Beyond the Letters

It’s is difficult to evaluate a book which tells about a culture so different from your own, and it’s even more difficult to review it, but nevertheless, I decided to try. I have struggled to read Asian authors for the last two years and each time I picked a book and started reading, I had real troubles analyzing the text as the symbolism and inner meanings were indecipherable to me due to the lack of appropriate cultural background. This novel written by an American author turned out to be an encyclopedia of Chinese culture and answered a lot of questions that have previously arisen, so now I’m much more prepared to read something by a Chinese writer. Lisa See has done a profound research preparing to write this novel and I really appreciated that, for this text managed to preserve Chinese symbols and cultural peculiarities but present them in a way understandable to a western reader. “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” gives you an insight into the life of Chinese women in...

It’s very difficult to write some quality historical prose and even more difficult to set it in a foreign country, as it demands tons of research into the subject but Dinah Jefferies seems to be very hard-working in this aspect. I had some novels that I failed to finish, as throughout the text they felt awfully off-key with the period and the culture they described, but here I knew at once that the author knows what she is writing about. The setting is colonized Ceylon (presently Sri-Lanka) at the beginning of the 20 th century . From the very beginning the reader can feel that the author is in love with this country (the fact that she willingly admits in the postface telling about her childhood year spent in Malaya very similar in culture and wildlife and her trip to Sri-Lanka while writing the book). The novel vividly describes Sri-Lankan wildlife and people touching upon several cultural milestones. Anyway Sri-Lanka is not the main topic of the novel. This book is about pre...

I must admit that Wharton’s novels and short stories are always difficult to read. Not because of the style that is in my opinion immaculate, but because of the tragedies, both small and massive, which fill her writings. Many researchers compare Edith Wharton to Henry James, calling her James’s apprentice, and their creations are indeed connected through deep psychologism , which was brought to American literature by his novels and later blossomed in hers. Wharton, as well as her teacher, is a master of such scenes which are very limited in actions but rich in concealed emotions, where every little gesture, smile or just silence covers up an abyss of inner despair. Wharton’s characters are usually opposed to society but often unable to fight against it openly. So is the character of the novella “Summer”, Charity Royall . The young girl was adopted by a rather wealthy local lawyer from a poor and not very respectable family and has spent all her life in the small town of North D...

When WWI ended people named it the Great War implying that nothing as terrifying would ever happen. Still something even more devastating was to come just in some decades…  “The Women in the Castle” ,. is  about surviving and living on , about the war as seen by those who remained in their homes, still suffered not less than the ones on the front, it’s  feminine and feministic  as it is written by a woman, and about women, and states that fair sex doesn’t mean minor one or even less strong. Although this novel deals with war you will not find a single description of battles in it, but it is unbelievable how much violence can be found outside the battlefield. The book is generally not physical and tends to hint at scenes of violence rather than describe them, but if you are not deprived of imagination you will certainly feel all that is implied.  The emotional value of the narration is immense. The story being told in 3rd person narrative, it still remains...

“You see, I have never felt the need to invent a world beyond this world, for this world has always seemed large and beautiful enough for me.” This book combines a biography, a historical novel, a Bildungsroman and a scientific essay – all under one cover.  It is the story of a woman, and a scientist, a daughter, a lover, a friend, an explorer and a philosopher, a lady and a heathen…  One can go on and on speaking about Alma Whittaker as throughout this very massive (but worthwhile!) novel she tries on so many different roles that by the end the answer to the question: “Who was she?” would be very much confused. Still, one thing that is truly important that this character has a mind great enough to be compared to the greatest scientists of the period, including   Charles Darwin &nbsp. But before Alma gets to the point where her and Darwin’s name can appear in one sentence, she lives a life, a long and interesting time journey which Gilbert proudly presents to the...