Poppy's Paperbacks 2010

[poppyshake]

Even though I said I would just 'drop the books and run' ... I bought home another two books from the library

 

The Way Things Look to Me - Roopa Farooki

Notes From Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Edited April 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[Lucybird]

I like the sound of The Elephant Keeper Poppy, great review.

[poppyshake]

Thanks Lucy,

I hope, if you get around to reading it, you enjoy it too

[poppyshake]

 

The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho

 

Amazon Synopsis: The Devil and Miss Prym is the conclusion to the trilogy And on the Seventh Day which began with By the River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept and the hugely popular Veronika Decides to Die. Each of the three books focuses on a week in the life of ordinary people faced with a major life-changing force; be it love, death or power, it is Coelho's firm belief that "the profoundest changes take place within a very reduced time frame".

 

Review: This was another choice from the 1001 Books YMRBYD list. I haven't read the others in the trilogy (infact I haven't read anything by Paulo before), but I don't think that was much of a problem because it seems that they are three completely seperate stories albeit linked by a common theme.

 

On the whole I enjoyed it, it's a story about good and evil, temptation and greed. Berta has spent fifteen years sitting outside her front door in the village of Viscos, one day she sees a stranger heading toward the village, but he is not alone, he's accompanied by the Devil.

 

The next day the stranger sets off to the mountains on the east side of the village, and in the surrounding forest he digs two holes not far from one another, in one he hides one gold bar and in the other he hides ten gold bars.

 

As he walks back to the village he see's a young woman, Miss Chantal Prym. He strikes up a conversation with her, she works at the bar of the hotel where he's staying. He tells her that the information that he gave on the form at the hotel is false, and tells her that he want's to show her something, she follows him (clearly she had never seen any of the 'Charley Says' public information films!) back to the site where he hid the single gold bar. He tells her to dig, she does and uncovers the ingot. He takes her to the second site and gets her to dig again ... she uncovers the ten ingots.

 

Why is he showing her this? What does he want from her? He want's to put a proposition to her, he want's her to go back to the village and tell the villagers what she's seen and also tell them that he is willing to hand all the gold over to the inhabitants of Viscos on condition that they do something they would never dream of doing. That they break a commandment. That they commit a murder. He also tempts Chantal to steal the single ingot, thus breaking the comandment "thou shalt not steal".

 

Obviously this throws up all sort of problems for Chantal, she's exhausted thinking about it, she can't function properly. She tries to forget about her conversation with the stranger, she thinks about telling the priest. Her troubled mind veers from one solution to another, she procrastinates, she digs up the single gold bar and looks at it again.

 

But then her hand is forced, the stranger hands her a note requesting a meeting, and Chantal, much stressed and with a gun pointing at her, ends up agreeing to speak to the villagers. It turns out that at one time the stranger believed in being a good man, and abiding by the law, but tragedy struck, and whilst trying to do the right thing, his whole world was destroyed. He has no compassion now, his heart is shrivelled, but he still has some questions that he needs answers to .. 'I want to know if, when Good and Evil are pitted against each other, there is a fraction of a second when Good might prevail'.

 

In the hotel bar that evening, Chantal bangs a fork against a wine glass and ask for silence .. she then repeats the strangers proposition to the villagers.

 

The story from then on in of course is about how the villagers and Chantal respond to that proposition, will they be tempted or will justice and goodness prevail?. I felt the first half of the book was more interesting and the second half fairly predictable. It was thought provoking ... how would we react if tempted, would we always choose the right path, have we all got a price? I did like his writing style and will look out for his other books.

 

7/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[chrysalis_stage]

I have The Elephant Keeper on my tbr pile, looking forward to reading it, glad you enjoyed.

