Milo and the Calf

Tag: fiction

  • Harris’s Dictator

    Dictator: A Novel Robert Harris The final volume in Harris’s novelization of the life of Cicero, this one covering his actions during the time of the assassination of Caesar up to his death on the orders of Marc Anthony. Cicero is one of Rome’s most memorable senators. A brilliant lawyer and rhetorician who was also…

  • Book Review: Sternbergh’s Shovel Ready

    Shovel Ready Adam Sternbergh A crime novel set in post-apocalyptic New York City featuring a hit man with a heart of gold as the hero. New York has been hit with a dirty bomb, and most of the city has fled, or now lives their entire lives jacked into virtual reality. Except our hero, who…

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    Review: LaValle’s The Changeling

    A book that starts out as a heartwarming tale of parenthood, turns real dark, real fast, and ends up a surreal exploration of a world of monsters, cults, and heartbroken parents in New York City. Kinda about parenthood, kinda about race and difference, kinda about the role of social media, and kinda about the immigrant…

  • Review: Bacigalupi’s The Wind-Up Girl

    The Wind Up Girl Paolo Bacigalupi Global warming, mega corporations bent on world domination, genetically modified food, floods, plagues, mechanical sex slaves. The future in the Wind-Up Girl isn’t very uplifting, but the way Bacigalupi tells this story of a future Thailand beset by environmental disasters, and voracious mutlti-national corporations is incredible. No surprise, I…

  • Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz

    A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller Top five novel of the small-group-keeps-knowledge-alive-in-post-apocalyptic world sub genre of science fiction. You either love this kind of novel or you don’t. I love them, and have read scores, A Canticle for Leibowitz is among the best. It spans hundreds of years, and includes scores of characters all…

  • Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow

    Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon I read it. Cover to cover. I was 19 and people said it was a work of genius, so I gave it a go. Did I understand it? No. Was it pure hubris to think I could understand one of the pivotal works of this difficult author with no background what…

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    Ellison’s Invisible Man

    Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison It always feels a bit absurd to review a classic, especially one with the profound emotional and political resonance of Invisible Man. I could leave it at this – you need to read this book – but I’ll say a little more. I came to Invisible Man with a bit of…

  • Roy’s God of Small Things

    The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy I read the God of Small Things almost fifteen years ago, so let’s be honest, my memory is a bit hazy. I remember being blown away that it was a first novel, but in hindsight, that may have been naïve. Its complex narrative structure, following twins in two…

  • Kelman’s How Late It Was, How Late

    How Late It Was How Late James Kelman When I was twenty, I lived in Berkeley California and worked as a tele-fundraiser for a number of large nonprofits. Yes, I was the guy calling to ask you to donate to the Sierra Club. My co-workers were an incredibly eclectic mix of punks, artists, ex-cons, and…

  • Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

    Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie Can Rushdie write? Yes, he prose is beautiful, if too baroque at times for me. I read this over a decade ago, and there are scenes I can still remember clearly. Can he craft a compelling story? Yes, as this story of the transformation of India, and those who lived there,…