Short story collections are like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: you have to gnaw some nuts and chews to eventually find that chocolate truffle. That said, The Djinn Falls in Love is phenomenal. Six of the twenty-one stories are among the best short stories I have read. Ever. (Jhumpa Lahiri, I’m sorry to report that you’ve been bumped.) The editors’s international ensemble of authors clearly did their research, populating their confident tales with every manner of djinn, jinn, and genie. Some lie in wait in […]
The Greeks know their tragedy
Sometimes before I write a review I look up the book here on CBR, just to see what my fellow readers thought. I’m really glad I did because I am not terribly well versed in Greek tragedy and totally missed Home Fire‘s tie back to Antigone. Like, I know enough to know how to pronounce it, but I knew nothing of the story. Knowing it now definitely changes how I reflect on the book. Anyway. I was definitely engrossed in this story. It started a little slow, […]
This fire left me feeling tepid
I don’t normally take advice from the interwebs, but when I took a short “what should you read next quiz” that was posted to the CBR book chat page, the resulting recommendation intrigued me. Home Fire was described as a retelling of Antigone set in modern-day London. I haven’t read any Greek tragedy since high school, so I thought this could make an interesting study, to compare the classic with the modern. I have to confess, Greek tragedies were never my thing. I ate up all manner […]
A Miscellaneous selection of books
Goodbye, Vitamin – Rachel Khong The story of this novel is a 30 year old woman returns home to care for his father’s debilitation into Alzheimer’s immediately after her engagement falls through. It is written as a series of diary entries and this format often creates a lot of the problems the novel has. For the most part the novel is well-written and interesting, and it’s generally heartfelt, but it’s also pretty flawed in a couple of ways that I think relate to its connection […]