Book of the Month – Page 13

A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens

Stephanie Whetstone2013-12-01T12:00:37-05:00

Critical Assessment “Who can listen to objections regarding such a book as this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to every man or woman who reads it a personal kindness. The last two people I heard speak of it were women; neither knew the other, or the author, and both said, by way of criticism, ‘God bless him!’ . . . Many men were known to sit down after perusing it, and write off letters to their friends, not about business, but out of their fulness of heart, and to wish old acquaintances a happy Christmas. Had the book [...]

A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles DickensStephanie Whetstone2013-12-01T12:00:37-05:00

The Buddha in the Attic (2011) by Julie Otsuka

Stephanie Whetstone2013-11-01T12:00:12-04:00

Critical Assessment “Though Knopf, publisher of The Buddha in the Attic, classifies the book as a novel, it is more like a beautifully rendered emakimono, hand-painted horizontal scrolls that depict a series of scenes, telling a story in frozen moments. For those looking for a traditional story, be forewarned that there is no protagonist, plot or dialogue. The main character is simply ‘we.’ Sometimes a name is mentioned, occasionally even the same name twice, but for readers who prefer well-defined characters with whom to identify, and a clear narrative arc, this book is not for you. If, however, you are interested [...]

The Buddha in the Attic (2011) by Julie OtsukaStephanie Whetstone2013-11-01T12:00:12-04:00

Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn Waugh

Stephanie Whetstone2013-10-01T12:00:41-04:00

Critical Assessment “Brideshead Revisited is not only Waugh’s best novel, it stands with South Wind and Point Counterpoint as one of the half dozen really great novels written this century by an English writer. It shines with almost indecent brilliance against the background of dull professional competence which marks the contemporary English novel. . . . “As sheer literary creations, however, no better rounded characters have been sculped in a decade. These people live, breathe and suffer with agonizing verisimilitude. They are seen as on Judgment Day with every weakness and strength completely revealed.” Sterling North, “Waugh Jerks School Tie of [...]

Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn WaughStephanie Whetstone2013-10-01T12:00:41-04:00

Home (2012) by Toni Morrison

Stephanie Whetstone2013-09-01T12:00:14-04:00

Critical Assessment “This haunting, slender novel is a kind of tiny Rosetta Stone to Toni Morrison’s entire oeuvre. “Home encapsulates all the themes that have fueled her fiction . . .: the hold that time past exerts over time present, the hazards of love (and its link to leaving and loss), the possibility of redemption and transcendence. . . . “In these pages Ms. Morrison eschews the fierce Faulknerian prose and García Márquez-like flights of surrealism that animated some of her earlier novels, adopting a new, pared-down style that enables her to map the day-to-day lives of her characters with lyrical [...]

Home (2012) by Toni MorrisonStephanie Whetstone2013-09-01T12:00:14-04:00

The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame

Stephanie Whetstone2013-08-01T12:00:33-04:00

Critical Assessment “I shall not describe the book, for no description would help it. But I shall just say this: that it is what I call a Household Book. By a Household Book I mean a book which everybody in the household loves and quotes continually ever afterwards; a book which is read aloud to every new guest, and is regarded as the touchstone of his worth. But it is a book which makes you feel that, though everybody in the house loves it, it is only you who really appreciate it at its true value, and that the others are scarcely worthy of it. It [...]

The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth GrahameStephanie Whetstone2013-08-01T12:00:33-04:00

The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) by Mohsin Hamid, Class of 1993

Stephanie Whetstone2013-07-01T12:00:59-04:00

Critical Assessment “Hamid is unobtrusively, but constantly, addressing the reader, hinting at how to read his novel; how not to be manipulated and led . . . but to become attuned to its hidden, recurrent inversions. There’s an almost delightful allegorical symmetry to the flow of events, as well as a sensuousness and finish that might belong to some other form of art: music, perhaps. “Despite its minute probing into the narrator’s thoughts, this is not a conventional psychological novel; much of its magic – the enchantment and innocence of the relationship, the absolute familiarity and foreigness of America, the fragrant boisterousness [...]

The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) by Mohsin Hamid, Class of 1993Stephanie Whetstone2013-07-01T12:00:59-04:00

The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Class of 1917

Stephanie Whetstone2013-06-01T12:00:36-04:00

Critical Assessment “What gives the story distinction is something quite different from the management of the action or the handling of the characters; it is the charm and beauty of the writing. . . . “The story, for all its basic triviality, has a fine texture; a careful and brilliant finish. The obvious phrase is simply not in it. The sentences roll along smoothly, sparklingly, variously. There is evidence in every line of hard and intelligent effort. . . . “The Great Gatsby, I seem to recall, was announced a long while ago. It was probably several years on the stocks. [...]

The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Class of 1917Stephanie Whetstone2013-06-01T12:00:36-04:00