A Book Log
I've had it in mind to read this for years now; maybe now I'll finally get around to it. Especially since I recently conquered Little, Big, another long-time resident of my "you know, I really ought to read that..." list.
Trent (trent.goulding@mho.com) (http://home.mho.com/trent.goulding/books/blcurrent.html) -- Mon Sep 27 16:07:02 2004
Little, Big is still sitting on my to-read-eventually shelf. I'll look forward to your review next March.
Mike Kozlowski (web@klio.org) (http://www.klio.org/marks/) -- Mon Sep 27 16:14:48 2004
Trent beat me to suggesting _Little, Big_: literary fantasy novels with gorgeous prose, lots of inter-related characters spanning the years, Faerie or something like it, and a high WTF quotient.
Kate (knepveu@steelypips.org) (http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/) -- Mon Sep 27 22:38:53 2004
Kate just about hits the nail on the head for Little, Big; maybe I'll just appropriate that snippet to stand in for my review... The only quibble I might have is with the description of its prose, which I would consider very good but am not sure I'd be quite willing to elevate to gorgeous.
And Mike: Ha, ha. I assure you it will see the light of day by February at the latest....
Trent (trent.goulding@mho.com) (http://home.mho.net/trent.goulding/books/blcurrent.html) -- Tue Sep 28 00:58:41 2004
I'm glad you liked AWT. Myself, I love it.
However: your comment about the utopian/horrible dichotomy thing is true, and you should hear warning bells going off in your head about the author. He's very politically aware guy (sits on the board of Claremont Institute, a political/philosophical think tank) with a definite social agenda that to my mind is essentially elitism.
This was obvious to me only after I read the very disappointing Refiner's Fire, and he was mentally removed from the ol' buyonsight list after that.
Winter's Tale will always keep a proud position on my bookshelf, though.
Nathan (lundblad@caltech.edu) -- Mon Oct 4 18:52:05 2004
Just a taste:
John Kerry may say one thing and another, but no matter how the topgallants break in the Democratic Party, its ideological keel is a leaden and unthinking pacifism, a pretentious and illogical deference to all things European, and the unhinged belief that America by its very nature transforms every aspect of its self-defense into an aggression that justifies the offense against which it is defending itself.
Granted, he attacks Bush in the same article, but all the warning froth is there. I could only imagine what he had to say about Bill Clinton.
As far as I can tell, the Claremont Institute is quite the conservative/libertarian house. Funny that I hadn't heard of it before.
Nathan (lundblad@caltech.edu) -- Mon Oct 4 18:57:30 2004
Nathan, I'd actually read (on Chad's blog?) about Helprin's conservative leanings about halfway through the book, and it was an "Oh yeah, that makes sense" thing to read.
Mike Kozlowski (web@klio.org) (http://www.klio.org/marks/) -- Mon Oct 11 10:17:20 2004
Here, if you care...
Nathan (lundblad@caltech.edu) -- Mon Oct 11 22:46:13 2004