tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.comments2023-10-15T06:49:44.736-04:00The Paolo Review of BooksPaolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-66669306828564877662011-09-02T09:55:29.259-04:002011-09-02T09:55:29.259-04:00I had to take the plunge and order it in from the ...I had to take the plunge and order it in from the UK. It's by far the longest of the Booker reading but that just prolongs your pleasure.Paolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-65933157608981999062011-09-01T08:06:27.978-04:002011-09-01T08:06:27.978-04:00This novel is one I'm eagerly awaiting (I opte...This novel is one I'm eagerly awaiting (I opted to patiently wait for the U.S. release this fall). It already sounded good, but you made it sound simply lovely and raised my excitement level even more.nomadreaderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04795144320842413060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-28256374825375120102011-08-31T19:28:25.867-04:002011-08-31T19:28:25.867-04:00I enjoyed reading it but I was left with more ques...I enjoyed reading it but I was left with more questions than answers. I just posted my review so do drop by and join the discussion! Thanks.Astrid (Mrs.B)https://www.blogger.com/profile/00504736603540947661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-92146596030752078942011-08-29T20:09:34.817-04:002011-08-29T20:09:34.817-04:00I certainly hope so. I'm just over half way th...I certainly hope so. I'm just over half way through the Stranger's Child and it is also an excellent book and probably more of the traditional booker prize ilk but I think this year's selection have been atypical and so an atypical book like this could nab it.Paolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-59002809676486531822011-08-29T15:01:11.255-04:002011-08-29T15:01:11.255-04:00I loved this book too and agree with your predicti...I loved this book too and agree with your prediction!Alex Dawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-11985677894406772102011-08-17T18:14:31.118-04:002011-08-17T18:14:31.118-04:00I probably wouldn't have been so critical if i...I probably wouldn't have been so critical if it hadn't been a booker book but then you do expect a bit better from the books that make the long list to be above a certain minimum quality standard and I'm not sure that this one makes the cut.Paolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-9735824236732066662011-08-17T17:51:13.762-04:002011-08-17T17:51:13.762-04:00I wasn't a fan of Room but I can see why peopl...I wasn't a fan of Room but I can see why people were, its pacing was very good, especially around the chapters dealing with the escape it developed a real sense of purpose and I think that's what Pigeon English really lacked. There just wasn't much of a story arc, in its place there was just a 'plot sentence' every now and then mixed into the rambling narrative.<br /><br />Do you have a favourite so far?Paolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-46049667694652506582011-08-17T17:36:50.132-04:002011-08-17T17:36:50.132-04:00Oh dear. I was hoping this one would fare better. ...Oh dear. I was hoping this one would fare better. I hope to read it next week (I'm currently reading On Canaan's Side and Far to Go), but I've yet to read a positive review.nomadreaderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04795144320842413060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-64966211532522355542011-08-17T17:36:05.565-04:002011-08-17T17:36:05.565-04:00I adored Room (and was surprised how much I liked ...I adored Room (and was surprised how much I liked the child narrator in it), but I was not a big fan of Pigeon English. The narration was a burden, and I didn't find much intrigue in the story itself either. I expect to see it on the shortlist too, but so far it's my least favorite of this year's longlist.nomadreaderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04795144320842413060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-88277455473788367632011-01-23T13:27:53.257-05:002011-01-23T13:27:53.257-05:00"I can think of no worse nightmare than a Rob..."I can think of no worse nightmare than a Robert Nozick type libertarian night-watchman state where the government only intervenes to prevent crime and enforce contract."<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />And to take it a step further, why should any government exist at all? A government is a territorial monopoly over the use of violence.<br /><br />You wrote a very good article on the dangers of extreme government as could be seen as early as Plato.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-36278785773144320932010-09-18T00:31:10.639-04:002010-09-18T00:31:10.639-04:00Thanks, I'm glad you liked the review! McCarth...Thanks, I'm glad you liked the review! McCarthy is an interesting author, definitely one to watch for the future but I still need to work out what I think of him. I also don't think it's by mistake that I find him so difficult to pin down.Paolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-68502223009752635232010-09-16T22:19:27.054-04:002010-09-16T22:19:27.054-04:00Actually really enjoyed your review for this and a...Actually really enjoyed your review for this and am so intrigued by McCarthy's work that I've reserved everything he's written.Paul McQuistonhttp://rarelydusty.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-85338983173553438812010-09-11T04:20:10.030-04:002010-09-11T04:20:10.030-04:00Hi Paolo