[poppyshake]

Thanks, Hope you enjoy it too

[poppyshake]

 

Set In Stone - Linda Newbery

 

Waterstones Synopsis: When Samuel Godwin, a young and naive art tutor, accepts a job with the Farrow family at their majestic home, little does he expect to come across such a web of secrets and lies. His two tutees are as different as chalk and cheese - the beautiful younger sister Marianne, full of flightiness and nervous imagination, and Juliana, oddly sensible and controlled. Assisted by their elusive governess, Charlotte Agnew, Samuel begins to uncover slowly why Marianne is so emotionally fragile. But his discoveries lead to revenge and betrayal - and lives all around are turned upside down as life and death combat each other for supremacy. Linda Newbery has written a novel in diary style, combining different voices and a different century with her usual brilliance and ease. These are characters full of the same passions as our own today, while living in a less familiar and fascinating time.

 

Review: This book won the Costa Childrens Book of the Year and it's easy to see why (though there are some dark themes so I'm surprised that it's classed as a children's book), it's a real page turner. It's set in 1898 somewhere near the South Downs in a beautiful country mansion named Fourwinds (not a crumbling mansion for a change .. a very beautiful, newly built mansion) and the narrative alternates between Samuel Godwin, a young artist who has been employed as tutor to the two young ladies that live at Fourwinds (Marianne and Juliana) and Charlotte Agnew, their governess and companion.

 

The story begins with Samuel travelling to Fourwinds to take up his post as artist and tutor. Darkness has fallen by the time he arrives, and as he opens the gates to enter the grounds he hears a shrill cry and soon after see's the cloaked figure of a young girl running towards him. She's in great distress and seems to be searching for someone, when Samuel enquires who she is looking for, she eventually answers 'the West Wind ... he must be found, captured and secured'.

 

This young lady turns out to be Marianne, one of his pupils. She's sixteen, very beautiful, passionate and wilful. Her sister Juliana is nineteen, small, delicate and recently returned from convalescence. Samuel learns that their mother is lately dead and their father is doing his best to provide a secure home and proper education for them.

 

Samuel finds that the inhabitants of Fourwinds are hiding some secrets, one involves the sculptures that adorn the house walls. There are three sculptures on three walls, the North Wind, the South Wind and the East Wind, but the West Wind sculpture is missing. Samuel learns that the sculptor was dismissed, as was the girls previous governess, what could the reasons be behind this?. Also it would seem that the girls mother fell to her death from an upstairs balcony, was it an accident?

 

Charlotte, is very prim and proper, she has grown very fond of the girls and is quite jealous of any mention of their former governess. She is hiding some secrets about her own life but like Samuel she is curious to know the answers to some of the mysteries at Fourwinds. Like all good literary characters, instead of minding their own business, they go digging around (seperately) for clues and answers.

 

It's very atmospheric, quite Jane Eyrish (though to compare the writing to Charlotte Bronte would be pushing things a bit) and gothic in style. There's a bit of a nod towards Jane Austen's 'Sense & Sensibility' too with the two girls .. one passionate and wilful (called Marianne), one quiet and serious (though it was only the slightest of nods, a mere incline of the head really). There are twists and turns a plenty including one pretty shocking one which I totally failed to see coming, but then I am a plotline twist-ignoramus.

 

Definitely recommended for young adults (and old adults), but not for children.

 

8/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

Another great review, Poppyshake. I had to laugh at 'plotline twist-ignoramus'.

[Cookie]

Another great review Poppyshake! I'm going to have to stop reading your reviews, they do terrible things to my bank balance!

[poppyshake]

Another great review, Poppyshake. I had to laugh at 'plotline twist-ignoramus'.

 

Thanks Kylie, I am though .. I never spot anything. I couldn't even work out whodunnit when Noddy was falsely accused of stealing Mrs Fluffy-cats tarts and pies. If you know don't tell me .. it might be a re-read

 

Another great review Poppyshake! I'm going to have to stop reading your reviews, they do terrible things to my bank balance!

 

Aww thank you My bank balance is looking critical, and though I fully intended to lob my books in the general direction of the library counter tomorrow, I've just seen on-line that the library is having a 'Giant Bank Holiday Book Sale' this weekend. Surely just having a little look won't hurt!

