RIFF.REBELSOUL DEV

Illustration of a bird flying.

  • The Magus in Haiku

    Haiku are easy But sometimes they don’t make sense Refrigerator My latest obsession in linguistic dexterity is the Haiku. In its basic form of observing 5-7-5, if not subject. (Alliteration is so last week.) I’ve started translating favourite novels to the measure; and I wonder if this isn’t the most marvellous, healthy exercise: A great […]

  • Scampermonkey: Gender

  • Review: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

    Though frequently recommended, this is an appallingly poor excuse for a novel. If one is setting out to write a book of speculative philosophy about life death and the hereafter, one had better have a great sophistication of understanding for human experience along with fresh and insightful imagination regarding the human spirit. Albom seems to […]

  • Review: Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks

    Oh dear. This is one of the most unfortunate books I’ve read in quite some time. Sebastian Faulks has a name in popular historical fiction and Human Traces, which seemed to promise a fascinating tale of two 19th century pioneers of psychiatry – a subject I have a strong interest in – gave me high […]

  • Review: Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

    Not the finest Discworld novel Terry’s ever written, but there’s still a great deal here to enjoy. This affectionate parody of football with the beloved Unseen University wizards is blessed with interesting characters new and familiar, but seems a little trivial in the context of his more recent works. Sadly, unless you have a love […]

  • Review: Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson

    Painfully pretentious and drowning in a mess of its failed aspirations, it’s always a bad thing when an author becomes too fond of the sound of their own voice. Characters, ideas, feelings, and stories are lost under the weight of what I can only presume is Winterson’s creative vanity. While arguably intelligent she lacks the […]

  • The Invitation

    It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for […]

  • Review: Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

    Literature Light. If you like your novels bland, insipid and unchallenging, Shadow of the Wind is probably for you. The prose is plain, the characters are two dimensional, a the plot – while it desperately aspires to be a thriller – is about as sleepy and predictable as they come. A couple of the characters […]

  • Review: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

    This is a most beautiful autobiography produced in a novel comic-book format. Alison Bechdel’s tale of growing up, her dysfunctional household, closeted homosexual father, and her own growing awareness of her lesbian identity is a touching and wonderfully rendered memoir of her early life. Insightful and fascinating from beginning to end, this is really worth […]

  • Review: The Ebony Tower by John Fowles

    Collection of five novellas from the genius that is Fowles. Stunningly brilliant, eloquent and profoundly intelligent. It is surely impossible not to learn from this man about both writing and life itself. This writer took literature towards a new frontier. Amazing.

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