The Witches Of Eastwick by John Updike [Please note that this review does include spoilers.] The Witches Of Eastwick is my introduction to John Updike. (It was a coin toss between this and Rabbit, Run and Rabbit lost.) Without ever having read anything by Updike I knew that there was an aura about him that [...]
Author Archive
July 14, 2009
1
Pelphase-Interphase-Gusphase, Repeat Edition
By MDS in Fiction, NovelThe Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess In The Wanting Seed, Anthony Burgess creates a world in which overpopulation has a hand in the following: babies are turned into phosphorus pentoxide; homosexuality is outright advertised by the government (complete with posters that say “It’s Sapiens to be Homo”); women are not only discouraged from getting pregnant [...]
June 14, 2009
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We Await Silent Trystero’s Empire Edition
By MDS in Fiction, NovelThe Crying Of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon The Crying Of Lot 49, to me, shares a strong similarity to Some Like It Hot–the movie that stars Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon–in that both have attached to it a very implicit air of importance and groundbreaking-ness. Some Like It Hot is practically universally [...]
June 10, 2009
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Let’s Do It Within The Context Provided Edition
By MDS in Fiction, NovelThe Broom Of The System by David Foster Wallace [Please note that this review does include spoilers.] Look at this painting. It is “The Slave Market With Disappearing Bust Of Voltaire” by Salvador Dali. Your eyes will most likely land on the bust of Voltaire that sits almost squarely in the middle of the painting [...]
March 24, 2009
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Dance To The Music Edition
By MDS in NonfictionI Want To Take You Higher: The Life And Times Of Sly & The Family Stone by Jeff Kaliss I blame Behind The Music. I think that the once-great VH1 show (Garbage, Everclear, and Nick Lachey got their own shows… really?) has ruined my ability to properly read any rock bios. The Behind The Music [...]
March 22, 2009
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Incorporeal People Edition
By MDS in NonfictionThe 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived by Allan Lazar, Dan Karlan & Jeremy Salter Wedding Crashers is the one of the worst comedies I have ever seen. And I say this not because the movie itself is uncomfortably unfunny or anything like that (it does have some great scenes) but because the movie [...]
March 15, 2009
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En Passant Edition
By MDS in NonfictionGame Of Kings by Michael Weinreb “There are eighty-five billion ways to play the first four moves of a chess game, and it has been said that there are more variations in a single chess game than there are atoms in the universe.” –pages 67 & 68. The above quote represents the dichotomy that is [...]
March 8, 2009
2
Seven Essays Edition
By MDS in NonfictionA Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace More than anything else, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again–the collection of seven essays and articles that David Foster Wallace wrote during 1990-1995–makes one wonder how much editing goes on when a writer submits a piece to a magazine. For instance, [...]
February 17, 2009
2
Footnotes Galore Edition
By MDS in Fiction, NovelInfinite Jest by David Foster Wallace I will be the first to admit that when David Foster Wallace killed himself on September 12th of last year I only vaguely knew of his name. And if you were to have asked me then if I had heard of Infinite Jest I would have most likely said [...]
October 14, 2008
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Football Scientist Edition
By MDS in NonfictionBlindsided by KC Joyner Is the left tackle position overrated? Are the ’85 Bears the best defense ever? Is the NFL a capitalist democracy or a socialist state? Who is the best wide receiver ever? What Hall of Fame nominees that have been denied multiple times should have been inducted by now? Is a superstar [...]
