Looking for Alaska by John Green Looking For Alaska is apparently a young adult book. That I had no idea of this fact until I checked some of the book’s details on Amazon is perhaps testament to the quality of the book, or to my own idiocy. As usual, the answer probably lies somewhere in […]
Looking For Alaska
Posted by Ben on December 17, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/looking-for-alaska/
Hoyt began moving his lips as if he were trying to suck the ice cream off the top of a cone without using his teeth
I don’t have much in the way of an opinion regarding Tom Wolfe, but I have absolutely no desire to sample any of his writing. This certainly isn’t about to change my mind. (Guardian: “Wolfe scoops Bad Sex award,” by Michelle Pauli [December 14, 2004])
Posted by Ben on December 15, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/bad-wolfe/
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein Attila Ambrus is king. True, he may not do so well with relationships. And his hockey goalie skills may leave much to be desired (though not his dedication), and he may have something of a compulsive personality when it comes to drinking and gambling. But when it […]
Posted by Ben on December 13, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/ballad-of-the-whiskey-robber/
The Memory of Running
The Memory of Runningby Ron McLarty …is decent, and readable, but too calculating for my tastes. (Put another way, the film rights to the book were optioned to Warner Bros. for 7 figures, and it shows.) This is a book you’re supposed to like. The plot is strange, but not too strange. Some characters are […]
Posted by Ben on November 29, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/book-reviews/
Bring it all down
Why do you write? What is your main objective? Derrick [Jensen]: My main objective is to bring down civilization. Actually that’s not quite true. My main objective is to live in a world with more wild salmon every year than the year before, more migratory songbirds, more natural forest communities, more fish in the ocean, […]
Posted by Ben on November 27, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/bring-it-all-down/
Downtown
Pete Hamill’s Downtown is billed as something of a historical and personal portrait of New York City, though that’s almost unfair. The book is historical—rooted in history—but it’s much more than that. Hamill boils it down in his first sentence: “This is a book about my home city.”* Which, it is and it isn’t. Downtown […]
Posted by Ben on November 6, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/downtown/
Hitchhiker’s Guide to…
The old Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Infocom game is now jazzed up with graphics (graphics!) in a li’l flash thingamabob, courtesy of the BBC. (For the uninitiated, the original Infocom game [and also the new Flash version] was basically a digital choose-your-own-adventure version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book. I actually remember […]
Posted by Ben on October 25, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/hitchhikers-guide-to-your-bedroom/
White Noise: The Movie?
Maybe it will happen, and maybe it won’t—but the point is, the very prospect of a White Noise movie is fantastic, if not a little daunting. It’s one of those cases where you hope they don’t mess up (they being the director, screenwriters, actors, etc., etc.) , but where you also don’t quite know how […]
Posted by Ben on October 23, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/white-noise-the-movie/
But how will the writers vote?
Slate asked a variety of prominent American novelists, ranging from Edwidge Danticat to John Updike, for a frank response to the following question: Which presidential candidate are you voting for, and why? Thirty-one novelists participated, with four for Bush, 24 for Kerry, and three in a category of their own. Dan Chaon, Amy Tan, John […]
Posted by Ben on October 19, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/but-how-will-the-writers-vote/
Infinite Jest
I thought maybe an immense review would be appropriate, but ultimately decided against it. My review of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is as follows: Infinite Jest is an atrocious waste of space.
Posted by Ben on September 30, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/infinite-jest/