The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea is perhaps Hemingway’s most well loved, and certainly his most well known novel. He even saw it as probably his greatest piece of writing – the remarks which he made while it was being published certainly give that impression.

Rabbit, Run – John Updike

Beginning with a kid’s back-alley basketball game, Updike’s novel, ‘Rabbit, Run’, lures the reader in by foreshadowing the deeper events to come later. The game is interrupted by an ‘odd adult’, 26 year old Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom – our (anti-?) hero. Even here, on the basketball court, where Rabbit feels most at ease in his own skin,… Continue reading Rabbit, Run – John Updike

The Buried Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro

More to this tale then meets the eye… Kazuo Ishiguro has been receiving mixed reviews for his first published work in ten years, The Buried Giant. A highly anticipated arrival onto the book market, due in part to the length between releases, but mainly because of Ishiguro’s literary history and triumphs.

Camus

Albert Camus – The Stranger Tl; dr – (Then read the book instead, you won’t regret it.) In The Stranger Camus uses imagery of nature in an otherwise simply worded text to ultimately express the absurdity of the human condition, and the over-powering steadfastness of nature. “Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne… Continue reading Camus

The Complexity of Learning

“…learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.” – Umberto Eco, via Brother William of Baskerville. ‘The Name of The Rose’ Thus ends the ‘First Day’ of this week long murder mystery.