Just came across your words on Joyce and ...Hi Paolo<br />Just came across your words on Joyce and feel you have a very good take on his work, or should I say, good approach. I am a confirmed Joyceomaniac and currently on my 50th or 60th book on the maestro: if you are interested I would be very happy to send or post a (much shortened!) list of books on Ulysses I have found particularly enlightening.<br />If not, keep at it anyway for untold riches, though I suspect you are already hooked & this prod superfluous!<br />Best wishes<br />ScottOssiandoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18140266056131070623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-23223336585696350742010-08-12T18:55:41.853-04:002010-08-12T18:55:41.853-04:00I think some continental authors who have done som...I think some continental authors who have done some interesting work that has played around with narrative style in a way Joyce would approve of, people like Italo Calvino, Borges, Sebald but I can't think of any British or Irish authors who have. <br /><br />I wonder whether that's a literary trend thing or whether these books are being written and just rejected by the publishing houses. However I think the most likely answer is that there is such an anti-intellectual movement in Britain (for instance the Booker Prize is often attacked for being too aloof and intellectual) that any quasi-Joycean creativity is stymied by an unfavourable literary climate.Paolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-48127925294119798242010-08-12T15:58:27.723-04:002010-08-12T15:58:27.723-04:00Agree completely. The ground that Ulysses broke is...Agree completely. The ground that Ulysses broke is yet to be approached.Paulhttp://poplit.tumblr.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-76002540605439009072010-08-11T16:07:14.480-04:002010-08-11T16:07:14.480-04:00I'm glad it helped. If you're interested i...I'm glad it helped. If you're interested in Liberal politicians, there is a biography of David Lloyd George coming out this Christmas written by Lord Hattersley who is another former Labour Party minister. http://www.amazon.ca/David-Lloyd-George-Great-Outsider/dp/1408700972/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3TQ7OTLCCYR4&colid=12VY9M8EY9AEOPaolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-91292526479040938292010-08-11T10:21:31.374-04:002010-08-11T10:21:31.374-04:00Genial post and this post helped me alot in my col...Genial post and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you seeking your information.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-1964689623151540652010-08-05T16:33:14.077-04:002010-08-05T16:33:14.077-04:00I completely agree! I can think of no worse nightm...I completely agree! I can think of no worse nightmare than a Robert Nozick type libertarian night-watchman state where the government only intervenes to prevent crime and enforce contract. There has to be some balance. <br /><br />I also find it interesting that people who favour economic liberty generally aren't too fussed about personal liberty (i.e. American businessmen who want to be tax free but also ban abortions and gay marriage)!Paolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-54535934687233003962010-08-05T13:25:27.546-04:002010-08-05T13:25:27.546-04:00Yep, you are right. And Plato's society is ver...Yep, you are right. And Plato's society is very similar in some points to stalinism. Even Marx "class struggle" is in Plato's book when he talks about how one kind of society changes into another.<br />And Aristotle also did a very good critic of Plato's communism in his book 'Politics'. This is stuff is old, but people still can't understand that both extremes, economic communism, or economic liberalism are bad, and an equilibrium is necessary.<br /><br />ManuelAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-66496801080707002772010-07-23T10:23:02.616-04:002010-07-23T10:23:02.616-04:00Hey Heather,
