Mystic River

Dennis Lehane

If you are someone who stays up past midnight reading very suspenseful mystery novels then this the book for YOU. Mystic River is the name and brilliant writing is the game. Mystery is my favorite genre, if it’s yours as well then this is the book for you. This book is the average mystery book on steroids.

Mystic River book review

Mystic River is a suspenseful tale, that will have you addicted and wanting to read all of Dennis Lehane’s books.  Mystic River starts out with three boys (Jimmy, Dave, and Sean) growing up in a suburban town near Boston. It takes place in the year 1975 when the boys are only in 6th grade. These boys do as every boy does, by getting in some trouble. These three boys definitely know how to take the advantage of an afternoon in the summer. The boys not only get in trouble for small things, but also they get in trouble for relatively big things, such as stealing cars around their neighborhood and for fighting. The story starts with one of the boys getting abducted after a fight between the friends. The boy is also sexually abused by the abductors.

The novel then jumps to the year 2000, 25 years after the adduction. The same 3 boys are bring back together after separating. They are brought together because of the death of Jimmy’s daughter. Was it murder? Jimmy believes that his old friend Dave is the one who had murdered his daughter. Jimmy believes it is Dave because Dave hasn't been his old self since the kidnapping 25 years prior.  Jimmy is an ex-con who is getting his life together but, will he lose control after his daughter’s murder. Dave is thought of as “The boy who escaped the wolves”  and hadn't had a great childhood. As Dave grew older he became angrier and angrier, more paranoid and capable of things not usually thought about in the sane human mind.  Sean is tied into this as well, as the police detective assigned to the mystery. Of course Sean has problems of his own.  Not only did his wife abandon him, he believes that he's heard everything and life has nothing else to offer him.  He spends his days alone listening to old recordings that he may have not heard clearly the first time he listen to it.

Dennis lehane is the writer the author of the story mystic river. Dennis lehane was born August 4, 1965 in Dorchester  neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts.. Dennis still lives in the Boston. Dennis is the youngest of 5 children. Lehane graduated from Eckerd college where he found his love for writing. Lehane's first book "A drink before the war" won an award for the best P.I novel. The fourth book in the series was adapted to a film "Gone, baby, gone" in 2007. Lehane's book mystic river was also made into a film in 2003 by Clint Eastwood. Dennis Lehane has taught at serval different colleges about fiction story writing.

This novel was so good that it was made into a movie in 2003.  The movie was named after the book Mystic River and the movie won many awards. Lehane is thought of as one of the best fiction writers now.  One thing that boosted his popularity is President Bill Clinton naming him as his favorite author.

My thoughts of the story is that it is a very complex and interesting novel, with many dramatic turns and climactic changes that makes this a very good book.  I recommend it for people who love great writing and mystery stories. The movie is also great. I also recommend Dennis Lehane’s other books such as “Gone, Baby, Gone”, “Sacred” and “Prayers For Rain”.

​William B. Amari

October 17, 2013

20th in the 21st: Literary Review 

The Beautiful And Damned By F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald always had potential. He was young, talented and a romantic believer in the American Dream. He was always looking through the windows of the rich, perceiving them for what they are and for what they are not. All eyes were on him now; on the new celebrity couple as their fans waited for Fitzgerald to produce his next masterpiece. In 1922 Fitzgerald released his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned. 

The title, The Beautiful and Damned is a most fitting title for such a book. In it, Fitzgerald writes beautifully, commits to his modernistic style and doesn’t apologize for it. But the grace of his style cannot quite make up for such a tragic plot. Almost none of the main characters are likable or show any of sign of decent humanity. Instead they are spoiled, lazy, irresponsible, unfriendly and disloyal. Because of his wealthy background, the main character, Anthony Patch, lacks any sort of ambition. In fact, he is extravagant, snobby and infantile. 

His leading lady, Gloria Gilbert, modeled on Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, is the heroine. She is the true siren, attractive to all men who pass her way. Her hobbies unfortunately, consist of drinking and self indulgence and her passion is celebrity. She is beautiful and naive, and as quoted in the book, “She was dazzling -- alight; it was agony to comprehend her beauty in a glance.” 

The novel takes off when Anthony marries Gloria Gilbert and their troubles start to come to light. Throughout the novel they have many arguments and quarrel constantly. It seems they are in love with the idea of each other, valuing this over actual love, ambition and health. Besides this, both of them drink alcoholic beverages constantly. A common theme found in modernist literature, is that the main characters drink to forget and escape issues that they have created due to their own faults and they are unable to acknowledge their own shortcomings. This is precisely what happens in The Beautiful and Damned. When Anthony and his friends say, “Here’s to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life.” They mean that alcohol, for these characters, is life itself. In fact, Anthony drinks so much that he is unable to function without it. 

