The Magus tells the story of Nicholas Urfe, a young Englishman who ends his relationship with an Australian woman, Alison, to take a job teaching in an English school on a Greek Island. In that idyllic setting he meets Conchis, a rich, mysterious, somewhat sinister figure who, with the help of several accomplices, leads him through an increasingly tangled web of games, masques, hallucinations, puzzles, confused identities, and ultimately a mock trial. ( Collapse )
J. G. Farrell was a fine writer who accidentally drowned off the coast of Ireland in 1979 at the age of 44. The Singapore Grip is set in Singapore during the last months before Japanese forces took over the city in February, 1942. The story begins with Walter Blackett, the head of a large business empire, Blackett and Webb. He has little interest in the war (except as it offers opportunities for profiteering); his concerns are to expand his empire, to maximize his profits and minimize his taxes even if it means withholding vital supplies from the British and American armies, to suppress strikes among the workers whom he exploits on his estates, to marry his daughter, Joan, to a "suitable" young man who will advance the business, and to plan for the jubilee celebration of Blackett and Webb, scheduled for New Year's, 1942, at which a grand parade will exalt Blackett and Webb as the bringers of prosperity to the region. ( Collapse )
The Collector is yet another book that I've known about for years but never read until I signed up for 1001 Books. My loss. It is a fascinating, intriguing, suspenseful novel. It tells of a young man, Frederick Clegg, a clerk and a collector of butterflies, who becomes fascinated by a young woman, Miranda Grey, whom he has seen and watched--stalked, rather--but never met. Persuaded that he loves her but could never meet her and attract her in the ordinary way, he captures her instead, and adds her to his collection. He keeps her imprisoned in a sort of basement apartment he has prepared for the purpose. ( Collapse )
In 1919 Major Brendan Archer returns to England from the trenches of WWI and goes to Ireland to meet the woman--Angela Spencer--to whom he may or may not be engaged. He does not recall a definite agreement to become engaged, but he met Angela briefly before being sent overseas and she has written to him regularly throughout the war, always signing her letters "Your loving fiancée, Angela." So the major goes to the small Irish town of Kilnalough, where he finds Angela living at the Majestic, a resort hotel recently acquired by her father, Edward Spencer.( Collapse )
De Sade is supposed to have written The 120 Days of Sodom in tiny handwriting on a single long roll of paper, while imprisoned in the Bastille. It tells of four men--"libertines," De Sade calls them--who abduct a group of young teenagers, 8 boys and 8 girls, whom they take to a remote castle in order to subject them to an ordeal of humiliation, rape, torture, and ultimately murder. In addition to the young people and a kitchen staff, they bring their wives, whom they share and treat with the same cruelty, 8 men chosen exclusively for the size of their "equipment," and four old procuresses whose job it is to tell lascivious stories which the men can act out with--or upon--their victims. The plan of the book is reflected in the title: 120 days are four months. Each month is inspired in part by the stories of one of the procuresses, and the successive months are devoted to increasing violence and cruelty.( Collapse )
Title: Under the Skin Author: Michel Faber Published 2000 Length: 311 pages Source: Bought used through Barnes & Noble
Isserley cruises the roads of the Scottish Highlands sizing up male hitchhikers. She is looking for beefy specimens with big muscles. She, herself, is tiny–like a kid peering up over the steering wheel–and wears the thickest corrective lenses anyone has ever seen. Scarred and awkward, yet strangely erotic and threatening, she is a remarkable and unforgettable character. Her hitchhikers are a mixed bunch–trailer trash and traveling postgraduates, thugs and philosophers. As she drives them deeper and deeper into the mysterious splendors of the Scottish wilds, they open up to her, revealing a complex and varied picture of life on earth–but Isserley is listening for other clues. Clues about who might miss them if they should dissapear. If she desides they're worth the risk, she takes them farther than they ever dreamed of going. But takes them where?- Summary from the book jacket.
Title: Stiller (English title: I'm Not Stiller) Author: Max Frisch First published: Suhrkamp-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1954 Edition I read: Suhrkamp-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1963 Page count: 518 pages
Summary (from Google books):The unabridged version of a haunting story of a man in prison. His wife, brother, and mistress recognize him and call him by his name, Anatol Ludwig Stiller. But he rejects them, repeatedly insisting that he's not Stiller. Could he possibly be right--or is he deliberately trying to shake off his old identity and assume a new one? ( Collapse ) In certain respects, this book is very much bound to the time and place of its creation, but I think it can also be called a true classic. The themes handled are timeless, and the story is entertaining and varied with just the right amount of suspense, adventure and humor mixed with introspection, melancholy, and tragedy. I don't know if you must read this before you die, but it's a great piece of German literature.
First published: 1985
Pages: 455 (First edition, Little Brown and Company)
Summary: Not from me, not for this book.
Since my tone and word choice can sometimes overwhelm my overall impression, I would like to start by stating that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
