For years, I wanted to read "Don Quixote," but the length (roughly 1,000 pages) was daunting. Then earlier this year my wife and I saw a local production of "Man of La Mancha," a musical based on the novel, and I decided to take the plunge. I am glad I did. Yes, it took a while to finish, but the story, filled with humor, moved along at a good pace. One caveat: People who know these things better than I do say some translations from the original Spanish are better than others. My translation was by John Rutherford and I can recommend it.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HAROLD BLOOM. Widely regarded as the world's first modern novel, and one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote de La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. Unless you read Spanish, you've never read Don Quixote.
The author does a magnificent job of immersing you into the world of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII, and 16th century England, with plenty of intrigue around every corner. Even when you know how some of the history plays out, the suspense and surprises are still there. The large cast of characters can get confusing, especially since more than one person is named Thomas, but a list of the character names and their roles at the beginning of the book helps. I referred to that list several times during my reading.
Winner of the Man Booker Prize
Shortlisted for the the Orange Prize
Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award
`Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good'
Daily Mail
'Our most brilliant English writer'
Guardian
England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.
Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with…
This book retells Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," but through the eyes of the slave Jim rather than through young Huck. As a result, many scenes are familiar, but viewed from a different perspective. It had been quite a few years since I read "Huckleberry Finn," and I wonder if it would have helped to have revisited that book before reading this. But I still remembered (or was reminded of) the major scenes and characters as I read. Everett also throws in a few original and significant plot points, so the final product is much more than just a regurgitation of Twain's story.
'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' - Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha
James by Percival Everett is a profound and ferociously funny meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love, which reimagines The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. From the author of The Trees, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Erasure, adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction.
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new…
Eisenhower Babies takes readers on a journey to a time when World War II memories were still relatively fresh, space exploration was becoming more than just fantastical subject matter for science fiction, and television had barged its way into American homes, taking up permanent residence in a hallowed spot in front of the living room sofa.
This memoir of growing up in a Kentucky coal-mining community from the late 1950s to the early1970s weaves history, popular culture, and geography into a nostalgic journey interspersed with tales of coal-strike tensions and humorous family adventures. Eisenhower Babies is a celebration of the eccentricities of 1960s small-town life, where a police officer might promise to give a four-year-old his gun once the officer ran out of bullets, a neighbor could return from a Florida vacation with a live baby alligator as a new pet, and the children of World War II veterans waged imaginary battles against Hitler’s treachery in their hillside backyards.
