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The Grand Alliance (Winston S. Churchill, 1950): Conclusions
I was surprised to find myself less than fully engaged. Alliance, in this read, seemed to contain more numbers – divisions, armor, airplanes, etc.—than I recalled from an earlier reading. Alliance...
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My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante, 2012): Conclusions
Reading Brilliant feels like a close, but not yet intimate friend, has decided to confide to you her most closely-held admissions, fears, and insecurities. Surely the author is writing from personal,...
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Rabbit Run (John Updike, 1960): Conclusions
This was more than just a re-read—perhaps I’ve read the Rabbit series three or four times, and it always holds up. I speculate that we readers see how harmful Rabbit is and see the dozens of ways he’s...
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Falconer (John Cheever, 1997): Conclusions
Although I appreciated the clear writing and the consistent, confident voice of its narrator, I didn’t much enjoy the book. I’m not sure if Cheever intended for us to believe such a character as...
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Adam Bede (George Eliot, 1859): Conclusions
I found the first half horribly slow—endless, pointless description, it seemed to me; some valid observations about the human condition, but nothing most of us haven’t already taken for granted. Then,...
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The Guns of August (Barbara W. Tuchman): Conclusions
I first read Guns decades ago. When I started this re-read, I remembered very little beyond a few names and a sudden realization by someone in Paris that the Germans were offering their flank for...
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Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War (Max Hastings, 2013): Conclusions
The title should have alerted me to the likelihood that the book would not cover the entirety of the First World War; yet, it didn’t. It covers essentially the first four months—to the end of 1914....
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Death in Venice (Thomas Mann, 1912): Conclusions
At least the old guy didn’t actually sleep with the kid. I didn’t “get” this book. It must have been clever in the way of mythology references; it must have been unique in its use of the German...
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A Passage to India (E. M. Forster, 1924): Conclusions
Passage was a wonderful read on several fronts: It provided a credible insight into the India of that time (and, for I know, for this time). It provided characters that I could identify with—Fielding...
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Homage to Catalonia (George Orwell, 1937): Conclusions
This was a fast, straight-forward account of Orwell’s experience as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War. Whatever criticism one may level at Orwell’s politics, no one can fault him for want of...
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