Review of the Day: Titus Groan

Titus Groan is the 77th Earl of Gormenghast, born in the opening pages of this first novel in Mervin Peake’s famous Gormenghast Trilogy. Although considered a “fantasy” classic, the novel should not be cubbyhole by its genre. There are no wizards, warlocks, orcs, or walking trees. The inhabitants of Gormenghast Castle come in the recognizable forms of humans, cats, birds, and other common creatures.

The story is fantastic in that it is free of geographical or historical constraints. It seems to be set in a Britain “of yore,” but is so self-contained that it does not matter. The point is the elaborate world contained within the sprawling walls of Gormenghast Castle.

The plot centers on the canny, 17-year-old Steerpike, who aims to control Gormenghast. In this first volume, we watch Steerpike wriggle his way up the ladder of power from a post as kitchen scullion, to the servant of the awkwardly endearing Dr. Prunesquallor, into an elaborate plot that gives him command over the nitwit twin sisters of the aged 76th Earl, to the exalted position of heir-apparent to the Master of Ritual at the castle. Who knows what heights he will reach in the remaining volumes.

Peake fills every page of Steerpike’s journey with intricate details of the ceremonies, manners, foibles, and relationships that govern the Groan family and their court. Darkly humorous and lusciously written, Titus Groan is a novel to get lost in.

NOTES

This book is listed on at least one of the lists I am working on, but I am too scatterbrained by trial prep to remember which one right now. I will figure it out and add the information later.

This counts as one of my books for the Typically British Challenge.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Teaser Tuesday: An American Map

"I sense that when I am reading [aloud] or being read to, if it is done with skill, the energy shifts and flits between the reader and the read to, and evolves into something just short of reading each other's minds.  Do a group of people all listening to the same story -- a story that has taken them not to spirituality like a prayer might, but to the internal realm of imagination where all of us, through language, enter another world -- create a unity there, in that place, that we find in no other communal experience?"

-- From "Finding (My) America" in An American Map by Anne-Marie Oomen. 

In this essay, Oomen describes her thoughts and experiences while on a mini-book tour to small public libraries in rural Michigan. It is my favorite essay in the collection because it is about books, reading, and the community between authors and readers. 


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

It is a short Mailbox Monday list this week, because only one book came into my house:

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks



I was a little bored by March (my review is here), although Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for it, so I was reluctant to read this one.  But I've now read several reviews and I've been converted -- it sounds great.

It will count as one of my Bibliopholic Books.

A Mini-Smackdown: Modern Library v. Radcliffe

Finishing the books on the Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century inspired me, in a round about way, to start Rose City Reader.  I was so jazzed by finishing the list that I started adopting other Must Read lists.  The Radcliffe Publishing Course's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century immediately caught my eye because it is the declared rival of the Modern Library list.

The Radcliffe list is nagging at me right now. I have only 14 or so books to finish before I have completed the list -- a tantalizingly achievable goal. Having recently finished Where Angels Fear to Tread (reviewed here), I am one step closer.

There is a tremendous amount of overlap between the two lists. If I had to chose which list really represented the "best" 100 novels of the 2th Century, I would pick the Modern Library list for a couple of reasons. First, I think the Radcliffe list leans in general to books that are more popular (Gone with the Wind, for example, which also won the Pulitzer, so I'm not knocking it, but still), while the Modern Library list includes books that are more literary. For example, the Modern Library list includes An American Tragedy, which I thought was heavy going, but it was a groundbreaking work so I agree that it should be on the list.

Second, but along the same lines, the Radcliffe list includes a number of children's books. They are good children's books, but I would have chosen only from books for adults.

Finally, while I understand that the Modern Library list is often criticized for not having "enough" books by women, I think the Radcliffe list overcompensates. I really don't think the list needs three books by Tony Morrison or even three by Virginia Wolf, especially at the expense of some of my favorites from the Modern Library list like A Dance to the Music of Time and The Alexandria Quartet.

I'm open to persuasion. Other thoughts?

