The Debt to Pleasure: A Novel53 reviews John Lanchester Picador, 2001 Confirms my beliefs about Iceberg Lettuce... + A review of The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester + Beautifully Distasteful Allegory + Mouth watering             Artemisia (Five Star Paperback)5 reviews Anna Banti Serpent's Tail, 2004 An Absolute Triumph + Author and 17th century artist speak together across time + The best of the fictional vesions of Artemisia + art meets history             Two Lives4 reviews William Trevor Penguin (Non-Classics), 1992 A devotion that outlasts death + "Only love matters in the bits and pieces of a life." + Two Wonderfully Mesmerizing Novellas The Irish author William Trevor can be deceptive. He writes his tales about Irish women in a vernacular that would seem at home in a 19th-century Romance novel. You think you've entered the pages of Henry James or Thomas Hardy. But underneath the carefully-chosen language, and a writing style ...             Oh Pure and Radiant Heart22 reviews Lydia Millet Harvest Books, 2006 Not so pure a book + I was so much older then . . . . + Thought Provoking Read + what a concept             Angelica: A Novel19 reviews Arthur Phillips Random House, 2007 A True Masterpiece + Read it in two days (on vacation--but still...) + Not sure what to say Set in late-Victorian London, ANGELICA is a book like no other. It seamlessly weaves strands of a ghost story, the dissolution of a once near-perfect marriage, and a horrific descent into madness against a profound meditation on the nature of memory, identity, and truth. ANGELICA revolves ...             Summer in Baden-Baden16 reviews Leonid Tsypkin, Angela Jones New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2003 Genius and emotional imbalance + Multiple Streams of Consciousness + Tough but beautiful + A superb work of art             The Beckoning Fair One2 reviews Oliver Onions Wildside Press, 2007 Chilling Onions + Creepy and Colossal! "The Beckoning Fair One" has become regarded as a classic 'ghost' story, and very deservedly so. Too many supernatural/ghost/horror stories end up focussing myopically on the details of the horror, which however well delineated still leans toward the boring. To be truly engaging and satisfying a ...             The Woman in the Dunes55 reviews Kobo Abe Vintage, 1991 Scary, but somehow comforting. + Images cascaded in my mind + The World Takes a Psychological Shape The sand pit in Kobo Abe's The Woman In The Dunes is a completely artificial construct, but it never feels that way. In reality, sand doesn't behave the way described in the book. When the director Hiroshi Teshigahara made the film adaptation ("Woman In The Dunes," recently reissued by Criterion, ...             Remember Me: A Novel17 reviews Trezza Azzopardi Grove Press, 2005 Devastating + Strange and Mesmerizing + Like remembering a dream I liked "The Hiding Place" a lot, but nothing prepared me for this quietly devasting book, possibly one of the saddest things I've ever read. Winnie's world was always small, but as each of the few people she relies on slip through her fingers, and as each tiny act of thoughtless cruelty shakes ...             The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (Modern Library Classics)102 reviews G.K. Chesterton Modern Library, 2001 Your blue sock is behind the dryer. + Sparkling prose littered with gems + Early terrorism thriller + Chesterton hits close to home with this thriller             By the Lake21 reviews John McGahern Vintage, 2003 simple and superb + Enchantment "By the Lake" + If this book was a drink, it'd be Powers whiskey + A Genuine Work with Rich Characters + Same book, different title             Shipwrecks24 reviews Akira Yoshimura Harvest Books, 2000 The Ocean giveth, and The Ocean taketh away + Several Cuts Above The Rest + Karma will not be denied + Not good or bad concepts - just mere survival + Memorable story and compelling characters.             Mariette in Ecstasy56 reviews Ron Hansen Harper Perennial, 1992 Glimpses of passion, of ecstasy + "Mar-iette, like a flaw." + Believeable! + Beautiful + Exquisite...             Anya: A Novel17 reviews Susan Fromberg Schaeffer W. W. Norton & Company, 2004 This is an autobiography not a novel + A deeply moving novel + Wonderful Literature + Wonderfully Atmospheric             SEPHARAD7 reviews ANTONIO, M MOLINA Harvest Books, 2006 A Profound Achievement + Amazing, compelling and deeply moving + What You Expected Is Not What You Will Find + A poignant refection on totalitarianism and exile + Uplifting stories of exile and loss             Summer in Baden-Baden16 reviews Leonid Tsypkin, Angela Jones New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2003 Genius and emotional imbalance + Multiple Streams of Consciousness + Tough but beautiful + A superb work of art             SEPHARAD7 reviews ANTONIO, M MOLINA Harvest Books, 2006 A Profound Achievement + Amazing, compelling and deeply moving + What You Expected Is Not What You Will Find + A poignant refection on totalitarianism and exile + Uplifting stories of exile and loss             By the Lake21 reviews John McGahern Vintage, 2003 simple and superb + Enchantment "By the Lake" + If this book was a drink, it'd be Powers whiskey + A Genuine Work with Rich Characters + Same book, different title             Artemisia (Five Star Paperback)5 reviews Anna Banti Serpent's Tail, 2004 An Absolute Triumph + Author and 17th century artist speak together across time + The best of the fictional vesions of Artemisia + art meets history             Angelica: A Novel19 reviews Arthur Phillips Random House, 2007 A True Masterpiece + Read it in two days (on vacation--but still...) + Not sure what to say Set in late-Victorian London, ANGELICA is a book like no other. It seamlessly weaves strands of a ghost story, the dissolution of a once near-perfect marriage, and a horrific descent into madness against a profound meditation on the nature of memory, identity, and truth. ANGELICA revolves ...