As I Lay Dying, a literary novel by William Faulkner

By James Gilmore

As I Lay Dying examines the uncensored inner monologue of family members experiencing deep grief in what is more aptly titled a work of narrative poetry than literary fiction.  Seemingly written in a single fever-pitch binge, Faulkner’s poignant discourse and extensive use of symbolism comes to the reader through the enigmatic filter of the inner mind.

As I Lay Dying warrants close study and an open mind.  It is not for everyone.

Rating:  4 / 5

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a mystery thriller novel by Stieg Larsson ("Quickie" Review)

By James Gilmore

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson is an altogether pleasurable and smooth read, even in spite of the frequent, overly burdensome exposition and a vast proliferation of details almost too numerous for the reader to continually to keep in mind, requiring an extra dosage of concentration while reading.

As for the character of Lisbeth Salander, she is one of the most fascinating, inescapably magnetic characters in modern fiction, a curiosity or enigma that sucks us into slavering to learn more about her.

The author Stieg Larsson passed away on November 9, 2004.

Rating:  4 / 5

Pirate Latitudes, a novel by Michael Crichton

By James Gilmore

Pirate Latitudes is taut genre novel written by one of the modern masters of suspense, Michael Crichton.  Intense and inventive, the action and drama never fail to entertain in a story laden with clever ideas in plotting and execution while widely diverse, fascinating characters populate the novel.  Crichton fulfills and defies every pirate cliché by making them his own, transforming each element into something unique and poignant and exploring to its logical, if not surprising, conclusion.

Unfortunately, Pirate Latitudes once again exhibits Crichton’s two major weaknesses: (1) his talent for gullibly accepting stereotypes (valid or not) based on his research, and (2) failing to provide any greater depth or meaning beyond the story itself, which is where the limit of the story’s impact can be felt most.

A thrilling ride for Crichton and pirate lovers; a guilty pleasure for lit-heads.

Rating: 3 / 5

Of Mice and Men, a literary novella by John Steinbeck

By James Gilmore

Of Mice and Men might as well have been called “the ranch of broken dreams.”  Presenting itself like a stage play in all but format, author John Steinbeck maintains Aristotle’s unity of place and time by focusing our attention on a microcosm inhabited by two men who share a single hollow dream.  Ultimately, their dream collapses due to their own human weaknesses and those of their fellow men.  The fundamental core of the story illustrates how human beings latch onto hope, real or imaginary (but in either case perceived as actual), as a goal to strive for, as a reason for living, and how and why reality seldom plays out like our dreams say they ought.

Of Mice and Men packs brutal emotional impact through realistic, layered characters and relationships in this structurally sound novella.

Readers will find Of Mice and Men much more accessible than Steinbeck’s far more brutal Grapes of Wrath, and should be required reading for any serious reader or storyteller.

Rating: 5 / 5

Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon, a novel by Jules Verne

By James Gilmore

Among the great works of literature by Jules Verne are such classics as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in Eighty Days and The Mysterious Island.  What you will not find nested among those works is a novel called Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon (La Jangada is the original title)—and for good reason.  One wouldn’t be so surprised at the quality (or lack thereof) of the novel had it been Jules Verne’s first attempt at the craft, but it mystifyingly appears at the very heart of his career alongside the greats.

Despite pretense of adventure, 800 Leagues is for all intents and purposes a family melodrama with only trace amounts of “adventure.”  The novel is a dull read and hardly believable.  Sorely lack in conflict, the text is often insultingly redundant, the author reiterating known facts in such a fashion that the reader can’t help but feel like he is trying to fill space in a balloon filled with hot hair.  This effectively reduces the pacing of the novel to that of a dying snail.  The linear, predictable story submarines the uneventful plot with rare exception.  Any changes in the story occur entirely by means of deus ex machinae, which leaves the hands of the characters out of events almost entirely, save one or two instances, scuttling their raison d'être.

Overshadowing the weak dramatic impact of the book is the fact that it reads like a pedantic love letter to the Amazon River, like a wan excuse to wax poetic about this illustrious body of moving water.  Although informative, it reduces the novel’s literary value to a mere historical survey of Amazonian river tribes who would cease to exist a century later.

The characters in the novel tend to be shallow in depth and over dramatic.  The antagonist is the most interesting and compelling of the cast.  Unfortunately, his presence is minimal.

Despite some interesting tangents concerning facts about the Amazon River and a few florid descriptions, the novel is thin, flat, artificially contrived and obvious.

A caution to all who tread here: Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon is Jules Verne’s worst.  Despite a 5-star rating (from 2 reviews) on Amazon.com at the time of this writing, place this novel on your list of “books to avoid at all costs.”  Feel free to sample the free Kindle book (if you dare).

Rating: 1.5 / 5

Babbitt, a literary novel by Sinclair Lewis

by James Gilmore

Babbit by Sinclair Lewis is an all-but-forgotten literary masterpiece which espouses the hollowness of blind conformism.  At the surface, the novel appears to be about a successful businessman entering (and surviving) a mid-life crisis.  But more accurately, Babbitt is about a man whose identity only exists by means of his compromising conformity to everyone else.  He struggles between being the person everyone thinks he should be and what he really wants for his own life, although he has become so entrenched in the conformist society that he cannot escape.  In this he discovers that he is weak and pathetic, a living cliché, a human example of meaningless and futility.

Babbitt is a true character piece which explores every facet of the completely repressed individual in a society of demanding conformity.  The text remains engrossing despite constantly straddling the line between thoroughness and repetitiveness.  Unfortunately, reading the novel can be arduous due to its very slow story development.

Babbitt was internationally successful at the time it was published while domestically the novel’s brazen but accurate depictions and accusations of America offended or mystified many readers.  Every student of American literature should study Sinclair’s Babbitt.

Rating:  5 / 5

Other Voices, Other Rooms, a literary novel by Truman Capote

by James Gilmore

Other Voice, Other Rooms refers to shadows, memories—places people have been, voices that have sounded, ephemeral ghosts which burn brightly and then disappear, as if from a distant place and time. Once innocence is shed, you can never return to the past.

Rich, luxurious prose which reproduces in intimate the detail the cultural mores, mindset and isolation of the gothic rural American South. The main drive of the plot is the unraveling of the mystery of protagonist's father's identity, which ultimately leads to the loss of innocence and the realization that reality/life is a cruel and twisted master, of whom we only catch a sliver's glimpse. Perhaps the most powerful strand of the story is the sub-theme regarding love and how it far more complex, and thus far more painful, than the youthful ideal of meet-love-marriage, as embodied by the character of Randolph.

Other Voices, Other Rooms should be considered a companion piece to To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Both are colorful, insightful penetrations into the gothic American South in which both Harper Lee and Truman Capote are depicted as childhood friends and protagonists.

Rating: 5 / 5

Ham on Rye, a novel by Charles Bukowski

by James Gilmore

People want beautiful lies, not the ugly truth. So here's the ugly truth. Quinessential Bukowski (and thus also redundant Bukowski), he reduces tumultuous stages of growing up into grit and fact through simple, beautiful, stabbing prose in a human juxtaposition of outer toughness and painful inner sensitivity. One might consider this a 1982 "rewrite" of Catcher in the Rye. A must for any Bukowski fan or seekers of raw truth. An offensive piece of trash for sensitive readers and those who prefer safe masks and beautiful lies.

Rating: 4 / 5