If anyone is working on wither list, please let me know. I love to read blogs about these lists. And if you would like to be listed on either of my list posts, please leave a comment here or on my list posts with appropriate links and I will add them.

Pro-Choice

Becky at Page Turners recently let me answer several blog-related questions when I made it to the Winners Circle on her followers contest.

One of these questions was particularly interesting to me, because I wonder what makes people chose the books they read -- on a general level, but even more so, on a particular level. What makes you pick up the next book?

I never thought about how odd my own book-choosing system might seem, until I put it into words. Here is how I answered Becky's questions, "How do you chose your books?"

I am a compulsive "list" reader. Books make it onto my TBR shelf because they made it on to someone's list of books that should be read. So on a "macro" level, I chose books because they are on one of my lists.

On a "micro" level, I have an idiosyncratic method that makes me look like a nut: My TBR books are arranged alphabetically on the shelves. When I am ready for a new book, I choose one from the first shelf. The next time, I chose one from the next shelf, and so on through the shelves. My rule is that I can choose any book on the designated shelf, but I have to choose from that shelf. So if I am in the mood for a prize winner, I can chose a prize winner -- or a mystery, a book by a favorite author, a book I’ve been meaning to read but keep putting off. Whatever the mood is, I chose a book to fit that mood -- but only from the one shelf.

How would you answer? Please let me know in a comment, or leave a link to an answer you post on your own blog.

New Weekly Event -- Book Beginnings on Fridays

Becky at Page Turners has started a new weekly event she calls Book Beginnings on Fridays.  I am kind of tickled because she gave me credit for inspiring her with my "Opening Sentence of the Day" posts.

Here is her explanation:

This is a new meme that I have decided to start entitled Book Beginnings on Friday. I hope that you all join in.

At this stage I do not have a button for this meme, being someone that is very technologically challenged. If there is anyone out there that wants to participate in this meme and has the skills to make a button, I would really appreciate it :-)

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. 

Please visit Page Turners to participate. And maybe help her come up with a cool button. I started off her Mr. Linky list with the opening sentence from An American Map by Anne-Marie Oomen.

Book Notes: The Magus

The Magus by John Fowles was my least favorite book on the Modern Library's Top 100 Novels list.

I could not stand The Magus! It may be the only book that I actually hate. Pompous nitwits running around a stupid island playing games with each other! And all the time spouting humanistic gobblygook about the death of God, or whatever they were prattling on about. It has a cult following, but I thought it was overwrought nonsense.

So no full-length review -- just my gut reaction.

Get it Right!

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks about grammar:

In honor of National Grammar Day … it IS “March Fourth” after all … do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books?

More importantly, have you read them?

How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?

I put myself in the fussy category when it comes to grammar and punctuation. When I file a legal brief or send a demand letter, I want what I sign to be perfect.  When I edit someone else's legal writing, I am ruthless with the red pen. This fussiness carries over to my blog posts and book reviews.

I recognize the influence that brought me to this point: a high school English teacher who made us diagram sentences; a year as the Editor of my college paper; a very short time trying to write free-lance feature stories for our local paper, with my reporter-husband editing over my shoulder; law review; and three bar exams.  Add on 17 years of legal writing, and you can understand my obsession.

There are a couple of grammar and punctuation books on my shelves, including Strunk and White's The Elements of Style; Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss (reviewed here), and my old copy of The Harvard Blue Book, although I think it is too outdated to be of much use.

Don't even get me started on text messages . . .

Review of the Day: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Where Angels Fear to Tread is a gem with too many facets to appreciate fully at first inspection. E. M. Forster packed so much into his short first novel that it would be a pleasure to read several times.

When Lilia Herriton left for a year in Italy, her in-laws breathed a sigh of relief to have the impetuous, somewhat gauche, widow out of their stodgy hair. But when they discover that Lilia has gone and married the ne’er-do-well son of a provincial Italian dentist, their shocked overreaction leads to a series of misfortunes that eventually crush their prim conventions.

