“Mine has been a life of much shame. I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.“ While I’m not one to be against reviewing autobiographical works, there is always an underlying feeling of uneasiness. Imagine this feeling when No Longer Human…
Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken. In the world of Jane Austen’s novels, Emma is up there as having one of the most misunderstood of the Austenian heroines. Beautiful, rich, and witty…
I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life. The Great Gatsby is the quintessential American novel of glamor, irony, and social class. A profound exploration of the American Dream, the novel presents the timeless themes of wealth, class, and love in the most…
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is often seen as the go-to book for feminist literature. Published in 1985, it makes numerous “must read” lists; upon reading it, I can see why. Offred is a handmaid—that is, her only function is to breed–in the republic of Gilead, an extremely oppressive,…
A generational family history told by the narrator, born as intersex and raised as Calliope later turned Cal, Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex is a rare, unconventional gem of fiction. The family saga is rich and full of drama. It ran seamlessly when the book picked up its pace, despite its inconsistency…
This was a pretty difficult read. Given the history of the author, it’s easy to surmise that Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar isn’t just some detached piece of literature; it’s eerie how likely it is that the musings of our narrator, Esther, were articulated through Plath’s thought process in how she perceived…
When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from his unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. Containing, perhaps, some of the most absurdly comedic lines in classic literature, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka perfectly illustrates a similarly absurd type of tragedy: Gregor Samsa wakes up…
Persuasion is my second Jane Austen book after Pride and Prejudice. Stylistically, there are some major differences that I can assume make these books appeal to different groups. If I had to sum it up simply, it would be that while Pride and Prejudice excels in wittiness and character development, Persuasion embraces more of…
When it comes to the realm of murder mystery books, And Then There Were None is the book that is bound to come up every time. Hailed as one of the greatest and most iconic murder mysteries of all time, it continues to stand today as Agatha Christie’s magnum opus. The basic…
Valerie Solanas is the perfect example of a woman angered by society and her own views of the world. Perhaps not inherently a lunatic, but she’s definitely taken it upon herself to rant on the shortcomings of men. Her language is crude, her descriptions brutal, yet theres something invigoriating to…