Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke My Rating: 5 of 5 stars Dear Mr. Rilke, Assuming it to be a frequent phenomenon with you, I partake in pleasure and liberty of appointing you the receiver of yet another letter, from a besotted admirer of your wisdom and expression. You see I have … More Book Review: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (1929)
Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Márquez My Rating: 5 of 5 stars When glistening drops of dew swivelled across the leaves, When hazy films of sun lifted their candid veils; When morning spring walked the aisle of the autumn road, I saw a face whose reflection, since years, I have behold. In envious … More Book Review: Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1985)
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig My Rating: 5 of 5 stars “Wanting to play chess against yourself is a paradox, like jumping over your own shadow.” But what fun is life if words like manic, insanity, paradox and contradiction are not put to test once in a while? Even at the cost of years of discipline and rationality? … More Book Review: Chess Story by Stefan Zweig (1941)
Bonsaï by Alejandro Zambra My rating: 4 of 5 stars What does a resonating journal do? Arrest us in the powerful aura of words? Dispatch us to the comforting cocoon of our memories? Render a blanket of dignity to our failures? Exhort our fledgling dreams to a palpable fruition? Cast a succor net on our … More Book Review: Bonsaï by Alejandro Zambra (2006)
The Stranger by Albert Camus My rating: 4 of 5 stars What happens when we bump into a hive of sticky words that seem delectable on the surface but grasping them blurs the lines etched in our minds? How does it feel when some kind of hurricane is unleashed on our notions that were, until … More Book Review: The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942)
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal My rating: 5 of 5 stars Existence. Tearing Existence. Endearing Existence. Suppressed Existence. Spirited Existence. Delusional Existence. Resuscitating Existence. Multiple Existence. Solitary Existence. Existence. Overriding all the comprehensible and perplexing spaces enjoining the various uneven points of existence in the larger lattice of congruent existence, I have pushed … More Book Review: Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal (1983)
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas My rating: 5 of 5 stars When a few dotted lines can cuff my heart into a promise and bind my palms over it in sombre armory, keep me lain in its pristine shadows for hours and yet freeze the time in crystalline imagery, I beam at the prospect: … More Book Review: The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas (1963)
Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi My rating: 3 of 5 stars It was one of those days when I had a good meal; the fresh herbs, the right salt, the approachable variety, the generous portions, the nice host. I walked back home with a content smile. Upon unlocking the door, a whiff of scented potpourri … More Book Review: Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi (1994)
The Letter Killers Club by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky My rating: 5 of 5 stars Stop! Yes, You! Stop! Don’t Read Any Further! No, I’m serious! Like SERIOUS! STOP! I’m not going to repeat! STOP, RIGHT, HERE! Ha, you didn’t listen, did you? Well then, be prepared to sever ties with only ever thing that made your enriching circle of reading, comprehending, … More Book Review: The Letter Killers Club by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (1976)
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