Tag: book-review
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The Dangers of Literary Hero Worship
In a previous post I praised John Updike’s writing and the story he told in his 2006 novel Terrorist. I still hold that all I said then is true. Yet now I’ve just finished his 1996 novel In the Beauty of the Lilies, and I have mixed feelings. With a career that started in the…
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Revisiting John Updike
I just finished reading John Updike’s Terrorist. Written in 2006, the shadow of 9/11 was still great over America. In this novel, Updike follows the development of a religious young man, Ahmed, and his journey toward terrorism through mentors using the words of the Quran that served as grooming by those wishing to punish America…
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The Evolving Nature of Artistic Growth
Many years ago I read Richard Russo’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Empire Falls. It takes place in a small New England town that is well worn and probably going to continue deteriorating. Lots of blue collar class issues and pitiable characters. But the writing is rich and one can’t help but care for the characters.…
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Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
I just finished reading Kaveh Akbar’s novel Martyr. My copy of book has more than 25 effusive praises from mostly (but not entirely) east or west coast reviewers. So here again I find the number a bit overstated and feel like the inclusion of all this “doth protest too much.” And yet, not all the…
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Update to Why Belize? Available June 10
My novel Why Belize? is available for pre-order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and online through Apple books. June 10 delivery. Besides the positive review by Kirkus part of which is on the book’s cover, a review by Readers’ Favorite says in part: Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers’ Favorite “In Rodney Nelsestuen’s Why Belize?…
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Some Links
Here are some links to my books, reviews, and to a couple of literary accounts. You can also download from Apple Books to the app on your Apple device: https://bookfinity.com/reader-type-results-share/Bookworm/Time%20Traveler/Lifelong%20Learner/ https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/rodney%20nelsestuen/_/N-8q8 Rodney Nelsestuen on Amazon Too Many Stones, A Novel Neighbors, A Novel Quiet Desperation, A Novella Why Belize? A Novel Kirkus Books – Reviews…
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Why Belize: A Novel of New Beginnings
My novel Why Belize will be available within the next couple of months. Kirkus Reviews gives it a “Buy it” recommendation. “Nelsestuen has a musical sense of language., his sentences capturing the rhythms of both the landscape and the people who move through it…” Kirkus Reviews. Here’s some insight to the novel: Forty-seven-year-old “Eileen Sologoski…
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With Caution, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer
Over the past year and a half, I have been reading, and finally finished, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. This is a book I do not take lightly. Nor do I take writing about it lightly. Originally published in Paris in 1934, the book was banned in the US. The life of the narrator (presumably…
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James, a novel by Percival Everett
In James, acclaimed author Percival Everett (previous novels have been finalists for the Booker Prize and the Pulitzer) reimagines Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn through the eyes of Jim, the slave runaway who traveled with Huck. With an interesting twist (and maybe a spoiler alert here) Jim is an educated man who can read and write and…
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Review of The Overstory (sort of) by Richard Powers
First, I need to thank poet Janice Northerns for urging me to read The Overstory. While it had been on my radar for some time, and it was a Pulitzer Prize winner, I hadn’t really taken the time to slot it into my reading calendar. Janice asked if I had read it and when I…
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