Before the widespread popularity of Game of Thrones, there was a short story collection that slipped through the cracks. In a setting known for its extensive cast and expanded materials such as The World of Ice and Fire, the entertainment one gets from reading A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms stems from it being a simple set of tourneys, duels […]
Sick of the sight of itSo many jagged red linesOr unchanging blueThe spaces, line and font So many trimmings to force the count Hour upon hourDoubt upon doubtThe raw frustration Only a little thingLike a tiny tongue ulcerOr a sliver of glass can give you It’s a vein of magmaThat roils both waysToo much timeAnd not enough Turning to the […]
Of all things to stick in the memory, marketplaces and bookshops still come to me despite not having visited one in quite a while. Places and people are like plants; some have an ineffable look or scent that lingers in the memory. There is nothing like the smell there: age, people, pages, and perfume. Meat -because for some reason pies […]
The shockSpark set into boneThe spin in brain and eyeSteps taken backWarm flow from noseGrinGrind your teethAnd strike back. Strike back, and have a good week.J.W.H Hobbs
I don’t want to spoil this novel, so even broad strokes are best kept to avoid spoilers. But the unfolding nature of this novel is a thing of beauty. While studying I found similar styled contemporary novels telling ugly and straightforward stories we hear often about duplicitous husbands and abuse cycles. Danticat is an author of a different calibre. She […]
The battleEven a drop of effortLead me to finishing what was setThe words upon my tongueRather a stream of sentencesMuch to ponder upon a draftOne draft meddlesomeBut many left as they areA rough assembly of lines or rhymeLike the daily walk or making timeAre trips and pebblesBut keeping long enoughFinding the path, the bridgeAn ocean crossedThe path itself and destination […]
One of the most popular bumbling dads in modern fiction, Mr Weasley is a colourful and easy to envision character alongside the other families and societies surrounding Hogwarts. In a series rife with the virtue of hidden nobility and the common kind of good, Arthur is interesting to discuss on account of his noble values being so understated beneath a […]
What one has to say about a thingDiffers as when they are thereTo when they are goneWith all the knotted complexionBent to anger in their trial fadesAnd sculpts appreciation afterwards Its likeness splits and feathersWith varied wings and shifting facesOne day this, one season anotherThe lessons learned or scenes forgotten One sees as they dreamIn memoryVision without eyesFlavour in the […]
Note: The following review is spoiler free. Entries in the series will give impressions and merits of the novel, but no synopsis or information that could spoil the experience for the reader. Today we could compare The Red and the Black to Michael Dobbs’s House of Cards trilogy, the labyrinthine mechanics of social dynamics explored by an ambitious upstart. Some […]