Write&Read

Tag: books

  • The Epic of Gilgamesh

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    Rodney Nelsestuen
    in

    I recently read The Epic of Gilgamesh, a story that predates Homer by 1500 years or more (Intro by NK Sandars in the Penguin Classics edition copyrighted 1972). The story was most likely a composite of decades, if not centuries, of oral storytelling which was finally written down (probably) first in Sumerian Cuneiform. Tablets were…

  • Why Belize: A Novel of New Beginnings

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    Rodney Nelsestuen
    in

    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…

  • With Caution, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer

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    Rodney Nelsestuen
    in

    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…

  • James, a novel by Percival Everett

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    Rodney Nelsestuen
    in

    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…

  • James Baldwin and Why We Should Care

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    Rodney Nelsestuen
    in

    While today is 9/11 and the world is once again remembering a great evil that took place and the deaths of almost 3,000 people at the hands of terrorists, I am focused on a different aspect of ‘the tragic’ as I have recently read James Baldwin. During this past summer I read both “The Fire…

  • Review of The Overstory (sort of) by Richard Powers

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    Rodney Nelsestuen
    in

    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…

  • Amandla, a Novel

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    Rodney Nelsestuen
    in

    South Africa’s story Amandla (meaning ‘power’) is a self-published novel by South African native Alix Jans. For full disclosure one should know that Alix is a friend of mine. But I hope that will not deter you from reading this review and the novel. Jans wrote the book as a way to leave information about…

  • Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

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    Rodney Nelsestuen
    in

    German author Jenny Erpenbeck’s books are slathered with praise and for good reason. She has an impressive body of work and her most recent book won the Booker Prize for fiction. The title, Kairos, means different things but essentially ‘timely’ or ‘at the right time’ or maybe I’ll use my favorite term where Kairos =…