Essentially this novel is about beautiful people living ugly lives. What happens when an heir—born with immense wealth, who studies in Europe, then graduates from Harvard—has everything he needs to succeed and yet completely screws up? The result is Anthony Patch, the “D” in Damned. He, the main character, perpetually fails at everything he attempts. 

Fitzgerald's third person writing itself, is beautiful and damned. Parts of the novel reveal tiny bits of brilliance, truly showing why Fitzgerald is the Great American Author. His use of vocabulary in the book is beautiful and inspiring but perhaps too impressive for its own good. Fitzgerald writes densely, using many words, but there are times where it just gets a little too verbose. Contemporary readers could find this 20th century classic a little old fashioned, making it difficult for them to make connections. The long conversations between Anthony and his friends, Dick and Maury are humdrum and overblown— confusing and unnecessary to the plot. However, towards the final part of the book, when the setting transitions to times of “The Great War” and the book starts to pick up. You are instantly engaged in Anthony as he wanders through the southern countryside. This part of the book is a new experience for Anthony and the reader. 

Fitzgerald will always engage you into the world that he writes about and The Beautiful and Damed is no exception. When reading you will instantly feel welcomed even into Anthony’s world of futility. It will frustrate you to observe young Anthony's constant failures. The books general atmosphere is blankness yet you feel hopeful for Anthony and believe that he might eventually find success. Fitzgerald is cunning in his use of pseudo-realism, using his description of young marriage as a decoy. The Beautiful and Damned is more of an analysis of up-scale youth than an actual novel. Parties were numerous, people destroyed things and accidents happened. Aimless strolls through Manhattan, country drives and whiskey binges are some of the most common themes in this novel. 

This book may not surpass Fitzgerald's 1925 classic, The Great Gatsby, but it still belongs on the bookshelf of the truest of literary fanatics. The Beautiful and Damned deserves your patience. Its a heavy novel but a worthy challenge. Most people will get a lot out of this novel, especially those who are trying to enrich their knowledge of early 20th century literature. It also deserves a ton of street-cred from those on the intellectual road. Everyone will eventually read or already has read Gatsby, but how many people can say that they read this semi-masterpiece? The Beautiful and Damned is not for the casual reader— it belongs to the most devoted Fitzgerald fans and to those who truly admire his use of the English language.

Book Information: 

Title: The Beautiful and Damned

Publisher: Charles Scribner’s Sons

Date of Publishing: 1922

Pages: 422

Genre: Fiction 

​

The struggle with short stories is the limited space and the need for enough information, enough plot, enough character development, to get the point across. Short stories are speed dating for those not quite willing to commit to a full length novel. Jhumpa Lahiri does not shy away from the daunting task of short stories and her product is nothing short of amazing. 

Jhumpa Lahiri is the daughter of Indian immigrants, born in London but spending the majority of her childhood in Long Island, New York. Lahiri often refers to herself as American, once saying “I wasn’t born here, but I might as well have been.” While The Interpreter of Maladies is Lahiri’s debut publication, it is anything but amateur. The book was even the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize Award, which reportedly came as “quite a shock” to Lahiri. After taking a look at the book, however, it is not a shock to readers. The book itself tells the stories of India natives either still residing in India, or immigrants to America. She wrote the book in 1999, drawing observations from her family, and immigrants she met while growing up. 

Lahiri expertly navigates the world of short stories with an artful hand. The novel contains nine different stories, which delve into idea of marriage and the trials that accompany it.    For the most part, the stories are not about heartbreak. They are not about a climactical moment where everything falls apart, but about the characters. Her stories are not about the drama, not about how many twists she can place in one short story, but how the characters deal with their lives. The characters in these stories all deal with a certain amount of miscommunication. In any of the stories, there is evidence of one character not understand another, and that is what led to the majority of heartbreak.  The novel is about the opportunities that the characters have as they face the collapse of their idea of marriage is or should be. Opportunities to remake their lives, to revitalize the love in their relationships, or to move on. With each page, the sympathetic disappointment one feels is transformed into a thirst for the age old question; what comes next?

