Reviewed by Nicole Bartley “The Sheltering Sky” by Paul Bowles is an agonizing 10.5-hours-long piece of existentialist fiction. Most literature doesn’t evoke the rage in me that resulted from this book; I’d consider burning it if I hadn’t only listened to its audiobook. According to the blurb, “Paul Bowles’s writing is so extraordinary, so special. …
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks St. Martin’s Press, 2012 Reviewed by Nicole Bartley Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks is the kind of book you recommend with a one-line explanation: It’s amazing. This story absorbs readers so thoroughly that they won’t realize 50 pages have been read. It’s as if …
Toni Morrison’s novels are rarely quick reads, even the short ones take time to absorb. It’s not the pacing that slows the reader, but the fact that Morrison deserves time and thought. She always includes profound and sometimes unsettling themes within simple plots, and Home is no different. It is a story about co-dependent siblings. …