irina_sky's reviews
229 reviews

The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy (1948) is a short satirical novel by British novelist Evelyn Waugh about the funeral business in Los Angeles, the British expatriate community in Hollywood, and the film industry.(wiki source)
blah-blah-blah. A world-renowned name, a piece of classical literature but it all didn't make me like this book.
The book was written as the result of Waugh's visit to Hollywood, and since the writer was not quite positive about Americans his book turned out pretty ironic, which annoyed me in the process of reading a bit. Another thing that is not very pleasant is reading non-stop about the dead and how those guys from the funeral agencies clean and wipe their wretched bodies and put make-up on them, thinking as if it's some sort of an art. It's a vital issue for sure but could Evelyn reduce all that creepy stuff? It's not scary or irrelevant, it's just annoying and boring.
Also the two folks Mr.Joyboy and Dennis Barlow are just as creepy as those dead men themselves. The first is a hilarious emasculated Willy-boy, the best embalmer in the town by the way, the second is a self-affected British poet. The only person that doesn't let you close the book is Aimée Thanatogenos. She is a nice sensible lady who's looking for something real in this life, she doesn't pretend or act wrongly. And those two bastards started to spoil her life which finally went down the drain. She was nice, innocent and pure, how could fate possibly bring them into her life!?
The loved one is undoubtedly written in the finest and most delicate language. The speech of protagonists is flowing. Yet I was waiting for a good final that didn't come round. The absurd death that didn't prove anything wasn't worth reading that book. At least I hoped for a paroemiac sense in the end but didn't find any. Certainly, life is not perfect. Well, neither are people. Still those two male protagonists were just run-of-the-mill.

I don't know why but I love this book a lot! Shakespeare is a true genius.

The first book by Steel I've ever read. The feelings are ambiguous. The book seemed to be total trash in the beginning. The main protagonist Gillian pissed me off, I must admit, mainly because of her strange attitude to love and relations between men and women. I was perplexed and puzzled at how she kept forgiving that badass Chris who was cheating on her continuously. There were other men around who could make her happy and she kept dragging behind that Chrissy-boy and ruining her life to pieces.
Nevertheless, giving the subject second thought, I realized that it's unfair to judge her that way. So many women fall for bastards rejecting good guys and can't do a thing about it. That's in our nature..
On the other hand, the book has many good points. I loved the description of New York, it totally coincides with my understanding of this fantastic city! Thumbs Up!
The thing most precious in this book is the end, that is the last 20-30 pages. The ending is absolutely wonderful, vivid and sentimental. Made me cry once. The end is strong, maybe too strong for such a mediocre book.

This is a very sad book that reveals more and more horrors of WWII. The ugly war with its stupidity ruins the lives of innocent people sending them to death camps, separating children from parents, killing and torturing people's bodies and souls.
An american immigrant Julia Jarmond, now a successful journalist, a happy mother and wife is writing an article about the terrible day that took lives of thousands of jews who were arrested, kept at the stadium Vel' d'Hiv by force without any water or food and then taken to death camps like Auschwiz. She stumbles across a story of a jewish girl Sarah who was among those prisoners. Once she finds out all the shocking details, Julia will never be the same again, her whole life will change completely...
This book is worth reading merely because people of all generations must be aware of that terrible, blood chilling moment of history that took millions of innocent lives. What this book will teach you is to never forget what happened during that massacre and that we should all bear that in mind to evit something like that in the future.

Rabbit, run is a typical "Updike" thing with many trivial things to think over, a very complicated hero and the society drowning in all sorts of problems. I had to force myself into reading this book since I haven't liked it much from the beginning. The protagonist Harry Angstrom with his strange life philosophy pissed me off and I couldn't help but slightly hate that chap. In fact I liked none of Updike's characters, there was something rotten in all of them but Harry I liked least of all. I almost liked the prostitute Ruth, at least there was some life and hope for the better in her.
How can a man run away from all his problems all the time and be unable to take any decisions? That what I couldn't understand about Harry.
I'm sure Updike put a lot of sense in this book since he's a great author by all means but I didn't manage to comprehend even the slightest idea. People say he depicts and describes life as it is with all its dirty laundry but in my opinion he's too grotesque.

My second experience with Updike again had very little success. I'm beginning to worry 'cause every time I read his books we simply have no points to agree on.
I took Brazil because I was tempted to read some nice and sweet love story taking place in that picturesque sunny country full of adventures, danger and love. From the beginning it was the very thing I was longing for. The passionate love between a black guy from slums and a rich white girl seemed impossible. The society, their parents were against this couple but these two young people proved everyone wrong and were happy together afterwords.
However, the end was too unreal and somewhat strange to coincide with the general story and that was what ruined my whole impression of the book. On the whole the book reads very well. If you like some strange prose with abundancy of physical stuff it'll be a nice read.