Forster uses the star-crossed lovers, Lilia and Gino, to illustrate the clash between star-crossed cultures and philosophies. In surviving these clashes, Lilia’s brother-in-law, Philip Harriton, and her companion, Caroline Abbott, grow to appreciate a world much bigger than their tedious hometown of Sawston.

Forster is – for the better – a stripped down version of Henry James. The beauty and big ideas are there, but are not swaddled to obscurity with a million extra words. Where Angels Fear to Tread was published in 1905. To readers used to James’s heavy hand (The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl were published in that order in the three years prior to Angels), Forster must have seemed like the breath of life itself.

NOTES

This book is on the Radcliffe Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century list. It counts as one of my books for the Typically British Challenge.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this or any other Forster novels listed her, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Teaser Tuesday: Where Angels Fear to Tread

"Romance only dies with life. No pair of pincers will ever pull it out of us."

-- Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster

 

 

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

I've been so busy getting ready for a trial that I don't think I would even notice if something came to my mailbox. But I have a short list for Mailbox Monday because I took a head-clearing break from drafting pleadings to walk to Powell's last Friday.

I must have been thinking of food (or maybe a different career) because I got these two books:

A Cordiall Water: A Garland of Odd and Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man and Beast by M. F. K. Fisher



That's the cover on the copy I bought. It's very pleasant, but I would love to find an old edition with this cover:



Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones

Opening Sentence of the Day: An American Map

"Tucked as it is in a Michigan woods thick with tall maple and ash, the Think House eddies with chill in winter, and remains too-cool and shaded in summer."

-- From "Warming the Flute," the first essay in An American Map by Anne-Marie Oomen.

This book is a collection of essays about and inspired by particular spots across America. This essay is set at the Think House in Empire, Michigan.

I love the perfection of the phrase "eddies with chill." I am ready for some armchair traveling.

Review of the Day: Portland Noir

Portland Noir is a collection of original short stories that is all over the map -- if the map is of the Rose City. The stories are set in different neighborhoods that collectively make up the seedy underbelly of Portland.

The anthology, edited by Kevin Sampsell, is part of the Akashic Books Noir series -- "a groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book."

The Portland stories take readers to many a gritty, greasy corner of Portland, where junkies break into the wrong houses, lesbians fantasize about strangling the men in their beds, and love gets strange. The stories come in many shades of dark, from creepy (“Baby, I’m Here”) to clever (“Shanghaied”); violent (“The Wrong House”) to sadly sweet (“Alzheimer’s Noir”).

If there is anything generally missing, it is high-end noir. The stories do not venture much past seedy motels, dive bars, and strip clubs, although there must be plenty of noir to be found in tonier venues. There are a few references to the trendy Pearl District, but a story or two involving the residents of Portland’s ritzier neighborhoods would have enhanced the collection.

And there are slim pickings for those who prefer their noir in the form of hard boiled detective stories. But the two included are a couple of the best pieces in the book because they capture Portland’s soul as well as her geography.

The first, "Coffee, Black" by Bill Cameron, is a great bit of caffeinated noir – a coffee-house mystery that perfectly captures Portland's espresso-fueled and anti-corporate culture. Camron has the hard-bitten prose down flat:

She's a touch thick, not quite shed of her winter fat, but she wears her flesh with oblivious self-assurance. I have no doubt a man with a flatter belly could pay her bar tab and bed her the same night, with no idea of the problems she'll cause over breakfast.

Philip Marlowe could not have said it better himself.

The second is “The Red Room” by Chris A. Bolton. This shakedown caper is set entirely inside Powell’s – the City of Books. There is something metafictional about an independently published story set in the world’s largest independent bookstore that seems very, very Portland.

Not every story in Portland Noir will appeal to every reader, but there is something in there for every noir fan.

