Comments for The Mookse and the Gripes

Comment on Linden MacIntyre: The Bishop’s Man by Alison

Alison — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:58:01 +0000

Interesting how the story shifts from male sexual abuse to laying blame on Stella and Jessie for keeping Danny’s secret. Let’s blame the women!!

Comment on Orange Prize Longlist by Colette Jones

Colette Jones — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:59:49 +0000

Interesting, Kevin and Lisa. I did not find The Spare Room soppy at all, and I didn’t find Helen (author or character) to be judgemental. I had never heard of Helen Garner prior to reading the book though, so maybe that was an advantage. It seemed to me a book about a really good friend being able to think the unthinkable and say the unsayable. I did not see a moral high ground or anything like that.

Comment on Orange Prize Longlist by Lisa Hill

Lisa Hill — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:19:08 +0000

*chuckle* Great minds think alike!

Comment on César Aira: How I Became a Nun by How I Became a Nun and Came to Terms with my Limitations as a Book Reviewer « Tony's Book World

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:47:29 +0000

[...] that ‘How I Became a Nun’ got a grade of A- in Complete Review and was positively reviewed by The Mookse and the Gripes. My ultimate quest is to find a contemporary South American writer that I like as much as the many [...]

Comment on Orange Prize Longlist by KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:07:06 +0000

Lisa: I checked your review of The Spare Room and would have to say we would be in complete agreement, if I had finished the book.

Comment on Orange Prize Longlist by Lisa Hill

Lisa Hill — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:21:50 +0000

*chuckle* At least I made it to the end of the Garner, Kevin! (http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/the-spare-room-by-helen-garner-read-by-heather-bolton/)
Seriously, I too am sooo tired of the Tragic Issue at the core of the story; I think it links to The Misery Memoir pioneered by Angela’s Ashes and pop-psychology navel-gazing in general.
I haven’t read any of ‘em except Wolf Hall which would be a worthy winner IMO, but look forward to reading some reviews of this list with interest.
Lisa

Comment on March 15, 2010: David Means — “The Knocking” by Colette Jones

Colette Jones — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:05:56 +0000

This is about a man not coping, not coping at all, going mad in fact. He’s transferring his madness onto the resident of the apartment above, but we don’t believe him.

Good premise, but not good writing, in my opinion. Glad it was short.

Comment on March 22, 2010: Junot Díaz — “The Pura Principle” by Trevor

Trevor — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:13:24 +0000

Good point, Kevin. And I agree that printing these works in progress does the author (and we readers) no favors. It makes the magazine look like a step in some marketing program and not the final destination of great fiction.

I also agree that the interesting elements here are promising. I know several immigrant families here, some legal, many not. There is so much material there for someone with his talent. I didn’t follow the progression of Oscar, so I’m intrigued to see whether this story develops further.

Comment on March 22, 2010: Junot Díaz — “The Pura Principle” by KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:51:03 +0000

Trevor: I have to believe that this is an excerpt from a novel in progress — too many potentially interesting elements are introduced and then ignored, which reads like “novel” to me . And whatever you might think of Diaz (and I can understand why people like Joe did not like Wao), the New Yorker is doing him no favor by printing excerpts (well, maybe putting some food on the table in the short term, I guess). Diaz built Wao like a mud-brick house — awkwardly packed the straw and clay for one brick, then moved on to another and finally got around to stacking them all together. None of the individual bricks were very interesting, but I sure appreciated the resulting house. For those of us who liked the novel, that was part of the charm — you had to keep all the individual bricks in mind before he started stacking them on top of each other. This story/excerpt doesn’t put me off a potential novel — some elements like the Prayer Circle do have promise. And the knitting shop. And I remain intrigued by the notion of exploring the contemporary immigrant class in New Jersey.

Then again, maybe I’m just making up excuses for an author whose previous novel I very much enjoyed. It wouldn’t be the first time that I did that.

Comment on Orange Prize Longlist by Trevor

Trevor — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:31:42 +0000

Let us pause for a moment and cheer the absence of Dame Peggy Atwood’s The Year of the Flood from the long list of 20.

Great point, Kevin! I notice also that it lost in the first round of the tournament of books today too — to a lesser seeded book even.