“What a terrible thing it was when love turned to indifference–or worse.” Jane Hervey’s novel, Vain Shadow begins with the news that the family patriarch is dead. Colonel Wi…| His Futile Preoccupations .....
“But the older you get, the less linear the memories, and the more everything seems to circle back to something else.” Liane Moriarty’s novel, Here One Moment, explores the afterm…| His Futile Preoccupations .....
“No one in their right minds wears leather vests!” Yes! It’s German Literature Month hosted by that intrepid duo: Caroline (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat) and Lizzie () My first contribution to GLM is a German TV series: Where’s Wanda? … Continue reading →| His Futile Preoccupations …..
“Work beats tattered undies.” In Claudia Piñeiro’s novel, Time of the Flies, Inés is out of prison after a 15 year sentence for murdering her husband, Ernesto’s lover, Charo. Is Inés a reformed woman? Does she feel bad for her … Continue reading →| His Futile Preoccupations …..
The Conditions of Unconditional Love from Alexander McCall Smith is number 15 in the Isabel Dalhousie series. This is the first I’ve read in the series and while I no doubt ‘missed’ a lot, it was easy to keep up … Continue reading →| His Futile Preoccupations …..
In Robyn Harding’s novel, The Haters, high school counselor Camryn Lane has just had her first novel, Burnt Orchid, published. Camryn is divorced and shares custody of her daughter Liza with her X. Camryn also has a younger lover, Theo, … Continue reading →| His Futile Preoccupations …..
Willem Elsschot’s wickedly funny Villa de Roses explores the messy lives of the inhabitants of a grubby Parisian boarding house. The landlady is Madame Brulot, and she advertises lodgings in her “first-class family boarding house,” complete with “modern conveniences” and … Continue reading →| His Futile Preoccupations …..
“But character is an unstable element; character was prone to show itself different from day to day.” Jessica Anderson’s novel An Ordinary Lunacy is an examination of the murky relationship between the Sydney-based, stuffy, successful barrister David Byfield and a … Continue reading →| His Futile Preoccupations …..
“It’s the wife’s family that gets to be in the good books,” she said, “and they are the ones whom the husband becomes attached to.” The narrator of Danish author…| His Futile Preoccupations .....
It was inevitable that the COVID lockdown entered the realm of fiction: after all, it is an historic event and to be honest, I was rather interested to see how authors incorporated the many aspects…| His Futile Preoccupations .....
“Intimacy became a ghastly thing.” Elizabeth Strout’s Oh William! is the third Lucy Barton novel; Lucy’s story begins in My Name is Lucy Barton, and she also appears in Anyt…| His Futile Preoccupations .....
Elizabeth Strout’s novel Tell Me Everything takes us back into Olive Kitteridge country, but while the formidable Olive makes a few appearances, the emphasis here is on Lucy Barton and Bob Bu…| His Futile Preoccupations .....
