Subjective Subjectivity

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Books, Imagination, Opinions, Reviews, Subjectivity

Reading and reviewing books can be a strange business. Essentially its your own opinion and response to a piece of literature. How it affects you and makes you feel inside. What thoughts may follow from the ideas presented. Which images it pulls into your imagination. At least, that’s the enjoyment I hope to get from books. Sometimes we can love a book and never ever want it to end. Other times we can hate a piece of text and resent its use of our time. Yet will expressing our opinion affect others’ view of our intelligence or emotional depth? Even if it does should we even care? Well, vive la difference I say. What a tedious world if we all liked the same thing. So read it and weep I say, or not, after all its your choice n’est-ce pas!

Notes from an Exhibition: Patrick Gale

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Books, Fiction, Notes from an Exhibition, Patrick Gale, Reviews

A candid look at bipolar and its effect on the individual. It examines the side effects of medication and questions how it can alter a person’s perception and abilities. Whilst controlling the bipolar behaviour does it also dampen other sides of the personality? In this instance the main character feels less able to create artistically whilst on medication. However, forgoing her drugs leaves her vulnerable to the ravages of bipolar. A sensitive account of mental health, its challenges and its effects on both the person and their family.

 

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee: Rebecca Miller

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Books, Fiction, Rebecca Miller, Reviews, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Whilst I admired the reversed transition from respectable retirement back to the wildness of youth the remainder of the novel seemed disjointed. As though a series of short stories had been loosely pinned together to make a whole entity. Visually speaking it was quite visceral in places but despite this effect of realism I did have difficulty accepting all the extraordinary experiences within such a short narrative. After reading the novel I discovered that it is being adapted into a film by the author. I do wonder if this was a consideration whilst writing the novel as it did at times have the feel of a film treatment.

 

The Luminous Life of Lily Aphrodite: Beatrice Colin

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Beatrice Colin, Books, Evocative, Lily Aphrodite, Luminous, Reviews

A beautifully written novel with the ever changing life of Lilly Aphrodite portrayed against the backdrop of a struggling Berlin before, during and after World War One. As evocative and enigmatic as the depicted Berlin cabarets and German silent cinema. Both worlds are shown in all their glory and grime with brutal honesty.

The Rose Labyrinth: Titania Hardie

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Books, Reviews, Shakespeare, The Rose Labyrinth, Titania Hardie

A mind-boggling array of subjects and beliefs are presented in this novel: Zionists, Angelology, Iconography, Rapurists. In addition to these fascinating topics the growing trend for the Shakespeare conspiracy theories are evident. It is an immense collection of ideas that does lose its way in places. However Hardie’s impressive imagination and extensive research keeps you reading until the end.