Beyond the Letters

Isabelle Allende is extremely good at family sagas. So good, that she makes her reader live a whole new life while reading a novel, and by the end of it you feel as if you started ages ago even if you read it in one day. It took me more than one day to read “A Long Petal of the Sea” but believe me, if I hadn’t had to go to work and do my house chores, I wouldn’t have put it away until I was done. The story is very engaging, emotional, captivating, it grabs you to never let go. The plot is simple and complicated at the same time. While the author is focused mainly on two protagonists, throughout the book you meet a range of other people and other stories which are none the less important and meaningful. It’s a family saga on the one hand and a master’s painting of the whole century on the other. It starts off in the midst of the Spanish Civil war where a medical student Victor Dalmau is trying to save as many lives as he can and a young pianist Roser is equally in love with music

People who are ignorant are the easiest aim when you want to manipulate the others. Like the famous “451 Fahrenheit” by Ray Bradbury suggests, when you are afraid of being deprived of you power – start burning the books. The people who know nothing about anything will gladly believe all your lies. This novel is about reading which helps you to get more mature. About living in the time and place that makes you choose between your consciousness and safety. About children who can be much stronger and true to themselves than adults. About one man that wanted to rule the world and many others who believed his stories. About death that is kind and life that is cruel. About the healing and destructive power of words. The outside Let’s look at the outer form of this novel first. The peculiarities start with the narrator itself, for the story is told from the point of view of… Death. Strangely enough this severe judge, as we are used to think of him, turns out to be not deprived of human f

Biographies are generally a non-fiction genre, for even though they have some place for imagination and emotionality within them, they are mostly a collection of facts presented in an attractive way. But many writers, especially modern ones, try to reconsider this quite old genre and give a new life to it. Here I will tell you about some novels that depict images of famous people, and whose main aim is not to tell the story of someone’s life but to let the reader see these personalities through the author’s eyes. 1. Miss Charity by Marie-Aude Muriel Loosely based on the life of Beatrix Potter this little comedy however managed to create a very credible image of the acclaimed children author. Beatrix Potter was a talented writer with her own unique vision of the world and her own ideas about woman’s position in society. Living in highly conventional Victorian society, she dared to state that any woman could be more than just a wife or a housekeeper. The book is written in th

The topic I have chosen might seem sulky or too depressive for some readers but sometimes it is highly essential to read something like that as such novels not only help to raise awareness and form a positive attitude towards people with mental issues, but also provide the reader with an emotional and memorable story definitely worth your time and patience. In this list I have made an attempt to collect the novels of different forms and genres which at the same time discuss different conditions so that each reader could pick something to his/her liking. 1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” gives the reader an insight into a life of a teen boy, Christopher, who has a condition of autistic spectrum , supposedly Asperger’s syndrome. Although the features of this disorder are described very accurately, the main aim of the author here is to describe the teen’s personality and make the character r

However far away the life brings us from our native place, there is always a moment when we need to return to the roots. In this very moment we meet the narrator of “The Italian Girl” written by Iris Murdoch, a prominent representative of postmodern British literature. Having escaped from the oppressive influence of his mother, Lydia, in his youth, Edmund couldn’t find enough strength to get back to his family up to her sudden death. Now, many years later, Edmund comes to the funeral, where he will meet his relatives, about the life of which he has only a vague knowledge based on a few brief letters. He doesn’t notice any changes at first glance – the same old house, the same family of his brother and the unchangeable Italian servant. But one occasional confession of Edmund’s niece makes him see that the relations between his relatives are more confused than they seemed to be and Lydia’s house keeps m any more secrets… The Gothic atmosphere One of the most interesting features

As we get hold of sharp and sliding border And listen to the buzzing sound of chime,- Don’t we go mad amidst the motley order And change of made-up reasons, space and time?.. Alexander Blok It took me eight years and a degree in literary studies to get to love this great postmodernist but it was definitely worth it. I must confess that the first books by Barnes I read as a student were beyond my understanding and therefore beyond my interest but since than I discovered a lot of his works that made me fall in love with his writing. “The Noise of Time” is definitely one of them. This book is  a perfect example of intermediality  (several types of art combined) and it throws its reader into the majestic world of classical music  telling about one of the most prominent composers of the previous century Dmitri Shostakovich  and his complicated relations with Soviet authorities. It’s widely known that Soviet Union was not the most creative environment because of the