NOTES

This book was the #3 fiction bestseller at Powell's when I was there yesterday.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Review of the Day: New Orleans Mourning

Julie Smith won the 1991 Edgar Award for New Orleans Mourning, the first in what became her Skip Langdon series. A former debutante and police rookie, Langdon is a misfit in both high society New Orleans and the blue collar police force. Her oddball status means she must find her own way when given a special assignment to work on the murder of a prominent civic leader.

Langdon is an appealing heroine because she is imperfect. She is six feet tall and hefty, a horrible dresser, and remarkably headstrong for someone who is making it up as she goes along. Smith uses Langdon to present a take on pre-Katrina New Orleans life that is perceptive, irreverent, and for mystery fans, a refreshing change from the always dark and creepy Louisiana of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series.

Sometimes the conflicts in the story – between Langdon and her homicide detective co-workers or the amateur filmmaker who she cannot decide wants to love her or use her for a great story – seem forced. But Smith makes up for these flaws with a complicated story that twists several times before all the loose ends get satisfactorily tied up.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Where Angels Fear to Tread

"They were all at Charing Cross to see Lilia off --  Philip, Harriet, Irma, Mrs. Harrington herself."

-- Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster

I'm a Forster fan, but I have never read this and I have never seen the movie.  I don't really like movie tie-in covers, but that's the edition I ended up with. I don't even remember where I got it, it has been on my TBR shelf for so long.

WAFtT is on the Radcliffe Top 100 list. I am trying to concentrate on this list more than others because I only have 15 to go (if I count the last two volumes of The Lord of the Rings as two separate items on the list, which I do).

Author of the Day: A. J. Cronin

A. J. Cronin (1896 to 1981) was a prolific mid-century author who wrote more than 20 novels, many which were made into movies or television shows.

Cronin was born and raised in Scotland, with a Protestant mother and a Catholic father. Many of his characters came from similar backgrounds.  Cronin was a medical doctor before he became an author and many of his books, especially his most famous, The Citadel, concern medical school and doctors. 

I have had a copy of The Green Years on my TBR shelf for decades. But I only got around to reading his books after I found a nifty matching set of six of his most popular books at a library book sale. I started with Three Loves, his second published novel and the earliest in my set. I was swept away in the story, which is sometimes all I want out of a book.

I may never get around to reading all of Cronin's fiction and non-fiction -- most of his books are out of print -- but I would like to try. I only included novels and his autobiography on my list, I have not included "serial novellas" (unless they have been published in a book), short stories, or a play.


Those I have read are in red; those on my TBR shelf are in blue.

Hatter's Castle (1931)

Three Loves (1932) (reviewed here)

Grand Canary (1933)

The Stars Look Down (1935)

The Citadel (1937)

Vigil in the Night (1939)

The Valorous Years (1940)

The Keys of the Kingdom (1941)

Adventures of a Black Bag (1943) (out of print and hard to find)

The Green Years (1944)

Shannon's Way (1948)

The Spanish Gardener (1950)

Adventures in Two Worlds (autobiography, 1952)

Beyond This Place (1953)

A Thing of Beauty (also published as Crusader's Tomb) (1956)

The Northern Light (1958)

The Native Doctor (also published as An Apple in Eden) (1959) (out of print and very hard to find)

The Judas Tree (1961)

A Song of Sixpence (1964)

Further Adventures of a Black Bag (1966) (out of print and hard to find)

A Pocketful of Rye (1969)

Desmonde (also published as The Minstrel Boy) (1975)

Lady with Carnations (1976)

Gracie Lindsay (1978)

Doctor Finlay of Tannochbrae (1978)

Teaser Tuesday: Portland Noir

"She's  a touch thick, not quite shed of her winter fat, but she wears her flesh with oblivious self-assurance.  I have no doubt a man with a flatter belly could pay her bar tab and bed her the same night, with no idea of the problems she'll cause over breakfast."

-- From "Coffee, Black" by Bill Cameron in Portland Noir, edited by Kevin Sampsell.

This collection of original short stories is all over the map -- if the map is Portland, Oregon. Each one is set in a different neighborhood in the Rose City, but all those neighborhoods are in the seedy underbelly of my city. 

