I was impressed with the quality of the prose and was particularly impressed by the fact that it was a translation from Spanish, and still worked masterfully in English.

“The Isle Of Passion” is the story of the people who wasted their lives on a tiny and insignificant island, also known as Clipperton, for the sake of maintaining Mexican sovereignty over it. Mexico and the poor souls who moved to, and lived and died on the tiny island, would have been better off ignoring it and yielding control of it to anyone else. The story is replete with ironies of political and military command. Everything in the story makes you feel that there are many foolish decisions made in the political and military sphere that affect people’s lives, and are largely uncontested and followed blindly.

The only resource of value on the island is bird guano. As you might imagine, even the company that has been faithfully returning to the island to take the guano away eventually decides that a little bird shit is just not worth the effort and closes its business there. That leaves the island with no value or purpose. It is difficult to describe much more without destroying the plot and making the book less interesting, but suffice it to say that once the guano is not needed, the island becomes even more isolated and its inhabitants more desperate.

The following quote should give you a taste of the prose that is contained within this wonderful book: “The small, faded universe in front of her eyes reverberated and consumed itself in a slow combustion. Alicia saw how much the ocean seemed to explode over the reefs, pounding the rocks, the few sickly coconut palms, and the human beings, then coming to rest on every crevice, hollow and cranny. The sun lost no time in evaporating the water, and everything was soon covered with a mirrorlike layer of salt, refulgent, blinding. The ocean spray would fall slowly on the people, transforming them into salt statues. It was only in their eyes, in the feverish eagerness in their gaze, that Alicia discovered the great expectations, repressed but fierce, for the boat’s arrival.”

I think the quote is probably enough to convince you that this is an excellently written book that is worth buying. Enjoy!

Descriptive detail often makes a story. In this case, there is not enough of it and that makes what could otherwise be a good book, just mediocre.

The story line is good and there is enough of a twist at the end that it is difficult to guess who did what and why. I think that it has potential to be a very good book if it is revised and descriptive detail is added, making the book grow by about fifty percent. The story is about a dysfunctional family that refuses to face the fact that every member is living a lie; I guess this makes the title of the book very accurate. There is one character in the book that everyone believes is a liar and a person without morals. It turns out, however, that this is the person with the strongest morality and the one who tells the truth most often.

I would recommend a rewrite to the author. Because of the lack of descriptive detail and character development, I cannot recommend this book.

She quickly becomes his mistress and her curiosity is more about him than the history of the Nazis and Jews. I found the story line tedious, predictable and not worth the time. There are quotes from other books and from the narrator’s notes interspersed throughout the chapters. These are not helpful and tend to make your mind wander off and wonder why they were inserted at all.

Here is a quote from the book: “It is too easy to dismiss him as a mere womanizer, a cad. It is too easy, and it is wrong. It, he, is more complicated than that. All these women, he loved them. Still does love them in a fashion of his own. He needs them, appreciates them, adores them all. He is genuine, and who can fully resist being loved, which is, of course, why he is successful.” This quote is about as interesting as it gets.

The father receives a mysterious letter asking him to go to the location where his daughter was presumed murdered.

The letter and the events that unfold create a dramatic book that will enlighten you and make you feel at peace with the world. However, this is not a murder mystery. It is a story of spiritual discovery, of warmth, love and forgiveness. If you have ever felt anger, resentment or desire for revenge, then this is a must-read book. Likewise, if you have spiritual doubts or ambivalence, this book is also for you.

“The Shack” is well written and full of descriptive detail about nature’s beauty. It is also full of spiritual advise and philosophical musings. Here is a quote from the book in which an important character in the narrative is explaining the problem with rules to the bereaved father: “It grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.”

Obviously, I recommend this great book. I am sure that once you read it, you will buy a second copy to pass along to a friend.

The quality of the writing borders on genius. The protagonist of the story and the various antagonists are so vividly crafted that you feel completely immersed in their story.

The book delivers two parallel stories that mirror each other, although many years separate them. The stories are love stories and tragedies which show how cruel life can be even to the undeserving.

“La Sombra Del Viento” is about an author whose books have caused him and his immediate friends much hardship. It is about true love and strong friendship. It is also about the sinister and destructive power of envy and hate. Carlos Ruiz Zafon shows us, through his writing, that positive forces can win against all odds–that love trumps hate and envy. I found this book uplifting and spiritual, but not until I read it completely and understood its message more clearly.

I have translated a quote from the original Spanish so you can get a feel for this book: “I spoke to her about not having understood until that moment that it was a story of lonely people, of absences and losses, and that for that reason, I had sought refuge in it to the point of confusion with my own life, like someone who escapes via the pages of a novel because those who he needs to love are only shadows that live in the soul of the stranger.” With poetic prose like that, I have to give this book my highest recommendation.