With nine different stories in one book, and each one dealing with the struggle of marriage, it would be easy for the anecdotes to become repetitive. Lahiri does not bend to that, however, crafting each character uniquely and constructing each situation exclusively. Her characters appeal to the hearts of readers, and the result is not disappointing. One cannot help but ache for the young couple trapped in the familiarity of their marriage, dealing with the heartbreak of their stillborn child silently and letting their marriage fall around them. One cannot help but hurt for Boori Ma, the old widow who spends her days sweeping the staircase of an apartment building, until the tenants are overcome with greed and chase her out. Each story is a look into our world. Lahiri studies society in a way unlike those before her. She examines cultural restraints, and notes how our affections simultaneously defy and preserve such constrictions. 

Jhumpa Lahiri uses such expressive language that it is impossible to read her work without feeling affected. Her words are used to build a world around the reader, and to invite them into the world she’s created. Her language is powerful, and leaves the reader with a choice. What is taken away from the stories is not printed, it is not handed to you. What is taken away from the book will be different for everyone. 

For me, the highlight of the book lies in the seventh story, This Blessed House. Sanjeev and Twinkle are newlyweds, exploring their new house in Hartford, Connecticut. Whilst looking around, they begin to unearth several garish Christian decorations. Twinkle is immediately drawn to them, laughing, and wanting to put them all over the house. Sanjeev, however, is more conscious of their Hinduism, and fears what his coworkers and neighbors will think if they saw the decorations. Sanjeev begins to regard Twinkle as an unknown; he doesn’t understand her spontaneity, and is uncomfortable with her rash decision making. When throwing a house warming party, his colleagues are immediately drawn to Twinkle’s enigmatic ways. Lahiri intricately designs Twinkle to be a character with impulsive tendencies that directly crash with Sanjeev’s deliberate lifestyle. Twinkle, in some ways, bears a likeness to the book in general. Once acquainted, you’re left with a simple “wow”. 

In many ways, one cannot ask for more if looking for a book of compelling short stories. Lahiri exceeds any and all expectations. While many people have never experienced some of the ideas in the stories, it is easy to look beyond the plot with Lahiri’s writings, and sense the overarching themes and insights that she is making. This makes the book relevant to a very diverse group of people. If you are just delving into the world of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies is an excellent place to start. 

Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri, Published by Mariner Books in 1999, 198 pages, Fiction

Artist note: Interview above is a fictional interview that I have created with one of the main characters of the book, Laila. This interview does contain spoilers so do not listen if you plan on reading the book!


“A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini is a beautifully crafted novel following the lives of two Afghan women through heartbreak, triumph and the challenges that they face within their culture. 

Hosseini is an award-winning author; this book in particular spent four weeks as the #1 book in the nation, as well as being #1 on almost every national bestseller list including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and many more. This book also appeared on multiple end of year best-of lists, including the #1 Worldwide Bestselling title in 2008, Time- Ten Best Books: Fiction, Washington Post- Best Books of 2007 and more. Between “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and Hosseini’s first bestseller, “The Kite Runner”, more than 38 million copies have been sold worldwide.

This story is set in Afghanistan and begins in the mid-1900s, where you introduced to a teenage girl named Mariam, who lives with her mother. Through a series of heartbreaking events, Mariam finds herself stranded in a seemingly unfixable family situation, where her father decides to solve the problem by marrying her off to a middle-aged man whom she has never met before. However, since arranged marriage is a social norm in Afghanistan and women are given no power, Mariam must accept this new situation, no matter how alone she feels.

In the second piece of this story, readers are introduced to another girl named Laila, who has a pleasant family life and lives down the street from Mariam and her husband, Rasheed. Similar to Mariam, Laila is tossed into a situation of utter helplessness and family turmoil. Since the streets are unsafe and plagued with war, and since Laila is a women and has no rights to move to a new place, she is brought into the household of Mariam and Rasheed, where Rasheed marries her as well.

From this point in time, readers begin to see the relationship between Mariam and Laila unfold as wives of the same man. While they have a rocky start, their friendship soon grows deeply and in ways only possible in their situations. This friendship withstands lost loves returning, pregnancies, an extremely abusive husband and in the final test of friendship, the ultimate act of protection.

Throughout this entire novel, Hosseini makes a few themes extremely clear. The first major motif is the Afghan culture, which is unique, fascinating and heartbreaking at times and experienced through characters in the book. As readers are taken through the lives of these women, Hosseini paints pictures of weddings, the food, the country of Afghanistan, but mostly about the values of the culture, specifically the inequality of genders. He shows each of these themes throughout the story in invigorating ways using the stories of Laila and Mariam. The other major message explored is that of the bonds of friendship and family. From chapter one, Hosseini captivates readers with questioning of the value of relationships between relatives, acquaintances, spouses and even strangers; how far is one willing to go to protect someone they love?

