It’s
tough competition here—I read War and Peace, Gilgamesh, The Grapes of Wrath, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmillain
the same twelve months. For me to choose anything over ancient poetry is almost unheard of.
But I think the state of socio-politics right now has played
a hand in influencing me—we can see what fanaticism is doing to the
world everywhere we look, and Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses not only shreds the
notions of religious and political fanaticism but does so with great humanity
and intellectual savagery.
Blasphemy is a human right. And only through tragic
comedy like this book can free thinkers stand against the rising tide of
darkness that comes in the guise of piety and patriotism.
Just before dawn one winter's morning, a aeroplane blows apart high above the English Channel and two figures tumble, clutched in an embrace, towards the sea: Gibreel Farishta, India's legendary movie star, and Saladin Chamcha, the man of a thousand voices.
Washed up, alive, on an English beach, their survival is a miracle. But there is a price to pay. Gibreel and Saladin have been chosen as opponents in the eternal wrestling match between Good and Evil. But chosen by whom? And which is which? And what will be the outcome of their final confrontation?
Metamorphoses
is like a compact classic for the classical era. If you’re interested in the
works of Apollonius of Rhodes, Homer, or Virgil, but the idea of epic poetry is
a bit intimidating, or if you love them and want to get an early start
introducing your kids to them—Metamorphoses is a great start.
Ovid takes all
the beautiful mythology—Perseus, Argonautica, Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Romulus
and Remus, Atalanta—and presses them down to easily-digestible bites that are
written with such levity and humour that nobody can walk away unmoved.
I love
the classics. Jason and the Argonauts is probably the story where you can find
the most inspiration for my works.
'Still remarkably vivid. It is easier to read this for pure pleasure than just about any other ancient text' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
Ovid's sensuous and witty poem begins with the creation of the world and brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into extraordinary new beings. Including the well-known stories of Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy, the Metamorphoses has influenced writers and artists from…
The
historically inspired migration of Oklahoma farmers to find work in California
during the Great Depression and Dustbowl forms the basis of honesty and
goodness struggling against greed and cruelty.
I think Tolkien would have loved
this book. I hope he read it. Since Reagan and Thatcher, we’ve had in the west
this insane idea of libertarianism—complete deregulation of the private
sector—as though it’s in any way a foil to communism. But what’s the difference
between a politburo and a handful of monopolies controlling every industry?
Steinbeck gives amazing truth in fiction to the timeless consequences greed has
not for the greedy but for the honest.
'I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied.'
Shocking and controversial when it was first published, The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck's Pultizer Prize-winning epic of the Joad family, forced to travel west from Dust Bowl era Oklahoma in search of the promised land of California. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and powerlessness, yet out of their struggle Steinbeck created a drama that is both intensely human and majestic in its scale and moral vision.
This is the story of the last, desperate attempt by the Vikings to tame what is now Canada's Newfoundland under their formidable Chieftain Freydis Eiriksdottir, one of the most notoriously fearsome shieldmaidens to ever have lived. And of the three natives of those ancient forests, Shanawdithit, Madawaak and Demasduit, who led their people to rise against an overwhelming force. This is the tale of the Spirits of the Ice Forest.
