Category: Book Review

In Arcadia, Tom Stoppard presents a dynamic interplay of order and disorder that exists ‘eternally and creatively’ (Demastes 91). Order is generally associated with laws, structure, control, and in the play, it is exemplified by the Classical temperament, corresponding also to Newtonian science. Its antithesis is Romanticism, which is exemplified by disorder, emotions and intuition,…

Early on in his Jungian analysis of Japanese female folk archetypes, Hayao Kawai posits that dangerous supernatural creatures can either represent misunderstood and marginalized people or inscrutably villainous forces of (human) nature, depending on the angle of analysis a reader applies to a tale. His, Akiko Baba’s, and Noriko Reider’s analyses make a case for…

Karen Russell’s modern Southern novel, Swamplandia! is informed by various works of Southern Literature through different time periods. It is through the use of themes and motifs specific to literature of the American South that Swamplandia! gets its confirmation as a modern interpretation of the genre. The themes of strong family bonds, storytelling styles, and…

Written at a time where the conventions of marriage were being challenged and transformed, Le Bel Inconnu charts a tale of romance and self-discovery ultimately ending in the abandonment of true love and instead acceptance of a royally approved marriage. Given the relative power of the ‘woman’ in the story, and the prominent part played…

Both Briony Tallis, of Atonement, and Leo Colston, of The Go-Between, spend significant periods of their adolescence in large country homes, both of which are surrounded by large estates. Hartley and McEwan use the landscapes which are present throughout much of these books to explore key themes such as that of growing up. There are…

In Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy explores the theme of the self and she tells the story of her struggle to create a positive perception of herself in spite of the ridicule and bullying she endures because of her disfigured face, the result of a cancer in her jaw. As Grealy matures and begins…

As some may know, Till We Have Faces is far from being C.S. Lewis’ most beloved work nor is it the most accessible. However with the central story of the broken protagonist, Orual, we get a glimpse into Lewis’s interpretation of how souls are often damned by their own excessive desires. For Orual, her main…

Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, presents a vision of a world criticized by binary systems: global corporations versus national governments; natural biology versus genetic enrichment; and progress Versus fundamentalism. The Windup Girl, which won both the 2010 Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel, is set in a vision of Thailand in the 23rd Century. Thailand…

I have chosen to review the Book, Ideology and US. Foreign Policy, by Michael H. Hunt. The reason why I have selected this text, is primarily because it emphasises assiduously (good word but do you know its meaning?) the relationship between the United States’ Ideological motives and its Foreign Policy and the correlation between Ideology…

Tension between a protagonist and the society in which he lives is an element of storytelling which can be found in many texts across many millennia. The story of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion is a particularly notable example, though the great novels of 19th century realism also pit well-defined individuals against entire cultures. Less than Zero…