Gray -- Oscar Wilde An interesting idea, but kind of icky. A Prayer for Owen Meany -- John Irving The Sorrow of American Sports. Another funny John Irving production. A Son of the Circus -- John Irving Hilarious as anything he's written. Strong story. Graceful, but too long. I concur with the publisher who said: "I fail to see why it takes thirty pages to describe a man turning over in bed." Yet the Swann-Odette courtship is a profound meditation on desire. Vineland -- Thomas Pynchon America as a "Scabland Garrison State" A Widow For One Year -- John Irving Hilarious opening is not sustained. Winesburg, Ohio -- Sherwood Anderson Nice stories, quite saucy for their time. The Cocktail Party -- T.S. Eliot A play with rhythmic dialogue, and ponderous themes. Eliot’s Iceman Cometh The Genealogy Of Morals -- Friedrich Nietzsche Nietzsche's greatest work, featuring sustained arguments rather than incisive fragments. Man's Search for Meaning -- Viktor Frankl Frankl's Logotherapy School (discovering our purpose heals us) was inspired by Frankl's own experience as a concentration camp survivor. Parables of Kierkegaard -- Soren Kierkegaard More readable than most philosophy. Kierkegaard's fascinating, little stories illustrate his theories. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature -- Richard Rorty For Rorty, philosophy is one part of a changing cultural dialogue that will always address the questions of one era, without having answered any previously asked philosophical questions. The Psychoanalytic Movement -- Ernest Gellner Probing and hilarious critique of the West's embrace of psychoanalysis to describe behavior and emotion. The Book of J -- Harold Bloom Genesis is great literature, not the intended foundation of world religions. The Four Noble Truths -- The Dalai Lama Excellent summary of Buddhist tenets The Gnostic Gospels -- Elaine Pagels Controversial history of early Christianity The Gospel According To Jesus -- Stephen Mitchell A noted translator's attempt to identify the authentic sayings of Jesus, and uncover their spiritual meaning. The Kabbalah of Money -- Rabbi Nilton Bonder Money is an ineffable mystery. But it’s ok to make lots of it. Omens of Millenium -- Harold Bloom Strange, fascinating work on Gnosticism, religious history Zen At Work -- Les Kaye IBM was nice and let the author be a zen monk. So he wrote about it. The Anxiety Of Influence -- Harold Bloom Seminal Work. Bloom's best? The Conquest of Cool -- Thomas Frank 60s Counterculture as unwitting shill for Madison Avenue The Erotic Silence of the American Wife -- Dalma Heyn It's OK for women to cheat too. The Western Canon -- Harold Bloom After some anti-PC rants, 26 rich essays on some of the West's greatest books. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy -- Jacob Burckhardt Often hilarious account of political struggles in Renaissance Italy. From Dawn To Decadence -- Jacques Barzun Masterful survey of western civilization since Renaissance finds 20th century to be without much decent art since Cubism. Modern Times -- Paul Johnson An engaging portrait of the giant political figures during the 20th century, the age of moral relativism. Engines of Creation -- K. Eric Drexler Nanotechnology. Will it happen? The Holographic Universe -- Michael Talbot Is the universe one big hologram? How Buildings Learn -- Stewart Brand Buildings should be designed for reuse, not for magazine covers. |
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