Books I've read in 2005

Death of a Salesman- A very good play, also making it a very good read. In 110 pages you get a great insight in each characters personality and history, going hand in hand with great dialogue and interesting storylines. The characters are real people. All try to do good, but for some reason they only do bad. They try to correct something, and they only worsen it. And all while there heart is in the right place. A great character study.

Farewell to Arms- Very easy to read, that's one thing I can't deny. No overly long sentences with hard words simply designed by the author to strut his stuff, but Hemingway tells it the way it is without any decorations. Still, the novel could've been 50% shorter if he cut out some things that really weren't necessary. The scenes about the war and with his friends are certainly very good and he gives some nice insights and some things to think about. The love story however, wasn't nearly as effective. The dialogue was awkward to say the least.

Loot: Gordimer has to be one of the smartest writers around. Her stories are smart, witty, and relevant without falling into a preachy mode. She has such a smart way to show us situations that are of this time and probably will be of every time. From racial tensions to generation gaps to whatever, she writes it perfectly. In a very smart way she shows us situations related to subjects that are relevant now and she makes us think, while entirely leaving the conclusion up to the reader. A joy to read, and the stories are brilliant.

Cry: The Beloved Country: Written with a lot of heart, I can't deny that. Yet, it was too slow in some areas and the dialogue just felt stilted. And it was written in a very unusual form, which sometimes was a bit puzzling because I sometimes didn't know if something was dialogue or just a thought of someone. The middle part of the story was a nice one, but the end was very slow and just not quite that interesting. The love with which it was written makes up for some of it though.

Close Range: Some of the short stories were very good, especially "The Mud Below". Others I didn't quite see the greatness of. Her style of writing is very direct, and it always involves people who are down and out and who will never get up again. You have to like that, I suppose, but it isn't really my cup of tea, to be quite frank. Proulx shows how hard and lonely life on the range can be and how hard and brutal people can be. But, for me, she did it a tad too direct.

Hard Times: Well, Charles Dickens is a legend in the world of literature, but quite frankly this novel wasn't really all that jazz. One of the two storylines, of the factory worker whose name I've forgotten, is just too dull. And when Dickens switches to dialect, it sometimes because really hard to read what a person is saying. And when I have to re-read every sentence by a certain person because of the dialect he is speaking, then at one point I get pretty annoyed. The other storyline is a nice piece of drama and character development.

The Great Gatsby: A lovely novel about a man who does everything in his power to sweep a woman off of her feet. A man so strong on the outside, yet so tender on the inside. A great novel, despite a rather slow start. The beginning years of the narrator aren't that interesting, but as soon as Gatsby enters the stage the quality increases and so does the reading pleasure. A wonderful novel with the center on an interesting, strange, yet such a real man.

The Sucker's Kiss: A nice novel about a man's inability to settle and, when he finally does, he has so much baggage that it causes too much trouble. A novel about the depression, but especially about one man's journey to survive. With a witty main character and lots of side characters, from the Chinese mafia to Archbishops. But maybe because he never settles and is always on the move, there is something missing, which I can't pinpoint. It is as if because he is constantly moving, we (just like most of the characters he comes across) never really get a deep emotional bond with him. The ending is inspired though, and all in all worth a read. A good job by Alan Parker.

Things Fall Apart: Achebe's answer to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", Achebe tries to portray the "real" Africa. He, among other things, does that by, for example, not translating some words into English and by letting one character tell old folklore stories to others (which is fun for a while but gets a tad tiresome after the umpteenth one). But most of all, he does it while telling an intriguing story of a man (Okonkwo). It has twists, drama, and character development while he still succeeds in giving us a good picture of a part of the "real" Africa.

Telling Tales: A compilation of several short stories by just as many authors. All profits go to fight HIV-AIDS in southern Africa. And if you take that in mind, it's a good buy. Sure, some of the short stories aren't as good as others (and some are downright awful, especially if you put them next to such great authors as have gathered here.) Especially the story of Nadine Gordimer, who initiated it, is brilliant. Other highlights are Woody Allen, Gunther Grass, Susan Sontag, and Margaret Atwood.