When I first started reading serious...Hey Heather,<br /><br />When I first started reading seriously in my late teens there was a few books that defeated me, that as interesting as I found them I could never seem to get through them. Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game beat me a few times before I finally made it to the end but Joyce was just on another level. <br /><br />I took Ulysses one holiday to Italy and managed only few pages before giving up and reading some John Irving instead. The second time I made a lot more progress, I got about half way through but just came to the realisation that I wasn't getting anything out of it. I wasn't understanding a small fraction of what the book was trying to say and trudging through for the sake of it. This time I have the students annotated edition and it makes all the difference. There is about one page of notes for every three of text, there are chapter introductions, translations of all the Latin, Greek, Italian and French passages, the whole thing is slightly more transparent. I'm also trying to read as much literary criticism as I can find and I'd love to get a volume of Joyce's letters because I bet they'd be full of insight.<br /><br />I want to read it again once I'm done partly because Joyce was a crafty bugger who makes slight references to things that happen later in the text which you wouldn't understand unless you either had an annotation pointing it out (which I doubt he intended) or you had read it and reread it so already knew what lay ahead that it could refer to. I also want to have a better understanding of Homer and Dante before I try again.<br /><br />I'm not sure if there is an Everest. Joyce excites me because he does more with language than tell a story and I love the intertextuality that both he an Eco use. Finnegan's Wake intimidates me a lot, perhaps that will be one complexity too many? But it's always good to feel challenged.Paolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-74106459880349009762010-07-23T03:29:25.086-04:002010-07-23T03:29:25.086-04:00first Proust, now Joyce. All the while supplement...first Proust, now Joyce. All the while supplementing with Eco. I can't decide if you're admirably brave or just completely insane. What mountain is next on your list? who is Everest?Heatherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05697646520912231460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-20729967771846477602010-05-10T13:24:40.555-04:002010-05-10T13:24:40.555-04:00It's a very interesting idea but I can't i...It's a very interesting idea but I can't imagine that the Republican's would ever let it fly as more populous areas tend to be democratic. It also seems that smaller states would lose influence meaning that power would become increasingly centralised around big cities where the campaign money would all be spent. It might produce a purer form of democracy but I'm not convinced it would be any fairer.Paolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-51264747018200144842010-01-18T20:17:32.861-05:002010-01-18T20:17:32.861-05:00Sand is right that there were mass conversions to ...Sand is right that there were mass conversions to Judaism in history and that they had an impact on the makeup of Jewish populations worldwide. But his book pretends that modern Jews have no connection to ancient Israel, and that is decidedly false.<br /><br />He picks and chooses evidence to suit his own needs, which is not the way of a proper historian. An example is the way he talks about DNA studies. He tries to get the reader to believe the geneticists are working for Zionist politicians and manipulating data on Jewish groups, yet he accepts wholeheartedly the DNA evidence that connects half of Palestinian Arabs to the land of Israel.<br /><br />The fact is the reason Palestinian Arabs, Ashkenazic Jews, Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Samaritans, Egyptian Karaites, and Crimean Karaites are all closely related to each other is because they all descend from the same root: the Israelite people. The DNA evidence alone is enough to discredit Sand's book.<br /><br />You will find an accurate assessment of Jewish history and origins in my book "The Jews of Khazaria, Second Edition". So if you want to get the other side of the argument, check it out, especially chapter 10 and appendix D. The first edition of my book doesn't contain the genetic data (which came later) and some of its statements turned out to be incorrect and were modified or removed in the second edition. Unlike Sand I have no political agenda and therefore I'm always open to new evidence. That's why the first and second editions of my book are different.Kevin Brookhttp://www.khazaria.com/brook.htmlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-40396720695564411612008-11-10T17:14:00.000-05:002008-11-10T17:14:00.000-05:00Thanks for writing this.Thanks for writing this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316540411043272154.post-76189221544640467142008-04-13T11:10:00.000-04:002008-04-13T11:10:00.000-04:00A friend of mine owns this book called "The Zombie...A friend of mine owns this book called "The Zombie Survival Guide' which takes you through how to survive an uprising of the undead. I read one night and it's hilarious, but yeah I'd know how to kick Zombie ass. However Zombies aren't the only things after your brains:<BR/><BR/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhGrSJJZo0sPaolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418352985678394660noreply@blogger.com