I am half-way through the collection, and so far, Bill Cameron's story is my favorite. It is traditional, hard-boiled detective noir -- but caffeinated. This coffee-house mystery perfectly captures Portland's espresso-fueled culture.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks mostly to the Oregon State University Press, I had a very full mailbox last week and a long list for Mailbox Monday.

Jumptown: The Golden Years of Portland Jazz 1942-1957 by Robert Dietsche (Hubby is a huge classic jazz fan, so most of what we listen to is jazz from this era. I am looking forward to learning about Portland's jazz history.)



Another Way the River Has: Taut True Tales from the Northwest by Robin Cody



City Limits: Walking Portland's Boundary by David Oates



An Architectural Guidebook to Portland by Bart King



The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vinyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the Whole Wild World by Brian Doyle (This looks fantastic!)




I also got a novel in the mail from my favorite book publicist:

The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees



And I found a boxed set of the first six volumes of John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga. I have been meaning to read this for years and I already have the last three volumes in the same Scribner's edition. Thelast three aren't boxed, but at least all the books match.

The Man of Property



In Chancery



To Let



The Silver Spoon



The White Monkey



Swan Song

Challenge: Chunksters

I am kicking myself for not signing up for this last year because I read enough books to meet the requirements. So I signed up this year for the "Mor-book-ly Obese" level, which means reading six 450+-page books (or three 750+-pagers).

I do not know yet which books I will read, but there are several biggies on my TBR shelf that are vying for my attention.

REVIEWS

Three Loves by A. J. Cronin(reviewed here)

IN THE RUNNING

Them by Joyce Carol Oates (which I am reading for my Battle of the Prizes: American Version challenge)

The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (which I am reading for my Battle of the Prizes: British Version challenge)

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (on the Radcliffe list)

Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell (because it has been on my TBR shelf forever)

Review of the Day: Three Loves

Three Loves is A. J. Cronin's second novel, first published in 1932. It tells the engrossing, ultimate tragic, story of the three loves of Lucy Moore -- her husband, her son, and God.
Into all three relationships, Lucy brings the same monumental pride, bull-headed obstinance, and self-defeating melodrama that lead to her ultimate downfall. Life gives Lucy some hard knocks, but it is hard to feel sorry for her when she antagonizes all those who try to help her.

It is Lucy’s stubborn hostility that makes this book more interesting than the typical family drama. Although she is not likeable, she inspires some sympathy because she means well in her monomaniacal way. Like with a Greek tragedy, it is hard to tear away even when the tragic end is so apparently inevitable.

The book is fairly long -- over 550 pages -- but moves right along with plenty of action, plot, and conflict among the characters. Some of the attitudes and assumptions of the characters are a little dated, but with illegitimate children, adultery, violent death, lesbianism, insanity, social injustice, and Church hypocrisy, there is nothing stodgy about the story.

Cronin was a prolific mid-century author who wrote more than 20 novels, many which were made into movies or television shows. Judging from Three Loves, it is easy to see why he was so popular.

NOTES

This book counts as one of my choices for both the Chunkster Challenge and the Typically British Challenge.

OTHER REVIEWS

(I realize that other reviews of this book are unlikely, but if you have reviewed any Cronin book, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it here.)

Opening Sentence of the Day: Portland Noir

"I wonder how people think of Portland from the outside."

-- From the Introduction to Portland Noir, edited by Kevin Sampsell.

This is part of the Akashic Books Noir series, "a groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book."

This one has been languishing on my Guilt List for too long! I started it yesterday and am now entranced by these moody, sometimes creepy, stories set in my own city.

Review of the Day: The Studs Lonigan Trilogy

James Farrell's Studs Lonigan trilogy is justly lauded as a milestone in American literature, a monument to a new "naturalist" style. But monuments can be boring, even if they are important.