[Kylie]

Thanks Kylie, I am though .. I never spot anything. I couldn't even work out whodunnit when Noddy was falsely accused of stealing Mrs Fluffy-cats tarts and pies. If you know don't tell me .. it might be a re-read

 

It's been too long since I read a Noddy book. I used to have quite a few of them but I guess I gave them all away.

 

Surely just having a little look won't hurt!

 

Famous last words! I look forward to seeing the list of books you bought.

[poppyshake]

Famous last words! I look forward to seeing the list of books you bought.

 

You know me too well

 

 

In my defence I have to say that they were selling their books off remarkably cheap and not all of them are for me. The fiction books were 10p each!!!! and 12 for �1!!! .. madness.

 

The books I bought were

The Gathering - Anne Enright

Past Imperfect - Julian Fellowes

Guernica - Dave Boling

The Snow Garden - Christopher Rice

The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway

The Piano Teacher - Janice Y.K. Lee

The Atlas of Impossible Longing - Anuradha Roy

Ragtime in Simla - Barbara Cleverly

Mudbound - Hillary Jordan

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

Long Spoon Lane - Anne Perry

Bleak Midwinter - Peter Millar

England, England - Julian Barnes (unabridged Audio)

The Eye in the Door - Pat Barker (unabridged Audio)

 

I also got two unabridged audio books for my Dad ..

The Pumpkin Rollers - Elmer Kelton (Dad's a cowboy at heart so this was perfect)

The Legend of Bagger Vance - Steven Pressfield

.. which I'm delighted about as Dad is disabled and can't read anymore but loves listening to audiobooks. Because he has limited mobility he prefers audio cassettes rather than CD's, because CD's always go back to the beginning again so it makes it a faff for him to find his way back to where he left off. Unfortunately, audio cassettes are a dying breed now .. so I was so made up to find these books at 50p each, he'll be delighted.

 

Most of the books weren't on my wishlist/TBR ... but one was recommended to me on here yesterday!! (Patrick Rothfuss) and I got it for 10p. In all I spent �3.00 and hubby carried the bags to the car .. perfect day:)

 

I had the nerve to get out 2 library books too

The Wild Things - David Eggers

Girl in a Blue Dress - Gaynor Arnold (which apparently is a loosely disguised fictional biography of Charles Dickens's wife).

 

I have no idea how I'm going to find enough time to read them, or where I'm going to put them whilst they wait their turn.

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

Good haul Poppy - what a bargain!

[chesilbeach]

Great haul, poppy, but did you leave any for anyone else?

 

The Gathering - Anne Enright

Guernica - Dave Boling

My book group are reading The Gathering this month, so I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on it, and I've got Guernica on my TBR list as well.

[poppyshake]

Ha I did , they kept replenishing the books .. so that after I'd bought my books and then browsed around the library, I saw them restocking. I wanted to look again but hubby was almost out of the door by then so I had to leave with the knowledge that there might have been books there from my wishlist. You can't be greedy though.

I'm looking forward to reading 'The Gathering', it won the Man Booker prize a few years back so should be a good read.

[poppyshake]

 

Brideshead Revisited - Eveleyn Waugh

 

Waterstones Synopsis: The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, "Brideshead Revisited" looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them.

 

Review: Brideshead Revisited or, The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder, is a story told in flashback, of Charles Ryder, and his fascination and infatuation, with the Flyte family at Brideshead.

 

The story starts in England during WWII, Captain Charles Ryder and his men have been ordered to leave their barracks and travel to their next billet. They travel by train, and reach the outskirts of their destination in darkness and bad weather. They set up camp for the night, and in the morning Charles asks his second-in-command, for the name of the place they are heading to.

 

'He told me and, on the instant, it was as though someone had switched off the wireless, and a voice that had been bawling in my ears, incessantly, fatuously, for days beyond number, had been suddenly cut short; an immense silence followed, empty at first, but gradually, as my outraged sense regained authority, full of a multitude of sweet and natural and long forgotten sounds: for he had spoken a name that was so familiar to me, a conjuror's name of such ancient power, that, at its mere sound, the phantoms of those haunted late years began to take flight'

 

Charles begins to reminisce about his first visits to Brideshead, more than twenty years before, and about how he first met Sebastian Flyte at Oxford University (after a night of revelry Sebastian appeared at Charles's ground floor open window and promptly vomited into the room).