There are countless ways that this book exceeded my expectations as an avid reader. I’ve always disliked books with either too much dialogue or too much description, but “A Thousand Splendid Suns” had a wonderful balance of both. Hosseini is creative and crafty in the ways that he uses description to speak on behalf of the characters, such as body language or a glimpse into the inner thoughts of characters, but also uses dialogue when words would be most effective. Also, if there’s one thing that I despise, it’s when authors add random plot twists which make no sense and do not benefit the story in the end. What was amazing about this book, however, was that the plot was unpredictable, yet the story made sense in the end. 

There were no major things that I disliked about this book, but the ending did not particularly sit well with me. Throughout the entire novel, Hosseini does so well with letting the reader into the lives and relationships of all of the characters, and does so in a slow way so that you feel as though you have known them for a very very long time. However, at the end of the book, I feel as though it was rushed and the relationships were kept at a shallow level and did not display the depth that was shown previously in the book. While that may have been a literary choice by Hosseini, it was the one point that felt unsettling to me as a reader.

This can be a heavy book for some people due to the difficult topics and issues presented. Challenging situations presented include suicide, abortion and graphic scenes of domestic violence and brutality, which can only be handled with a certain level of maturity. Therefore, I do not suggest this book for younger readers, only those who feel like they are ready to read a novel that deal with these matters. 

However, this book needs to be read. It is important. The themes are ones that are intertwined into the lives of every human, no matter how much they might notice them. While it works on a deeper level, this is also an marvelous piece of fiction writing with a captivating and enrapturing story, one that will leave readers wanting more.

And if you are one of those readers who want more, Hosseini recently released a new book, “And the Mountains Echoed”, which is next on my “to-read” list. Check it out here.

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. Published by Riverhead Books on May 22, 2007. 384 pages. Fiction novel.

Alex Marothy

Water

10-25-13

American Psycho

American Psycho is a black comedy, a violently powerful critique of upper-echelon male culture and a mirror for the worst in society. Set in the late 80’s of New York City, the story follows Patrick Bateman, the poster child of privilege with a demented twist. All he knows is the culture he was born into, one of wealth and entitlement, and passes blatant and unsolicited judgement on all others. While he is obsessed with his own appearance, so are his colleagues, such that unique identity is easily lost. 

Through Bateman’s eyes we observe the yuppie culture of the Wall Street businessman, and his growing feeling of alienation from a society of faceless masks. In an egotistical world where Platinum AmEx cards rule and money is a trivial commodity, all that sets the characters apart are their clothes. Throughout, the book stabs at societal ideals and the loss of compassion in a world driven by greed. How easily these characters lose even the last shred of their humanity strikes the core of America’s morality. 

Though satirical in its tone, the story is punctuated by violence, taking a new look at materialism through the eyes of a crazed psychopath. With each page, our sadistic anti-hero is closer to the brink of utter insanity, and composes himself only briefly with thoughts of shopping and returning his video tapes. He is the stereotype of affluence, a glamorous consumer, and has a carnal urge to own only the very best, allowing, even forcing his possessions to define him. Constantly offering advice to his colleagues, and even the reader (another hint at psychosis), about fashion and grooming, doing so as second nature, another piece of his effortless facade.

The book is written with distinct style, a rambling narrative that drags you down with it; a conscious choice that the author, Bret Easton Ellis, made with clear precision. Ellis, born in the early sixties, released the book when he was twenty-seven, startlingly close to the age of the main character. He was born into wealth, and, in the late eighties, was very much a member of the same materialistic culture of yuppie consumerism. At times, Bret has suggested his work to be autobiographical, his characters inspired by different stages of his own life. 

In this rambling tone, Bateman describes only the most mundane of tasks, but in ways that convey an inexplicable fascination he has with them. Things like his shower routine, the deeper messages of the album Abacab, and his aerobics class. The detail with which he describes these is so impeccably deranged, that reading it can give you chills. Yet, at the same time, his mentality rings true for the upper-class male culture of the late 80’s and early 90’s, and their obsessive narcissism. Men had recently been put under the same spotlight that women had been under for years, and they were expected to look good. This not only fueled their egotism, but created a society blinded by appearance, and so shallow in their morality. Throughout the novel, Ellis does a fantastic job of emphasizing this point and showing the readers just how far some men can take it. 

Throughout the novel, though Bateman’s extreme violence is quite prevalent, it goes seemingly unnoticed by his peers. Are they so blinded by their own egotistically introspective gaze they are simply oblivious to the bloodshed before them, or is Bateman so deranged, so unhinged, that his reality is shared by no one else? This question Ellis poses excellently, and is one of the great enigmas of the story.

