The story was frustrating and haunting, and non-conclusive to a maddening point, but the writing! You become part of the huanted character, and hurt with him.
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Road returns with the first of a two-volume masterpiece: The Passenger is the story of a salvage diver, haunted by loss, afraid of the watery deep, pursued for a conspiracy beyond his understanding, and longing for a death he cannot reconcile with God.
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
“McCarthy returns with a one-two punch...a welcome return from a legend." —Esquire
Look for Stella Maris, the second volume in The Passenger series.
1980, PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI: It is three in the morning when Bobby Western…
South of No North led me to Love Is A Dog From Hell which led me to this book by Fante. I think we who appreciate what Bukowski did for changing modern writing, owe a debt of gratitude to Black Sparrow Press, which published Bukowski. And then Bukowski said to to Black Sparrow, "Hey, you should check out Fante." And the rest is literary dust. This book is a gem of depression. A stark sadness on a sun-lit beach, a lonely sigh, a beautiful, beautiful book. Don't ask why, just ask the dust.
Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini forever rejects the writer’s life he fought so hard to attain.
Nudged against the suffering of post-WWII Japan, with its lost society of the late 60's, and mixed into the crowded emptiness of Tokyo -- with fleeting natural beauty -- Norwegian Wood is a story of layered sadness.
It is not giving anything away to say that by the end of this important novel, the narrator does not have an answer to his question of "Why?" though he does seem to have a bit more understanding of the burden that those of us who remain must carry. And that the reward for continuing is deep, soft, and spiritual.
Life is for the living, and reading Norwegian Wood, as reading the best literature does, helps show us why, even if it does not explain all the reasons. And this is one of those wonderful books that gave its pure essence to a wonderful movie.
As several of my fans have pointed out, Norwegian Wood influenced my writing, but the 2010 movie, directed by Anh Hung Tran, influenced my dreams. If you have already read the book, watch the film, which is a visual homage to the sadness that some of us are forever trying to understand. And if you have seen the movie, but not read the book, consider moving it to the top of your to-be-read list.
DISCOVER THE SHORT STORY COLLECTION THAT GAVE THE WORLD DRIVE MY CAR, THE BAFTA AND OSCAR WINNING FILM
A dazzling Sunday Times bestselling collection of short stories from the beloved internationally acclaimed Haruki Murakami.
Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.
Marked by the same wry humour that has defined his entire body of work, in…
Steve S. Saroff's new novel simmers with love and greed before boiling over along the twisting path between right and wrong. Critics are calling it "Wonderfully written," "Brilliantly done," "Succinct," "Well crafted," and "Amazing."
A loner bails an artist out of jail and sets free a deadly mistake. Enzi, a dyslexic drifter, becomes a criminal computer hacker who falls for Kaori, a displaced artist from Tokyo. When Kaori confesses through drawings, Enzi questions everything he has ever done. When he tries to extricate himself from the violent people he has become indebted to, Enzi looks to his past for answers. Character-driven and then speeding to its end, Paper Targets is a Literary Thriller that tries to explain why people sometimes do bad things.