 

Sebastian is a complex character, quite childlike in a way, he carries his teddy bear Aloysius every where with him and converses with him as you would a friend or confidante, he's also charming, charismatic and self destructive. He appears to have a difficult relationship with his family (he is the younger son of the Marquess of Marchmain) and takes Charles on his first visit to Brideshead when he knows most of them will be absent.

 

Charles's relationship with his own father Ned is strained (and though it was painful for Charles, I did find myself laughing at Ned's seemingly innocent but scathing remarks) and he's relieved when, during the holidays, he is summoned to Brideshead by a telegram from Sebastian that says 'Gravely injured come at once'. Fortunately, Sebastian has only cracked a bone in his ankle playing croquet .. a bone 'so small, that it hasn't a name' but he has no-one at home to keep him company. His sister Julia picks Charles up at the station but has pressing engagements of her own to attend to and all the rest of the family have already gone (the Father has long since eloped to Italy with his mistress).

 

This is when Charles really gets to know Brideshead and the Flyte family. Lady Marchmain, a strict Catholic, abandoned by her husband and trying to keep control of the rest of the family. Lord 'Bridey' Brideshead the eldest son, amiable enough but a bit stuffy and serious, with the same devout Catholic views as his Mother. Cordelia, the youngest sister, precocious, intelligent and loving, with the most devout Catholic belief of all. Julia, physically similar to Sebastian, confident and assured but wavering and doubtful about Catholicism. And of course, Sebastian, engaging and attractive, troubled and secretive and a self confessed half-heathen (though still believing in Catholicism as a 'lovely idea').Charles is an agnostic, and so is in turns bemused, irritated and curious, about the family's strict adherence to the Catholic faith.

 

Charles falls in love with Sebastian, he says he has been searching for love and then with Sebastian found that 'low door in the wall, which others, I knew, had found before me, which opened on an enclosed and enchanted garden, which was somewhere, not overlooked by any window, in the heart of that grey city' ... though whether it was a fully realised sexual love is debatable ... nothing overt is mentioned. Later on in the story he falls in love with Julia, but you can't help thinking that it's partly down to her connections with Brideshead, and her physical resemblance to Sebastian.

 

 

Sebastian's life disintegrates spectacularly, maybe bought on by the constraints of his strict and religious upbringing. His occasional drinking bouts descend into fully fledged alcoholism, and he becomes a concern, and an embarrassment to Lady Marchmain. He drifts away from the family, and from Charles, and flees to Morocco, where he continues his dissolute lifestyle. I missed him a lot when he disappeared from the narrative (only to be mentioned in passing) and found the second half of the book not quite as enjoyable as the first.

 

Charles himself drifts away from the Marchmain family, he gets married and fathers two children, but is unhappy and restless. He encounters Julia again by chance and they strike up a relationship, but with new found Catholic fervour, Julia eventually decides that she cannot marry him, and instead joins the women's service, and ends up nursing in Palestine with Cordelia.

 

The story ends with Charles himself, twenty years after his first visit, saying a prayer of 'ancient and newly-learned word's', in the old Brideshead chapel. And you surmise from this, that he is possibly taking the first tentative steps towards his own conversion to the Catholic faith.

 

Exquisitely written, I enjoyed the first half enormously. The second half was far more melancholic, reflective and religious in tone but I still enjoyed it.

 

9/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

You always have such lovely book covers, Poppy. I'm jealous! A great review, as always.

[Janet]

You always have such lovely book covers, Poppy. I'm jealous! A great review, as always.

That's great, isn't it! I had a boring one on Brideshead, but my cover of Vile Bodies matches Poppy's Brideshead cover.

 

I have added several books to my lengthy wishlist thanks to your reviews!

[poppyshake]

Aww thanks both

 

The copy belongs to the library though unfortunately (I would love it on my shelves). I enjoyed it so much that I'm going to look out for it now.

