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The Leopard 52 reviews
Guiseppe di Lampedusa
Harvill Press, 2003
A people in turmoil amidst a standstill. A Cultural Limbo
The vigour and audacity of this novel is never compromised throughout and moreover it is persistently definied with markings of an apocalyptic doom which postmodern currents cannot comprehend (Hence the last reviewers shrug perhaps). To read this novel is to witness the expression of a community in distress, as it finds itself fidgeting to keep its composure while arrested amidst a quandary and a ...
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Kafka on the Shore 167 reviews
Haruki Murakami
The Harvill Press, 2005
Mind-blowing!
This book took me by surprise. I didn't anticipate a book required for my english class to hold such creativity and depth.The multiple stories intertwine to make an altogether incredible read and thought-provoking novel. It's definetly worth the time and mind power to get sucked into.
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Independence Day (Harvill Panther S.) 124 reviews
Richard Ford
The Harvill Press, 1996
Ford Creates a Postive Thinking Angstrom -- There is No Running Here
In "Independence Day", Richard Ford's depiction of post-marital devolution (divorce) parallels the lack of marital (or life) bliss shown in other classics: John Updike's "rabbit run" or John O'Hara's "Appointment in Samarra."
This book's protagonist, Frank Bascombe, is not another Harry Angstrom or Julian English - the respective protagonists of Updike's and O'Hara's novels. Instead of leading ...
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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich160 reviews
Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn
The Harvill Press, 1991
An awesome expression of life.
I find it interesting to sometimes ponder, just how extreme can humanity go? What conditions can we put ourselves in and through and still come out on the other side? Solzhenitsyn takes this question and puts it into literary form, if only for the period of one day. Thankfully, unlike the author, many of us will never have to endure something brutal as the Siberian gulag.
The book follows ...
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Treasure Island250 reviews
Robert Louis Stevenson
Harvill Press, 2000
Tense, Readable Adventure
This is a solid condensed version of the classic search for buried treasure in the late 1700's. Author Robert Louis Stevenson draws readers in early as the Captain arrives at the Benbow Inn in Britain, focused on incoming ships, and warning young Jim Hawkins of one-legged visitors. The story picks up as Billy Bones arrives, bringing danger and discovery of the treasure map, a discovery that ...
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Norwegian Wood159 reviews
Haruki Murakami
The Harvill Press, 2001
Norwegian Wood
What can be said about this brilliant novel that has not been said before? Haruki Murakami is a genius. Norwegian Wood ranks amongst the top five best books I've ever read and each time I read it, I only love it more. An infinite number of stars.
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Doctor Zhivago (Harvill Panther S.)79 reviews
Boris Pasternak
The Harvill Press, 1996
Pasternak v. Reader, Round II
My first reading of Dr. Zhivago was in high school. At 15, the book was a chore. Impenetrable and numerous Russian names (often for the same character) and endless description of the Russian landscape left me exhausted and unimpressed. After rereading and enjoying a few other high school assignments, I came across Dr. Zhivago on my bookshelf and wondered if I would find more appreciation for Mr. ...
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The Master and Margarita337 reviews
Mikhail Bulgakov
The Harvill Press, 2003
Best book ever written
Pontius Pilate and Moscow's citizens are oddly coupled in this examination of the new class of soviet people. Even without the social commentary, this is a beautiful and engaging atypical love story. Best read with Goethe's Faust. Margarita is the Russian version of Margaret/Gretchen.
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After Dark73 reviews
Haruki Murakami
Harvill Press, 2007
Vivid yet dream like jazz in Tokyo
This the first time I read anything of Haruki Murakami and what a treat. This is not your usual fiction work, nor is it quite of the absurd beautifully yet frustrating style of Kazuo Ishiguro. Like Ishiguro, Murakami seduces the reader with very real and very vivid description of people and events; so we are there completely witnessing events and picturing very real people and places in front of ...