If the events in the book really are just figments of the anti-hero’s disturbed mind, then the subtleties of the story are easily explained. Instances in which Bateman will say something horrific to another character, and they will take no notice, or how he can walk across town in a bloody raincoat with no one saying a word. These situations, these events, if taken as delusions of a troubled mind, become trivial. Suddenly, the novel becomes boring, and everything that Bateman does means nothing to the reader.

However, if he really is a murderous lunatic, a sickened psychopath, and a bloodthirsty savage, the story comes to life in a way we could never have imagined. We are now on Bateman’s side, in his subconscious, egging him on toward his imminent destruction. We laugh with him, not at him, and sneer at a despicably droll society full of sycophants and disingenuous sloths. 

   Book Review – Artemis Fowl (series)

KaBoni Bailey

Author: Eion Colfier

            There so often comes a book series that you can glue your eyes to and read over and over again. In my experience of the many books I’ve read, the Artemis Fowl books are definitely on my top ten lists of best book series. Given the witty banter, high intelligence and focus that this book emits; it’s simple to say, ‘give it a read’. Weather it’s from the point of Artemis’s Butler, who happens to be one of the worlds most dangerous bodyguards, or from Captain Holly Short’s (A fairy who trifles with Artemis and his schemes) point of view, you will always get a great third-person understanding of the story. As well, Eion Colfier’s style changes depending on the main character of the chapter/section; when using Butler as his center piece, he tends to be more aggressive and specified on action, when on the other hand, writing about Artemis’ situations seems to be more theological and intrusive to the mind. It leaves you questioning his intentions and wanting to read to the next page.

 Adults will even fall captive to the fictional inclusion of Fairies and their battle to remain hidden from the Mud Men (Humans). Taking it from there, the story all begins when a teenage kid decides to kidnap a fairy for buttloads of gold in order to fund an expedition to find his father, who has been missing for several years. Some would compare this book to The arm, the eye and the ear by (Search author), or The amulet of Samarkand by (Search book/author [Nathaniel]); both of these books presents a writing style not generally known and/or understood by people who read regular book after regular book.

D’arvit!, a expression that the fairies use to designate a censored cuss word. Eion Colfier uses this word perfectly, as no one knows what it means in mud men language, yet we, the readers, know that it is bad enough word to not be deciphered by the readers. Showing up more than several times in Artemis Fowl, in stressful situations, this word is one that is used precise enough to give the hint, something big is going on, or is about to happen.

It may seem as though this book is prefect and would eliminate every other book made, but like all books, there are some flaws. Because these books are so intellectually simple yet complex, there may be the need to re-read pages, even chapters to understand a specific action and/or concept in the book. When I first read the books, multiple times I had to go back and re-read up to two chapters of what I previously read to understand the parts of the climax. Along with that, small details that most wouldn’t pay attention to are very important for a majority of the books. Seeing as though Artemis is a mentalist and likes to toy with his unknown subjects, it is somewhat understandable that his books makes the reader go deeper into their frontal lobe for comprehension, but sometimes, if not most times it is unnecessary to confuse your reader to the point of frustration (I’ve been their before).

As you can tell, these books have their ups and downs, more ups than downs but some downs non-the less. Which is expected of any author, for an author with no errors isn’t an author at all.

Eion Colfier, the author of the bestselling Artemis Fowl series published book number one on April first, 2003; which slowly but surely became his best seller. This 316 page paperback anthology is still, in 2013, a force to be reckoned with. Considering the mix of genre’s that reside in the book, ranging from Sci-fi to young adult to fantasy, Artemis fowl has many features that leave it impeccable to the publication world and young minds alike. Yet, as well with anything else in this world, it’s not a perfect piece of writing, but everything that you expect in a good book is present in Artemis fowl; cleverness, strategy, action and great emotion. Whatever flaws may be present in this book, it still does not affect the overall theme of the book and objective: to give the reader a good read.

 

            

William B. Amari 
10/21/13
Water

Writing connects me with the ideas within me. I write to escape and escape to write. When I write, I write with purpose. It is a way to express all my thoughts that I can't say out loud. My writing is my true voice. A passion you can't hear. A passion you must read to believe. Every word and sentence carries only the truest of morals, morals that I keep concealed from the rest of society. 

Writing is the greatest art of all. It is the only art that isn't visual. Good writing has a true voice and it is only the greatest of writers that can describe the world with out detail. It is my goal to one day be able to do such a thing and to one day claim a masterpiece.