Pechorin
MY BLOGS
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Pechorin's Journal
http://pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/
A literary blog covering new and classic, particularly modernist, fiction as well as some crime and SF.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 230 )
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Reflections on a Reading Year
My 2015 end of year write-up is divided into two parts. The first is some reflections on my reading habits and how they’re affected by time pressures, which... Read more
Posted on 25 January 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE -
The Lights of the Cafés Were Hard and Cold, Like Ice.
After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys Jean Rhys is one of the great writers of the 20th Century. She wrote four novels which are in some senses the same novel... Read more
Posted on 22 January 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE -
I Decided, as So Often Before, Never to Visit a Place of This Sort Again.
Goodbye to Berlin, by Christopher Isherwood Back towards the end of 2013 I read Christopher Isherwood’s Mr Norris Changes Trains, a book Isherwood himself... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE -
Vertigo by Boileau-Narcejac
Vertigo, by Boileau-Narcejac and translated by Geoffrey Sainsbury Like I suspect a lot of people I had no idea Hitchcock’s Vertigo was based on a book. Read more
Posted on 11 January 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE -
Oh! Thought Clarissa, in the Middle of My Party, Here’s Death, She Thought.
Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf Mrs Dalloway is perhaps the poster-child for high modernism and stream of consciousness fiction. As a result, for years I had th... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE -
The Hand That Holds the Money Cracks the Whip.
Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain James M. Cain is one of the giants of noir fiction. I’ve previously reviewed his The Postman Always Rings Twice, and like prett... Read more
Posted on 05 January 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE -
(events! If You Want Those, You’d Best Stop Reading Now)
Satin Island, by Tom McCarthy When I started Satin Island I already knew it was Booker-nominated. I’d read multiple glowing reviews, and I remembered... Read more
Posted on 09 December 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
Whatever Got Lost out at Sea Would Eventually Be Washed up There.
Vulgar Things, by Lee Rourke When I was in my mid-20s I found myself for a while living in a rented room after a serious breakup. Read more
Posted on 23 November 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
I Was in No Mood for People Who Tried to Lay Claims on Me.
Open City, by Teju Cole Identity and memory intermingle, both at the national level and the individual. Who we are is in part a creation of who we were, but... Read more
Posted on 16 November 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
I Love the Laconic. Clearly, I Am Not of Their Number.
Speedboat, by Renata Adler If I’d known better I would have left more time between reading Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation and Renata Adler’s Speedboat. Read more
Posted on 09 November 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
It Was the Action of a Shit, and Bobby Wasn’t That, Except That He Was and...
9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Bobby Zha is a down-on-his-luck San Francisco cop, unpopular with his colleagues and the top brass but with a knack for the... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
Make No Mistake, I Only Achieve Simplicity with Enormous Effort.
The Hour of the Star, by Clarice Lispector and translated by Ben Moser On its face (and according to the back cover) The Hour of the Star is the story of an... Read more
Posted on 25 October 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
“Everything is So Fucking Difficult and So Fucking Beautiful,”
In the Beginning Was the Sea, by Tomás González and translated by Frank Wynne The dream that somewhere out there is an existence which is somehow more real, mor... Read more
Posted on 19 October 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
Spam Poetry
I was emptying my spam folder today, when I saw the text below. I think it’s an executable spam script which my spam folder has shown as a message. The result i... Read more
Posted on 14 October 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
Sybil Arranged the Flowers in a Heavy Cut Glass Vase, Rather Badly.
A Glass of Blessings, by Barbara Pym Barbara Pym is one of many mid-Century authors to have gone badly out of fashion. In her case it’s perhaps in part because... Read more
Posted on 13 October 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
“Things That Have Happened Are Never Over and Done With,”
Master of the Day of Judgment by Leo Perutz, and translated by Eric Mosbacher Early 20th Century Vienna has to be one of the most fascinating periods and... Read more
Posted on 06 October 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
Kitty Finch Was Mental.
Swimming Home, by Deborah Levy One of the weird things with fiction is how even the most tired of ideas can work in the right hands. Read more
Posted on 25 September 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
They’d Made Less Than a Mile. It Was 12:10 P.m.
Dead Calm, by Charles Williams Dead Calm is as tightly written and tautly constructed a thriller as you could ever hope to read. Read more
Posted on 23 September 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
“Love is a Dangerous Territory for Athletes.”
The Man in a Hurry, by Paul Morand and translated by Euan Cameron Way back in 2009 I read and loved Paul Morand’s memoirs, Venices. It’s an elegantly written... Read more
Posted on 16 September 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE -
And I’m Back.
I’ve been on holiday for a week, diving in Gozo which was marvellous. Unfortunately, I then had an unrelated back injury immediately on my return which has led... Read more
Posted on 14 September 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE