|
Manchester book reviews
|
Second parts of trilogies are notoriously hard work: by definition they are to some extent shorn of the structural unity offered by a clear beginning and an end. In a trilogy you are never more aware of the etymology of the term ‘plot’, which despite its exciting connotations of coups and insurrections, actually derives from cartography. Of course, an adventurer or explorer may observe that the most exciting journeys are those which have no direct course: but they’ll normally tell you that from the comfort of dry land. The success of a middle work lies in its unresolved uncertainty: C.P. Cavafy may urge travellers in ‘Ithaca’ to ‘pray that the road is long/full of adventure, full of knowledge’, but he wouldn’t be advising that if Odysseus had been swallowed by the Cyclops before he made it home. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Manchester book reviews
|
Stieg Larsson’s The girl with the dragon tattoo is a popular book. The publishers say they’ve sold 2.7 million copies in Sweden and over 12 million of the Millennium trilogy (of which this is the first) worldwide. They’re shifting plenty here too: they must be as it only cost me £3.49, including postage. Clearly it’s being read by a lot of people, but why might this be?
Well, for a start, it’s a real page-turner; full of intrigue and action. The hero – Mikael Blomkvist – is a hip and clever journalist with a side-kick – she with the tattoo – even more Zen than he. Together they are sexy Swedish sleuths, dishing the dirt on the nastiest of ne’er do well’s, laying low the corporate fat-cats.
|
|
Read more...
|
Book Reviews
The scope of this section is to publish reviews of books - by authors based around Manchester, book launches around Manchester, books relating to Manchester, and reviews written by people around Manchester. As this is a new initiative on the site, contributions and suggestions on how best to structure and solicit reviews are welcome. Suffice to say that the site cannot pay for contributions, but links from the reviews are possible where they are relevant. Please Email me your book reviews to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 5 of 5 |
