The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

Genre: Adult Historical Mystery/Fiction

A novel set in the esteemed Harvard (or rather, Hahvahd) institution’s locale in the 19th century—kinda dry, right? A mystery hinged on a book club comprised of several bearded scholarly men—*yawn*, where is this even going?

Stuffy, erudite language and rhetoric aside, The Dante Club will dispel any notion of its being an utterly boring book. You want gore? You got it. In the form of chopped up corpses and writhing worms. You want a gripping mystery? Pearl serves it right up with plenty of wild geese chases and red herrings—bon appetit. You want a touch of actually well-researched and logical historical fiction (not the The Other Boleyn Girl stuff)? Yep, and you may actually learn quite a few new things about Dante’s Inferno or the poet Henry Longfellow or how to tell a regular maggot from a live-man-eating maggot. This book can surprise you if you let it.

Rating: Exceeded expectations

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Genre: Adult Surreal Fiction

If writing styles could be cataloged into a pantry of aromas and tastes, there would certainly be a 'Rushdie' flavor. It would be dried plum. At once salty, sour, sweet with a little punch to add to its vaguely Old World exoticness. Rushdie's command of the lyricism of language is impeccable (and, at times, overwhelming). There are select metaphors and images that are astounding. I've only read his East, West collection of short stories, and I was fooled into thinking that Rushdie wrote in surreal yet simple parable form. No, no, he can certainly spin a tale, able to sustain a yarn (or two or twelve) for over 500 pages.

Not quite total magic realism, Midnight's Children contains undertones of meta-historical fiction. After all, the main character Saleem Sinai is one of the lucky (?) midnight children, born on the cusp of India's independence, and his life reflects the changes in the country. The reader will be introduced to a myriad of colorful characters, locales and tales. The only thing that detracts from this novel could be the double-edged literary style. When I was patient enough to focus, the story was exhilarating and unearthed hidden gems. When I wasn't, the book became a bog of quotation-less dialogue, hashes, dashes, Indian colloquialisms and strangeness.

Rating: Leaves a Lasting Impression

Jun 6th, 2011 4:43pm

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Genre: General Historical Fiction

A beautiful book about one of the worst and darkest periods in human history, The Book Thief certainly demonstrates the power of books, of words, and, most importantly, of love. At first, I was worried about cliches, but it turns out my concerns were unfounded. The book is eloquently narrated from a personified Death's perspective of the lives of a German neighborhood. So, from the get go, the reader gets a different view of the devastation cast by Hitler during World War II. In the throes of war and human brutality, all victims are ultimately the same, whether they be Jew or German or fugitives or Nazi sympathizers--they are just simply people with fears and hopes and hearts.

Zusak said he wrote this book because he thought that words were powerful and that's how Hitler rose. He's certainly right. Words are powerful. For bad and for good.

Rating: Leaves a Lasting Impression

May 30th, 2011 5:46pm--transferred from ireadanything.tumblr.com