[Brida]

Hey there Poppy, I saw your review on (?) The Devil and Miss Prym (yes, I know I'm really behind, but I haven't been here for a while xD ) and just wanted to say I'm glad you liked it after all I hope you'll keep reading his stuff

 

The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway

The Piano Teacher - Janice Y.K. Lee

 

I love the musical theme Will be waiting for the reviews.

[poppyshake]

 

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

Waterstones Synopsis: 'I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license records my first name simply as Cal.' So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Point, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, "Middlesex" is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

 

Review: I loved this book and found it utterly absorbing and engrossing. It was a real pleasure to read, warm and funny for the most part but incredibly sad in places.

 

It's told from the viewpoint of Calliope/Callie/Cal Stephanides, who was, to all intents and purposes, born, or at least raised, a girl. However, as she nears puberty, alarm bells start ringing, not only in her own head, but in that of her parents also.

 

She narrates both the past and the present day story. We travel back to 1922, to Bithynios in Asia Minor, where Cal's grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty, are preparing to flee from the great fire of Smyrna (with a pretty shocking secret of their own) and make their way to Detroit, USA.

 

'I'm the descendant of a smuggling operation. Without their knowing, my grandparents, on their way to America, were each carrying a single mutated gene on the fifth chromosome'

 

They plan to stay with their only relation, cousin Sourmelina (Lina). In the five years since they've seen her, Lina has 'managed to erase just about everything identifiably Greek about her'. She know's their secret, but she's family, and in any case she has secrets of her own, they move into the house she shares with her husband, Jimmy Zizmo.

 

Lefty at first get's a job at the Ford plant in Michigan, but things don't work out for him there and he eventually opens a bar up in his own basement and calls it 'The Zebra Room'. He and Desdemona have a son, Milton, and Lina and Jimmy have a daughter, Tessie. Milton and Tessie are attracted to each other, but it's an attraction that Desdemona is vehemently against. Tessie, encouraged by Desdemona, agrees to marry Father Mike, but her love for Milton finally overcomes all opposition and anyway, what's wrong with second cousins marrying?.

 

In the present day Cal has met Julie, he really likes her, they've been dating for a while, but they haven't slept together. Whenever Cal finds himself in a relationship with a girl he likes, he can go so far but no further, he retreats, scared of what they will say and think. Will he ever be able to trust someone enough to be honest with them?

 

Tessie and Milton have two children, Chapter Eleven (I liked the fact that we were never told why he was called that) and Calliope. We follow Callie as she grows up, her growing doubts and fears that she's not like the other girls at school, her crush on the 'Obscure Object', right up until the fateful day, when, following an accident, a doctor discovers Callie's hermaphrodite anatomy. The fallout from this discovery is immense, it's heartbreaking to see how Cal and her parent's view this new situation, and what happens as a consequence.

 

It's a big book, but the pages flew by, at no time was it a trial or tedious. I literally ate up all the words, and, like with all good books, I miss the characters now it's ended.

Highly recommended.

 

10/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[chesilbeach]

I wanted to read this after Kylie reviewed it a while back, and now you've rekindled my interest ... but already have too many books to read and too long a wishlist! I think it'll probably still end up being added to the list though

[poppyshake]

Hey there Poppy, I saw your review on (?) The Devil and Miss Prym (yes, I know I'm really behind, but I haven't been here for a while xD ) and just wanted to say I'm glad you liked it after all I hope you'll keep reading his stuff

 

 

I love the musical theme Will be waiting for the reviews.

 

Hi Brida , I saw a couple of Paulo's books at the library today, but I didn't dare add to my already groaning TBR shelf, but I definitely want to read more of his books .. what is your favourite book of his?

 

I wanted to read this after Kylie reviewed it a while back, and now you've rekindled my interest ... but already have too many books to read and too long a wishlist! I think it'll probably still end up being added to the list though

 

I know what you mean, I'm beginning to get overwhelmed by the amount of books I've bought, borrowed and wished for.

However, 'Middlesex' is one of the best books I've read this year so, when you do get around to reading it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it, I hope you will anyway .

