What I most enjoy writing on this blog are book reviews.(Followed closely by criticisms of the Bush administration). You may have noticed that I publish only positive reviews – books that I would like my readers to read. But these posts are also the hardest to compose. I always feel that I have to tell everything I liked about a book and its author. So my reviews end up being quite long ( "plot driven" as my daughter commented once) and I spend a considerable amount of time writing, editing and re-editing them. But there are so many books that I have liked or loved which I want to mention here. I cannot possibly hope to review each one in such painstaking manner. So I started thinking about short cuts.
Luckily, I recently stumbled upon fellow blogger Matt’s brilliant strategy at Cerulean Blue. He had reviewed ten books using just two words for each (four, for one that he had to describe twice) within a single post! Since then I have wanted to emulate his admirable minimalistic style here. But lacking Matt’s talent for economy with words, I was able to only whittle down my wordiness (this introduction is proof enough) to five – for now. I promise to keep trying.
All books reviewed here are fiction selected from the past reading list of my wonderful book club ["Brightwater Evening Book Club"], which was established seven years and some eighty five books ago – and we are still reading.
(Those interested in a more in-depth and informative book review, please visit Professor Amardeep Singh’s blog where he discusses William Dalrymple’s "City of Djinns", a truly charming book about Delhi, India – the interesting and historic city of my birth and youth.)
- Plain Song by Kent Haruf : peaceful prairie, simple, soulful, compassionate
- Moo by Jane Smiley : pig, students, faculty, hypocrisy, hilarious
- The Moviegoer by Walker Percy : despair, wonder, introspection, realization, exhilarating
- The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood: 1930’s, secrets, passion, activism, fabulous
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole : no sacred cow, hysterically comical
- Atonement by Ian McEwan : love, war, accusation, anguish, haunting
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel: boy, tiger, survival, companionship, imaginative
- Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: books, phantom, fascism, cheezily magical
- Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon : murder, autism, mathematics, touchingly funny
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides : incest, immigrants, gender identity, insightful
Accidental Blogger 
6 responses to “Five Word Book Reviews. (Thanks, Matt!)”
Confederacy of Dunces seems a particularly poignant choice now, because of two addtional terms I’d add to its description, “New Orleans” and “compelling antihero,” and the interrelationship between those two terms.
I loathed Life of Pi (“bludgeoningly message driven” and “precious”), but that’s what makes horse racing.
You’ve just convinced me to bring Shadow of the Wind, which someone gave me as a present but I hadn’t gotten around to, on an upcoming cross-country plane trip.
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I did very much want to include “New Orleans” in my review of “Confederacy”. But that would have used up two out of my five word quota!
Life of Pi was given to me as a gift by a fellow animal lover who loved the book. I did not delight in it as much as he did. Neither did I loathe it for its unabashed, message driven tale. The cloying nature of the message probably bothered me less than it should have, only because at some level, I too believe that we and the entire biological world are together “in the same boat.” What really redeemed the book for me was that incredible moment at the end, when upon reaching ground, Richard Parker bounded off – without a backward glance.
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I don’t know many books that I could review or summarize in five words or less, but I’ve got one fairly recent read that I can do in one word:
On the Road by Jack Kerouac: beat
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Joe:
That’s pretty good. I dont’ know if the reviews conveyed anything to a reader not already familiar with the book although it was very easy for me. Tell me.
I must read Kerouac once again. It will be revealing to find out how I react to him in middle age.
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atonement.. brilliant book :)..
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Atonement is indeed a brilliant book. It deserves more than a five word review. Perhaps either Joe or I will write a more detailed review some day.
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