a blog about a lot of things

Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty‑Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie - review  Salman Rushdie’s name on the cover of a book comes with baggage. Because of the history of the author’s previous works, there’s the inevitable desire to compare with the old books. Midnight’s Children especially weighs upon all of the author’s work because of the stature of that novel. However, it’s not just comparison but expectation. The reader expects the protagonist to be from the subcontinent and the novel to be peppered with historical and contemporary references. There is the expectation that the novel will reference and compare Eastern and Western histories. The historical fiction is expected to be accompanied by magical realism. These expectations can also weigh in on the evaluation of Rushdie’s new novel. And, if the reader is expecting to find all those things, they won’t be disappointed. Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty‑Eight Nights is an unwieldy name which references ...

Midnight’s children Midnight’s Children immediately reminds the reader of two other novels upon reading, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass. These are two of the major novels of twentieth century literature and foundation works of the genre of magical realism. Midnight’s Children falls comfortably into the same category of importance as these novels. As well as magical realism Midnight’s Children also encompasses several other literary modes such historical fiction and is considered an allegorical novel and a postcolonial novel. Despite the complexity of categorizing, the book itself is not difficult to read. The language and style which Rusdie employs provide an energy which powers the entire story. The allegory is that of the events in India leading up to independence and what follows after. The narrator of the book is Saleem Sinai who was born at the moment India gained independence on August 15 th 1947. He and ot...

The logic of this post is to list some novels that the author could have published and that'd have been enough to set them up as major in the writing history, even if they do have lots of other great works. Like Cervantes with Don Quixote . I'm going with books published after 1950. Some of these will probably be the only good book the author really did (like  Catch 22). In no particular order: 10. The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel )- 1959- Germany - German by G ü nter Grass 9. One Hundred Years of Solitude ( Cien a ñ os de soledad) - 1967- Colombia- Spanish by  Gabriel Garcia Marquez  8. Midnight's Children -1981- United Kingdom - English by  Salman Rushdie 7.  On the Road - 1957 - United States of America- English by Jack Kerouac  6. Catch-22 -1961- United States of America- English by Joseph Heller 5. Lord of the Flies - 1954- United Kingdom- English  by  William Golding 4. Beloved - 1987- United States of...

These are inclined to change order depending on the day, so there's no ranking system. It might not even be these same writers all the time. But that's who it is today. Pretty easy list to make, I just have to look at the bookshelf. Novelists only since I don't read enough non-fiction or poetry these days, unfortunately. 11. Phillip Roth -  American Reference Novels: Portnoy's Complaint; Nemesis; American Pastoral Why: Been good since the sixties and still at it ( Nemesis was released in 2010), I loved Portnoy's Complaint (yes, I'm a perv) and how it sounded like a long novel of standup comedy. First time I'd ever seen that done. He's got character-driven prose down too,  American Pastoral is as cerebral a novel as they come. 10. Salman Rushdie - British/Indian Reference Novels: Midnight's Children; Shalimar the Clown; Haroun and the Sea of Stories Why: Sadly most famous for the fatwa due to The Satanic Verses which isn't one ...

Disclaimer: I'm sure there will be many authors I've missed out simply because I haven't heard of them. It is impossible for me to read anything not published or translated into English or French. Or works that I cannot get a hold of even if translations exist ( the book market in Trinidad is a bit limited. It's not a perfect world). I'm making guesses with the material I have and hopefully the guesses are good. In no particular order: 12. Ian McEwan -  England Language: English Genres: Novels; Short Stories; Children's Stories; Plays; Screenplays; Libretto Reference Works: The Comfort of Strangers (1981); Amsterdam (1988); Atonement (2001);On Chesil Beach (2007) 11. Nuruddin Farah - Somalia Language: English, Somali Genres: Novels; Plays; Essays Reference Works: From A Crooked Rib (1970); A Naked Needle (1976); Variations on  the Theme of An African Dictatorship (trilogy)- 1979-1983 10. Kamau Brathwaite - Barbados Language: English ...

There are some books you can read in one sitting. The ones you don't feel like putting down and you can't wait to get back to. I'm not including novel series in this, because those are a whole other thing and if I did I'd be forced to fill the list with Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy Novels. I'm going with books published after 1960 as well. I'm only allowing books I managed to finish in a week. Only novels, no short stories and poetry, memoirs, non-fiction etc in no particular order : 15. Portnoy's Complaint - Phillip Roth - 1969 - USA Quick Summary: Comedy, sexual frustration and self-consciousness. Portnoy's Complaint is one long monologue to a therapist about different stages of his life. This could get depressing but thankfully his life is hilarious. 14. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - 1989 - UK Quick Summary: Mostly flashbacks of a butler from the time preceding World War II, in which his master was heavily involved in appeasement. The inte...

So there's this thing called the 30 day song challenge. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/30-Day-Song-Challenge/120874111270003?ref=ts#!/pages/30-Day-Song-Challenge/120874111270003?sk=app_4949752878) . And it's pretty awesome. So, me being me, I decided to edit it up and see if it works for books/poetry. Most work with only minor tweaking. Results as follows. My list, my picks. As always. I'll try to use books in front of poetry, mostly cause I expect to give poems their own list. Original :day 01 - your favorite song Edited as : day 01 - your favorite book (This isn't set, it varies a lot) - Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie day 02 - your least favorite song Edited as : day 02 - Your least favorite book - Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce day 03 - a song that makes you happy Edited as : day 03 - a book that makes you happy - Goodbye, Mr. Chips - James Hilton day 04 - a song that makes you sad Edited as : day 04 - a book that makes you sad - The Road - Corma...

10. The Shadow of the Wind -Carlos Ruiz Zafon -2001- Spain 9.The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz- 2007- Dominican Republic/USA 8. Everything Is Illuminated-Jonathan Safran Foer - 2002. USA 7.The Famished Road - Ben Okri -1992- Nigeria 6.In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje -1987 - Sri Lanka/Canada 5. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez- 1985-Colombia 4.The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera -1979- Czechoslovakia 3. The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass -1958 -Germany 2. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie -1981- UK 1.One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 1967- Colombia

, Nobel's choice of emphasis on "idealistic" or "ideal" (in English translation) in his criteria for the Nobel Prize in Literature has led to recurrent controversy. .In the early twentieth century, the Nobel Committee interpreted the intent of the will strictly and did not award certain world-renowned authors of the time such as Henry James, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Emile Zola, Anton Chekov and Henrik Ibsen .More recently, the wording has been interpreted more liberally. Since there was a reason , albeit a exceedingly poor one, for exclusion of these authors this list only refers to more recent authors who were snubbed (i.e writers who died after 1920). (This list will be biased towards writers who wrote in English or French. Or whose works have been translated into those languages. There are many writers in other languages who are likely to have deserved a Nobel, but a lack of comprehension of those languages makes the judging of their works impossible. Obviou...