The Man Who was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton

There are novels to understand, but there are novels to experience. After reading G. K. Chesterton’s The Man Who was Thursday twice—the second time to remind me of the plot—I concluded that it is securely in the second category. The first time I read it was before my stroke. I not saying that there is… Continue reading The Man Who was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez

Memories of My Melancholy Whores begins with its protagonist and narrator declaring the objectionable goal of wanting to have sex with a teenaged virgin. It’s the gift he wants to give himself for his ninetieth birthday. He contacted the madame at the local brothel, who finds a fourteen-year-old girl to fulfill his needs. Since even… Continue reading Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez

Book Review: Cinnamon by Samar Yazbek

“Poetry,” one of my literature professors had said long ago in class, “is about mixed emotions.” She was talking about Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” a short poem loaded with both positive and negative imagery and invoking both happy and frightening emotions. But she could’ve been talking about any great poem, and not just poems… Continue reading Book Review: Cinnamon by Samar Yazbek

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johanna Wolfgang von Goethe

According to Wikipedia, when The Sorrows of Young Werther was published in 1774, it became the world’s first best seller. Since book publishing was, at best, only a toddler, since copyright laws were nonexistent, and since it is doubtful anyone was tracking book sells statistics, I find this claim–at least in the literal meaning of… Continue reading The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johanna Wolfgang von Goethe