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Don't Look Back23 reviews
Karin Fossum
The Harvill Press, 2002
Superb writing
Characters that are real, not forced or overdrawn. Plot development that is believable and deceiving, with a style that smoothly involves the reader mentally, laying clues that may be clues or not, always with unexpected plot finishes that are satisfying. Read one of her books and you immediately want to start another. A detective mystery writer of the highest order.
If you haven't read any ...
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The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa 1 review
David Gilmour
Harvill Press, 1997
Something of the Hero
This biography of Giuseppe de Lampedusa is a fine book in its own right, but its greater merit is the way it illuminates both the novel and the movie that remain as the legacy of di Lampedusa's career. Aside, perhaps, for his friends and neighbors, we wouldn't remember him at all were it not as the author of "The Leopard," not published until after his death, but in time to emerge as perhaps ...
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Fighting for Peace : Bosnia '9411 reviews
Michael Rose
THE Harvill Press, 1998
Touched My Heart and Soul
Tuesdays with Morrie is a "final thesis" between a young man and his old, beloved college professor who is diagnosed with a deadly, unforgiving illness called ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
This book made Morrie's death much more valuable by making it a life lesson for people. People fear death and let it take over them instead of preparing for it and cherishing the moments they ...
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The Snow Leopard (Harvill Panther)66 reviews
Peter Matthiessen
The Harvill Press, 1996
a great travel log with a little zen
Matthiessen is a talented writer who consistently manages to capture the essence of what he sees. He insists that he is a fiction writer, first and foremost, but the honesty and vibrance of his words in nonfiction are phenomenal. As an "travel log"-type book, this is one of the best. His interactions with the sherpas and his colleague, GS, are human and believable. There are extremely personal ...
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Before the Frost (Linda Wallander Mystery)11 reviews
Henning Mankell
The Harvill Press, 2004
The Sinister World Invades Sweden
Henning Mankell's Before the Frost combines the sleuthing skills of its main protagonist, Kurt Wallender and his daughter, Linda, who has now joined the force. Mankell takes us on his usual gripping journey as Kurt and Linda try to discover the identity of a murderer before he can kill again. This time, however, the murderer is fueled by religious mania, thus making Wallender's job more ...
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Dance Dance Dance70 reviews
Haruki Murakami
The Harvill Press, 2002
Not Your Normal Senior Prom
We interrupt this review for a Public Service Announcement. It is STRONGLY recommended that you read Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase before reading this book. While not 100% necessary, your enjoyment of DDD will be greatly enhanced! We now return you to your regularly scheduled review.
I got so wrapped up in the book I almost thought I was a part of it. There was that gnawing at the edge of my ...
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First Circle21 reviews
Aleksa Solzhenitsyn
Harvill Press, 1994
beyond thought provoking
Solzhenitsyn's character development is always amazing but, this book went beyond anything I have ever experienced before. The story of Nerzhin and Nadya was especially moving and captivating. Volodin's story of the Lubyanka made me feel as though I was actually there within the cold, towering walls. It is incredible how Solzhenitsyn can bring his characters down to the deepest levels of dispair ...
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The Fatal Shore (Harvill Panther)56 reviews
Robert Hughes
The Harvill Press, 1996
Cultural Amnesia
The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding
By Robert Hughes
Australia is one of those faraway places you read about in National Geographic or watch on Discovery. Remote, exotic, modern yet solidly based in its history, it's a chamber of commerce promotion writer's dream. T he only country to occupy an entire continent... spanning from the Pacific to the Indian Oceans; ...
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The Man Who Smiled31 reviews
Henning Mankell
The Harvill Press, 2005
Wonderful Reading For A Cold Winter Night
At the beginning of THE MAN WHO SMILED, another of Henning Mankell's brilliant Kurt Wallander mysteries, the Swedish detective is on leave from the Ystad Police Force and is contemplating resigning because of remorse over having killed someone in self-defense. Full of self-pity and angst, he is as dark and gloomy as a cold Swedish winter night. He has even stopped listening to his beloved operas. ...
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