corrected butterfly confidence confessions

books:

30 reviews
A.S. Byatt

Vintage International, 1996

It gets better every time!
I read and loved The Virgin in the Garden and Still Life and I couldn't wait to read more of Frederica Potter and her eccentric, intellectual family. Babel Tower centers on Frederica's struggles to free herself from her rich, abusive husband. She is now in a custody battle that could well end in disaster. As she regains her independence and begins to work as a teacher in London, Frederica ponders ...

The Stranger and The Fall Lot of 2 Books
Albert Camus

vintage international, 1988

Thomas Mann 4 volume set: The Magic Mountain, Death in Venice, Buddenbrooks, Confessions of Felix Krull ...
Thomas Mann

Vintage International, 1998

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

4 reviews

Vintage International, 1998

Monumental achievement with lessons for everyone
I compare this book, in terms of what it took to write it (memorizing entire texts and then blinking the individual letters out, with each letter taking 2 minutes) to great physical achievements (the Tour de France, Navy Seal training, climbing Everest, etc.). What an accomplishment ! The moral courage of this author, and the honesty is searing. One of the things I took away from this book is ...

Cities of the Plain

102 reviews
Cormac McCarthy

Vintage International, 1999

Omit epilogue
I think the epilogue adds nothing to the novel, unless somehow I missed the point entirely. C. M. has elsewhere more skillfully put forth his theme that our destinies are predetermined practically from the "big bang" and that, appearances to the contrary, we really have no choices. The last thirty pages get to sound like a harangue. Besides, I would have welcomed a novel about Billy's later ...

Light in August (The Corrected Text)

75 reviews
William Faulkner

Vintage International/Random House, 1990

Eleven Days In August
This book has been touted as being Faulkner's most accessible. Although a bit easier to follow having less stream of consciousness it still requires some patience and appreciation for nuance. Further, if you take the story at face value you will be missing out on 90% of what it has to offer. The themes run deep and the characters symbolic. I'd recommend reading exerpts from One Matchless Time by ...