2007 BOOKS OF NOTE
Night by Elie Wiesel
SELECTED REVIEWS
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
"In seventy years, I've never told a blessed soul." muses Jacob Jankowski, a man who by his own recollection is ninety or ninety-three. And in the pages of Sara Gruen's novel Water for Elephants, he finally breaks his silence.From the moment Jacob's water eyes peer out the window of the assisted living home, we are transported through his memory, back to the Great Depression and into a life thrust upon him by circumstance. Shaken by tragedy amidst the stress of final exams, Jacob takes to the rails, uncertain of what he's doing or where he's going, and before he has time to change his mind, he's swept up by the fantastical life of a traveling circus....
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And Now You Can Go by Vendela Vida
This is The Bell Jar of the new generation. Like Plath, Vida delved into the mind of an uncertain and unseasoned young woman who is struggling to get out of her own head. The narration is humorous with a dark side, and the imagery is concise and almost abrupt....
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"Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield
In "Miss Brill," Mansfield brilliantly creates an ambience of naivete to surround the deluded heroine. The wording paints a brilliant picture through Miss Brill's eyes. She is the center of her world. She is the leading woman in life's little play. Manfield said herself, "I choose the rise and fall of every paragraph to fit [Miss Brill], and to fit her on that day at that very moment."...
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"The Basement Room" by Graham Greene
Art imitates life, and life imitates art. Each individual story or other work reflects the author's personal views as well as daily interaction with the outside world. In Graham Greene's "The Basement Room," there can be found several instances of both personal experience and generalizations on daily life. To see the connections and experiences, it is necessary to think of "The Basement Room" not just as a piece of writing, but more so as a sphere of humanity reflecting on affects that familial tribulations have on the maturing of a child. Philip, a boy of a prosperous British family, becomes the revolving point for this analysis. Philip is thrust into a cast of imperious characters, where he becomes further buried as the other characters involve the reader in a passionate plot. By analyzing symbols, other literary vices, and problems Greene may have faced in his own life, "The Basement Room" changes from a simple short story into a meaningful conversation of violence and apathy in the home as seen through the subconscious of an aged child....
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