The trilogy has not aged well. The slang the characters use, their clothes, even some of their concerns, are anachronisms now that require a great deal of "willing suspension" to appreciate the spot on description of the rough world of second generation, Irish Catholic toughs in Chicago in the 1920s. This is definitely not the glittery 1920s of Fitzgerald or Dorothy Parker!

The final book of the trilogy, Judgment Day, is the longest of the three and the most accessible. Unlike the first two volumes, which concern mostly what is inside Lonigan's head, there is a lot of plot and action in this one.

Judgment Day takes a compelling look at the Great Depression, focusing on the middle class characters and what they lose because of the depression. Because these people have jobs, own their own businesses, invest in real estate, speculate on the stock market, they seem more familiar and relevant than Dust Bowl dirt farmers (The Grapes of Wrath), labor agitators (The USA Trilogy), or other soup line characters from books and movies about the Great Depression.

Except for compulsive "list" readers, skipping the first two volumes and only reading Judgment Day may be the way to go. It stands alone as the most worthwhile of the three.


NOTES

I read Studs Lonigan a couple of years ago. I am only posting my review now because I am updating my Modern Library Top 100 post to include my comments about the books I read.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Opening Sentence of the Day: Fishes & Dishes

Fishes & Dishes is a collection of recipes and stories by sisters Kiyo and Tomi Marsh and friend Laura Cooper, with contributions from women like us -- women who have worked in commercial fishing in Alaska.

--From the Introduction to Fishes and Dishes: Seafood Recipes and Salty Stories from Alaska's Commercial Fisherwomen by Kiyo Marsh, Tomi Marsh, and Laura Cooper.

OK, that sentence is a little dry, and the switch from third to first person, while understandable, is awkward. But this has all the makings of a terrific book, so I'll cut them some slack.

There are plenty of other books that have been sitting on my Guilt List longer than this one has. But it is too tempting to pass up. I already know that I'll be getting it for my adventuresome friend Tracey for her birthday -- even though I think it may inspire her to buy a fishing boat and sail the seas.

Announcements

The February edition of the Internet Review of Books is live now. It looks like an amazing edition, packed with lots of great reviews. I am very pleased that my review of Eden Springs is in the Brief Review section.

My second announcement is not all that exciting, except for me because I have been meaning to get around to this task for a long time. I finally updated my post on the Modern Library's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century list.

Completing all the books on that list was one of the things that inspired me to start this blog.  But that also meant that it was one of the very first posts I put up and, looking back at it, it was very difficult to read. The layout was bad. And it did not include links to my reviews, which I have now added.

Thanks goes to 100 Books/100 Journeys for getting me interested in the Modern Library list again. She has a great blog dedicated to reading the books on this list. (Although I worry that she may be disappointed when she comes to appreciate that there are 121 books on this list -- but "121 Books/121 Journeys" just does not have the same ring to it).

If anyone else is reading the books on the Modern Library list, please leave a comment on the main post with a link to your progress report (or your blog if is it dedicated to the list) and I will add it.

Review of the Day: Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is an incredible novel, but it is not a book for me. 

I had avoided reading this famous book because I thought it would be unbearably dreary. How could a book about the firebombing of Dresden during WWII not be dreary? But it is on the Modern Library's Top 100 list, so I finally read it.  Now I know the answer: If you write a book about the firebombing of Dresden and fill it with time travel, space ships, and extraterrestrials, it's not dreary, it's goofy.

But I don't like goofy books about extraterrestrials, especially when they are really serious books about the morality of firebombing your enemy during war. I realized that I would rather have a dreary, realistic book than a goofy book.


NOTES

I read Slaughterhouse-Five a couple of years ago. I am only posting my review now because I am updating my Modern Library Top 100 post to include my comments about the books I read.

There are people who feel very strongly that this is the greatest book ever written. I know this because when I first posted my review on LibraryThing, several of them sent me comments expressing their disappointment that we didn't see eye to eye. (That is a watered-down description -- what I actually got were Unibomber-style manifestos on Vonnegut's genius.) 

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it -- unless your review is a Unibomber-style manifesto.)