Alexander Hayes fought bravely during the Napoleonic war and achieved the rank of Major. During the battle of Waterloo, he was gravely injured and nearly died. When he, some weeks later, managed to get back to rejoin his fellow soldiers, he discovered that not only had one of his childhood friends died during the battle, but that he was being accused of treason. In absolute disgrace, he lets his family continue to believe that he died, and goes to work as a spy for England, […]
The snoring, the rain, and Mama’s hair that smells like bread.
I feel incredibly robbed not to have found this book when I was mid-adolescence, when I would have reveled in empathy with Esperanza, the beautiful, awkward, sad, scared, bold, shy, lonely, social narrator who is coming-of-age through the course of the year during which The House on Mango Street takes place. Cisneros writes this book as an extended series of short vignettes: portraits of people, places, and things in Esperanza’s life; all the things that make up the tapestry of her youth. With these vignettes, […]
We were just at the point of approaching and negotiating a gentle curve.
Well, this was a lovely discovery! Kitchen was in a stack of books given to me very randomly by a friend who moved away a couple of years ago and did a big purge. She has great taste, but also loves to buy books, so I’m finding it all a little hit and miss. I wish I had picked this up the day my friend gave it to me. It is incredibly, beautifully written, so also I must give due credit to the translator, because […]
What if she doesn’t want to remember?
You know how sometimes you keep trying to read a book, but you aren’t feeling it so you put it down indefinitely and then when you pick it up again, you can’t believe how much action there is and you just plow through the end as if you’d never put it down? Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God was like that for it. It’s the first book I started reading in 2017, and one of the last that I finished. I don’t think I read a […]