All My Puny Sorrows is a poignant novel about sisters, creativity, depression and suicide. Toews touches on a number of big themes in her story but questions of control– by outside forces, over one’s life, creativity and even death– are the center of the narrative. We tend to admire and support the person who resists oppressive control from outside forces such as patriarchy and religion, the person whose creative force and innovation set her apart. But what if that person also resists more conventional societal […]
Fearsome Women
It’s hard to miss the stories in the news these days involving men sexually assaulting or abusing women, getting a slap on the wrist, and then the women being put through hell for speaking up about their assault. The women get blamed — she was drunk, she was known to sleep around, why was she with that/those guy(s) anyway, she’s a gold digger, etc. We’ve also seen many stories over the years about married men having affairs, being contrite and then the other woman being […]
If we took a holiday Took some time to celebrate Just one day out of life It would be, it would be so nice
This novel was author Muriel Spark’s favorite of her own works. It is short — a mere 107 pages — but suspenseful, dark and twisted. The NYT called it a “spiny and treacherous masterpiece.” What makes it all the more horrifying is that the reader knows from the beginning what is going to happen. Lise, the young woman going on holiday, is going to be murdered. We know how it happens but we don’t know who does it or exactly how Lise gets herself into […]
Good, Evil and the Vast In Between
Nimona, a graphic novel that was a finalist for the National Book Award, features knights and dragons and beings with amazing powers. It is not, however, your typical good versus evil story. Nimona is full of wonderful shades of gray in the form of its three main characters: Nimona, Ballister Blackheart, and Ambrosius Goldenloin. Young Nimona, a teen, shows up at the lair of the well known supervillain Ballistair Blackheart to become his uninvited sidekick. She is more than ready to get involved in evil […]