Much of Kundera’s work is critical of Communist politics and is based on his experience in his native Czechoslovakia.

“The Book of Laughter and Forgetting” is critical of Communism, but also attacks Western values and Judeo-Christian tradition. If I were to describe its ideology, it is the pursuit of child-like innocence and simplicity. The book is divided into seven parts that could stand independently of the other parts.

Part six, “The Angel,” is about a woman called “Tamisa,” who fled her native Czechoslovakia because of political persecution. She loses her husband in her newly adopted country and takes a menial job in which she starts forgetting how her husband was and yearns to recover the love letters that she left behind. Throughout the story, she is driven by this desire to regain her brief past. Sandwiched between the story line are rebukes on the political establishment and modern music, as well as a very intellectual analysis of Beethoven’s structured compositions. The story devolves into a sexual romp in an island of children. Although this is very distasteful for a majority of readers, I believe it is merely symbolic and not meant to be titillating. A quote from the book seems to support this: “Until now, her sexuality had been occupied by love (I say ‘occupied’ because sex is not love but merely a territory love takes over), and it had therefore, participated in something dramatic, responsible, serious. Here among children, in the kingdom of triviality, sexual activity has reverted to become what it had originally been: a small toy for the production of physical pleasure.”

Each part of the book is interesting and worth reading. What I disliked about the book was calling it a novel instead of a collection of short stories. The parts are tied to each other in theme, but not in story line. Since the book was written in the 1970s, the Soviet bloc has ceased to exist and for many it is not even a memory. Because of this, the value of its political commentary may be lost or wasted. The lessons to be learned, however, are timeless and relevant.

I reccommend this book, but I like “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” more so. It is a fully developed novel with a story line that flows perfectly. (The movie, although not as good, is also excellent.) Enjoy.

I almost did not read this book because it starts with a funeral for Billy and frankly, that is a pretty depressing way to start a story.

At the funeral party, the reader is introduced to all the people who took part in Billy’s life and who were influenced by his life and death. The author then goes back in time to narrate how these characters were part of his life and how they all form an interesting mosaic. Each chapter represents a piece of the puzzle.

The book is so well written that it garnered the prestigious National Book Award. Here is an example of its beautiful prose: “In the arc of an unremarkable life, a life whose triumphs are small and personal, whose trials are ordinary enough, as tempered in their pain as in their resolution of pain, the claim of exclusivity in love requires both a certain kind of courage, and a good dose of delusion.”

I recommend this book without reservation.

Another one of the short stories tackles the pledge of allegiance and the Lord’s prayer in the public school system. It is written from the point of view of a young Jewish student who gets offended by both. One girl who is patriotic is portrayed as an offensive bully. Here is a quote from the story: “America right or wrong, love it or leave it, Lydia Langorelli was staunchly patriotic the way only the downtrodder could be.” Needless to say, I find this quote quite offensive.

“money honey” is a short story about a family that discovers that a relative who’s died has left nearly three million dollars without a will. Family members gather together to figure out how to cheat one relative out of his share. The story accurately portrays how greed can destroy a family. It is a truly revolting story and an interesting read.

One thing you can say about the author, Binnie Kirshenbaum, is that her topics are varied. “a full life of a different nature” deals with masturbation, adultery and sex with fruits and vegetables–subjects that are taboo to most writers and readers. Here is a quote from this story: “My adventure with the cucumber transforms the Korean vegetable market on my block into an erotic boutique. Like Pavlov’s dog, I can’t pass by without getting wet.”

If you want a book with interesting and disturbing stories, then this is the book for you. Unfortunately, they are not all interesting and you may even be offended by some.

The daughter, Valentine, is the main character in the book. All her actions, words and relationships carry the story.

There are many simple and also many complex characters that interact with Valentine and give you a feel of the quiet desperation that surrounds her. Some of these characters are students who alternately like and dislike her. Two other very important characters are teachers–again, one who loves her and one who despises her. The one who loves her is obsessed with her.

Where the book fails is in its short, but offensive pro-abortion preachiness, and Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. It also succumbs to a remarkably offensive portrayal of Catholics as idol worshippers with no common sense. This negative portrayal of Catholics occurs near the end of the book and leaves you with a negative feeling towards the book and author. Accordingly, I do not recommend this book.

Mrs. Kirshenbaum is an excellent author. There were a few paragraphs in the book which made me feel like breaking out a highlighting pen and marking them for future reference. Here is one example that I found interesting: “Red and pink and yellow flowers were in full bloom, and because I wasn’t wearing my glasses, the gardens seemed impressionistic. A Monet painting of Giverny. When out of focus, many things look nicer than they really are. Still, it is probably wiser in the long run to see clearly.”

This short, interesting portal into a woman’s life is fascinating. I would recommend it to anyone who has had issues in their life, and has been afraid to confront them. It just might inspire action.