Archive for the 'books' Category
The Gallery, by John Horne Burns
The Gallery by John Horne Burns Originally published in 1947 One of the pleasures in searching through the book reviews of the late 1940s is finding a book such as this: a war novel—one highly lauded in its own time, barely mentioned in succeeding years, and the subject of revival attempts—which still stands up, and [...]
Read More..>>The Franchise Affair, by Josephine Tey
The Franchise Affair, by Josephine Tey Originally published in 1947. In The Franchise Affair, the digestive routine of a rural barrister (Robert Blair) is happily upset and the reputations of an elderly woman and her middle aged daughter are put into question when a fifteen year old girl named Betty Kane tells a story abduction [...]
Read More..>>The Path to the Spider’s Nests, by Italo Calvino.
The path to the spiders’ nests, by Italo Calvino ; translated by Archibald Colquhoun and Martin McLaughlin. Originally published 1947 This was Calvino’s first novel, by his account written hurriedly in the final months of 1946—though the available translation incorporates revisions the author made years after the book’s initial publication, as well as including Calvino’s [...]
Read More..>>Waltz into Darkness, by Cornell Woolrich
Waltz into darkness, by Cornell Woolrich Originally published, 1947. Cornell Woolrich was a favorite of moviemakers: his novels and stories were adapted into more than 25 motion pictures, with Rear Window as probably the most famous. Two (Francois Truffaut’s 1969 film Mississippi Mermaid and 2001’s Original Sin—which, though it is already largely forgotten in whole, [...]
Read More..>>The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid
The reluctant fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid. Originally published, 2007. A few decades ago, before publishers felt the need to justify the eight dollar price tags of mass market paperbacks with page counts of 400 or more, a thriller novel could be as tightly plotted as any Hitchcock masterpiece—and lean books like John LeCarre’s The Spy [...]
Read More..>>The Web and the Rock, by Thomas Wolfe
The web and the rock, by Thomas Wolfe. Originally published in 1939. The protagonist in The Web and the Rock, George Weber, writes a novel deemed unpublishable due to its extreme length—lazy editors send him insulting rejection letters without bothering to read the manuscript, alcoholic writers give it backhanded praise after admitting to having only [...]
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