I give great credit to the writers and artists of this issue for trying to tell a different story in an interesting way. The timeline jumps every several pages from a few weeks before, to the “now”, to two days ago, all while switching points of view telling the story through different eyes.
About: The Golden House by Salman Rushdie is a novel about a powerful tycoon who immigrates to the US. This is the thirteenth novel from Mr. Rushdie’s arsenal of tales, it is the first one I read but am looking forward to filling the backlog. 400 pages Publisher: Random House Language: English ISBN-10: 0399592806 My rating for The Golden House — 5 Buy The Golden House from Amazon.com* More Books by Salman Rushdie Thoughts: The first thing I noticed about The Golden House by Salman Rushdie is its use of pop-culture to tell an all new American story. Luckily we live in an age where it’s easy to check a refrence to get the gist of what the author meant to convey. Frankly I didn’t need to google a reference too often, but occasionally I did. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. As a movie lover, I did get many of the references but I took the time to view the Criterion Collection which I recommend anyway. Mr. Rushdie uses the story of immigrants, the contemptuous election of the 45th President, and our love of pop-culture to write social commentary to today’s society and media. The author doesn’t shy away from allowing the reader to…
James Fenimore Cooper (15 September, 1789 – 14 September, 1851) was a popular American writer who is best known for his Leatherstocking Tales featuring Natty Bumppo. Books by James Fenimore Cooper* 1) Mr. Cooper was born in Burlington, NJ. He was the eleventh of 12 children. 2) In 1790 the family moved to upstate New York by Otsego Lake. The area would later be known as Cooperstown, NY. 3) At age 13 the author was enrolled in Yale University. In his third year, Mr. Cooper was expelled without completing his degree due to some stunts he pulled (blowing up a student’s door and locking a donkey in the recitation room among them). 4) Mr. Cooper went on the US Navy (a fledgling outfit at the time) and became a midshipman. The officer’s warrant confirming his rank was signed by Thomas Jefferson. Later in life he published The History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839), after 14 years of research. 5) After his father’s death, young James Cooper found himself a man of means and married the wealthy Susan Augusta de Lancey. The couple had seven kids, five of whom lived to adulthood. 6) The first novel Precaution (1820) was written because Mrs. Cooper bet her husband that he could…
I really enjoyed this storyline, a troubled hero (seems like they all are these days) who thinks she’s going to solve some societal problems while taking out her angst on everyone around while protected behind a mask.
I really appreciated how the author, Isabel Allende, took three disjointed stories and tried to weave them together during one winter snowstorm in New York City
As governor of the province of Garfagnana, it is said that Ariosto was walking alone when captured by bandits (the province was rife with many gangs of bandits, but as governor Ariosto did not get the resources to fight them). When the chief bandit discovered his captive was the author of Orlando Furioso, he apologized and showed him the respect he deserved.
Most of the book tells to story of the family in East Berlin, how they lived, worked and feared the brutal regime
Mr. Zguda was considered a threat by the regime, he was not Jewish but was considered a political threat. An athlete with good connections, he managed to survive three years in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
Blaise Cendrars (1 September, 1887 – 21 January, 1961) was Swiss poet and novelist, he held considerable influence in the European modernist movement. Books by Blaise Cendrars* 1) Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland to a Swiss father and a Scottish mother as Frédéric-Louis Sauser. 2) Young Frédéric never showed much interest in school, he was sent to a German boarding school, but ran away. His dislike for studies showed again when enrolled in a school in his hometown. Finally young Frédéricwas sent to Russia as an apprentice to a Swiss watchmaker. 3) While in St. Petersburg, Russia, he began to write at the encouragement of a librarian at the National Library of Russia. Unfortunately there are no known copies of the poem. 4) When Mr. Cendrars returned to Switzerland in 1907, he started to study medicine and wrote his first verified poems. 5) When World War I started, Mr. Cendrars applealed to other foreign artists to join the French army. As a member of the French Foreign Legion he was serving in Somme where he lost a hand. 6) His war experience is described in La Main coupée (The severed hand) and J’ai tué (I have killed) as well as other poems. 7) As a member of the artistic community in Montparnasse he was considered a modern…
Mr. Mangan really gets into a character’s mind and when he tells the story through their lens he lends them credibility and authenticity.