A welcome revival of a 1980s comedy prophesying the collapse of the Soviet UnionHere is a revival of a 1983 film from the Georgian director Eldar Shengelaia (still alive at 90) and it is revealed as an intriguing, and perhaps even remarkable creation: a dapper, droll satire on Soviet bureaucracy, a shaggy dog story of absurd humour that creeps up on you, culminating in a truly bizarre apocalypse. The satire was arguably lenient enough to get the film made and lenient enough to win it the USSR State prize, but we can see from our 2023 vantage point that it is a deadpan prophecy of the Soviet Union’s imminent collapse. If we could go back in time to this film’s first release and tell Shengelaia that just six years later the Berlin Wall would come down and with it the entire Soviet system, would he have been surprised? Perhaps only about the fact that it was going to take so long.The scene is a state publishing company that also supervises printing and takes delivery of noisome chemicals in its basement courtyard. A would-be writer called Soso (Ramaz Giorgobiani) is scurrying about the building, desperately trying to interest its harassed or indolent functionaries in his novel, entitled Tian Shan, or The Blue Mountains – and therefore, we must assume, literally or metaphorically about the central Asian mountain ranges, although no one ever asks him about it or discusses literary matters in any way. No one definitively rejects him or accepts him. He is always referred to... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-06 13:00:00 UTC ]
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A welcome revival of a 1980s comedy prophesying the collapse of the Soviet UnionHere is a revival of a 1983 film from the Georgian director Eldar Shengelaia (still alive at 90) and it is revealed as an intriguing, and perhaps even remarkable creation: a dapper, droll satire on Soviet... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-06 13:00:00 UTC ]
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From cancelled books to ‘review bombing’, it might seem as though the website can make or break a career. But how influential is it really?Something dramatic happens on a social media platform every day. On Goodreads, the anachronistically designed website for logging, rating (out of five) and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-17 09:00:10 UTC ]
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“Essex Dogs,” the first novel in a projected trilogy by the historian Dan Jones, imagines a hard-bitten band of mercenaries hired to invade France on behalf of their English king. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-02-03 10:00:06 UTC ]
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Dyer's gloriously shape-shifting literary project — intensely perceptive, essayistic memoir — continues with "The Last Days of Roger Federer." Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-04-28 13:00:00 UTC ]
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The comic novelist takes aim at the industry’s elitism, but his story of a farcical literary festival is dated – and overly focused on Will SelfFunny ha-ha is tricky. For every reader who cackles with laughter at an author writing “this person was making plans to micturate upon one’s pommes... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-11-12 09:00:32 UTC ]
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Vertebrate Publishing has scooped Never Leave the Dog Behind, a celebration of mountain adventures with four-legged friends by award-winning author Helen Mort. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-14 03:06:11 UTC ]
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Veteran biographer A.N. Wilson takes on one of the most popular, prolific and puzzling writers in English literature in "The Mystery of Charles Dickens." Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-08-06 14:00:54 UTC ]
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A historian, he was asked by the paper to judge whether a correspondent’s Pulitzer Prize should be revoked because of biased reporting. He said it should be. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-09-19 21:57:30 UTC ]
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A heart-warming love letter to books and bookshops, by an amenable fellow turned antisocial old misanthrope“I was in here two years ago and you had a book by Roger Penrose. Do you know what happened to it?” Shaun Bythell – owner of the Book Shop in Wigtown, Galloway – has 100,000 books in stock,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-24 10:58:38 UTC ]
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“Lackawanna Blues,” Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s theatrical memoir about being raised by a big-hearted proprietor of a boardinghouse for castaways and strays in an industrial upstate New York city near Buffalo, was turned into a TV movie that won S. Epatha Merkerson an Emmy Award. But the compact... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The title treatment for “Sorry to Bother You,” Boots Riley’s joyous dystopian cackle of a directing debut, has more personality than most movies. Designed by the children’s book illustrator J. Otto Seibold in a blocky original font — let’s call it “Dinosaur Tetris” — it conquers the screen in big... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What the critics thought of Howard Jacobson’s Pussy, Lisa McInerney’s The Blood Miracles and Bill Hayes’s Insomniac CityTwo eagerly anticipated and very different novels divided critics this month. Howard Jacobson’s Pussy was written in two months in “a fury of disbelief” after Donald Trump’s US... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the 2011 Man Booker Prize finalist, the author has pitch-perfect voice and her jazz musician characters have rhythmic conversations.Not unlike its counterpart rock 'n' roll, memorable jazz novels occupy a pretty slim shelf at the local bookstore. Though the music has been gracefully spun into... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Being a star reporter for one Murdoch outlet doesn’t mean much when another one has an exclusive. Plus: Millionaire Hot Seat left out in the cold Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastLast year Samantha... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-08-04 03:16:36 UTC ]
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A novel of revolution, a graphic novel of Portland punk, and a photo book of the mosh pit. Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2022-02-11 15:22:22 UTC ]
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David Ulin read four of the recall candidate's books, from the jeremiad "Showdown" to the memoir "A Lot Like Me," and found not a writer but a brand. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-09-08 13:00:05 UTC ]
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The 'New York Times Book Review' will now add excerpts from the first chapter of books being reviewed to a select number of reviews it publishes digitally. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The January 2016 selection of reviews from BlueInk Review includes a science fiction novel set in space and a children's picture book about families. The post January 2016: Top Reviews of Self-Published Books from BlueInk Review appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The December 2015 starred BlueInk Reviews of self-published books include upbeat romance, a WWII novel and a spy thriller. The post December 2015: Top Reviews of Self-Published Books from BlueInk Review appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Our monthly selection of reviews from BlueInk Review, a service which reviews self-published books. The post September 2015: Top Reviews of Self-published Books from BlueInk Review appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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