[Brida]

Hi Brida , I saw a couple of Paulo's books at the library today, but I didn't dare add to my already groaning TBR shelf, but I definitely want to read more of his books .. what is your favourite book of his?

 

Oh that's a tough one

I don't have a favourite, but the ones I maybe liked more than others are The Alchemist, Veronika decides to die, Brida, By the river Piedra I sat down and wept

 

I hear ya Libraries can be mean sometimes haha. When you see 10 titles staring at you, and you have NO time to read so many books, along with the ones you're already reading, and the ones on your tbr list waiting to be read next xD

 

Anyway, I was gonna say that if you find the time, I think it's worth giving them a read. The Alchemist is an easy read, not long, and pretty relaxing, well it was for me anyway.

[poppyshake]

 

Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky

 

Waterstones Synopsis: How far would you go to escape the real world? The underground man had always felt like an outsider. He doesn't want to be like other people, working in the ant-hill' of society. So he decides to withdraw from the world, scrawling a series of darkly sarcastic notes about the torment he is suffering. Angry and alienated, his only comfort is the humiliation of others. Is he going mad? Or is it the world around him that's insane?

 

Review: I could kick myself because I've only just realised the importance of reading the correct translation of this book, and I'm not altogether sure that this was the best translation, however, it was the only one in the library. It seems that Pevear and Volokhonsky are widely regarded to be the best translators of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky though I guess, like everything, it's subjective.

 

It's not an easy read that's for sure, even though it's short at around 150 pages, it was definitely a struggle to begin with (and perhaps that was down to the translation, I don't know).

 

He's most definitely Mr Angry, our man from Underground. He has a liver complaint and a toothache and yet he refuses treatment .. out of spite he says and spite is something he knows a lot about.

 

The first part of the book is a monologue from the narrator, our Underground Man. He starts off saying 'I am a sick man .. I am an angry man. I am an unattractive man' He's full of hate, he's disillusioned with the world, he's disillusioned and ashamed of his fellow man. He hates himself, he's paranoid and vindictive. His thoughts writhe and twist about in an agony of torment .. he broods and festers!

 

The second part of the book is a record of some specific events which befell our Underground Man earlier in his life and this was a lot easier to read. He invites himself to dine with a bunch of old school fellows, they clearly don't want him there but for the most part remain civil and courteous. Underground Man, suffering from real or imagined slights, begins abusing them verbally. He thinks they are looking down at him, being condescending and his behaviour towards them would make Victor Meldrew blush. He alternates between being outrageously rude and insolent to feeling humiliated and craving their approbation. At times his behaviour is nothing short of maniacal (but you couldn't help laughing from time to time, his behaviour was like a toddler's. At one point, after his friends had moved away from him to enjoy a few drinks on their own .. he marched up and down in front of them, making as much noise as possible, for three hours!).

 

 

That same evening he visits a young prostitute called Liza, he attempts to point out to her how terrible her future life will be if she continues to live in this low way. He illustrates it all with words so profound, that Liza is moved to tears. As he leaves, he gives her his address and tells her to come to him. As soon as he wakes up the following day he regrets this folly, he's oppressed by the thought that she will come to his shabby apartment and see him in his filthy clothes. He thinks she views him as heroic but that will all alter if she comes. He broods on this and it starts to annoy him (practically everything does) but as a few days pass and she doesn't appear, he relaxes and even indulges in a few romantic daydreams about her.

 

 

 

But then, during the worst possible time, when he is dressed as shabbily as possible and snarling and hurling insults at his servant, Liza appears. Our Underground Man is so full of shame that she has any reason to look down on him that he begins insulting and baiting her and, the final insult, as she hurries from the room in great distress, he runs after her and puts money in her palm.

 

 

This is where the narrator says that he will write no more from the Underground, although Dostoevsky adds a footnote to say that the notes continued on, but not for our eyes.

 

A challenging read, I enjoyed the second half more. I'd like to read the other translation someday, just to see if it makes a difference.

 

8/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake