Fairy Tale - Stephen King

56%
29.01.23

This was a well-written, well-researched (if consciously derivative) take on the hero's journey but it's all undermined by the fact that King clearly regards women as a necessary inconvenience. Example after example of the few women in the story shrieking and crying and generally spoiling things for all the brave men (unless they have a bit of sex appeal) gets wearing after 500 slowly unfolding pages. Oh, and did I mention the breasts? Apparently all women have them, wouldn't you know, so they have to be mentioned in every description. Strange that he doesn't describe the male characters' willies at all opportunities. Strange too that I can't find any other reviews that mention this obvious misogyny. 

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

69%
07.05.07




I didn't understand as much of this complex novel as perhaps I should have done but the dark, comic, strange family saga in the Tristram Shandy tradition is a good read and oddly compelling. Let down by its terrible title, which is probably not as awkward to American (or Greek) ears. [Ju's note: Since I read this, it's had quite a lot of publicity and hype. Well, it already had quite a lot of publicity as it won the Pullitzer Prize when it came out, but it then had the high accolade of appearing on the Oprah show, which seems amazing considering its subversive emphasis on incest, death and sexual identity. I wonder if Ms Winfrey actually read it?]

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke

19.03.06
74%




Huge in every sense, but most of all hugely enjoyable: clever and deep and dense. Perhaps a little more editorial intervention would have been a benefit, but otherwise it is a richly imagined fantasy novel, backed up with convincing context - and humour - as it should be.

The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen

79%

17.03.03

It's almost disappointing when a book lives up to its hype. I was expecting this to be dry and depressing but it turned out to be the opposite - funny, lively, engaging and always interesting. The writing is of a quality to be savoured on almost every page - quite an achevement in a book of more than 650 pages. This is how novels ought to be.

The Lord of the Rings - J R R Tolkien

Overall rating for the trilogy: 77%

The sum is greater than the parts. Obsessive yet engaging. Godless yet biblical. Innocent yet homoerotic. Politically complex yet basically simple. Intensely imagined yet, at times, amazingly trite. No wonder it has influenced so many books and films since.

The Return of the King - J R R Tolkien

70%
21.10.02




Some impressive battle set-pieces, and a rousing climax, which is unfortunately ruined by the loss of momentum as everything is conveniently resolved and the heroes go home.

The Two Towers - J R R Tolkien

76%
21.09.02

It's impossible not to get swept up in this great adventure, heavy with political metaphor but made light by the engaging heroes. The faults are many but ultimately the quality of the writing and the excitement of the story overcome them all.

The Fellowship of the Ring - J R R Tolkien

73%

21.09.02

Believe the hype - it may be an obsessively created boy's adventure story but it's surprisingly clever and engaging - though not as profound as it pretends to be. The ultimate novel, perhaps, or certainly a masterpiece of imaginative realism, but lacking in emotional depth beyond boyish backslapping. And nearly as gay in places as 'A Picture of Dorian Grey'.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon

78%
18.06.02




It took me a long time to read this book - and not just because it's nearly 700 pages long. For the first two-thirds, it's clear why this won the Pulitzer Prize last year - elegant poetic prose, enjoyable for its own sake, even without the complex, involving narrative that carries you along with its exuberance. But suddenly, 'White Teeth'-like, it loses its momentum and tails off into something still impressive, but less remarkable. Overall, however, the kind of novel I know I could never write.