Tag: literature

The Nose by Nikolai Gogol - part of Petersburg Tales
Posted in Fiction

Nikolai Gogol: The Nose

Posted on by Mr. Wapojif

Greetings! After a delay of half a year, I’m back for 2019 with a review of the classic short story by Nikolai Gogol – The Nose.

These posts take a fair old while to put together and, wrapped up working for Barnes Film Festival in London (along with my full-time day job), and running Professional Moron, it’s tricky to fit in these long-form reviews.

But here’s the latest. It’s a famous short story that was likely a major inspiration for Franz Kafka. I’ll follow it up with a review of his famous novella The Metamorphosis sometime soon.

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In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
Posted in Non-Fiction

Jun’ichirō Tanizaki: In Praise of Shadows

Posted on by Mr. Wapojif

Last time out in Kakuzo Okakura’s magnificent the Book of Tea, I had a look at how the beverage has influenced the world over thousands of years. This time, I’m reviewing Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s (1886 – 1965) In Praise of Shadows, which is another Japanese essay steeped in Eastern mysticism and other such delights.

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Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Posted in Non-Fiction

Charles Bukowski: Post Office

Posted on by Mr. Wapojif

Right, my last three reviews have encompassed a lot of serious philosophising and whatnot. Charles Bukowski’s Post Office (1971) isn’t quite in the same league there, but what it does represent is a fine instalment in addiction, and down and out, literature, as well as something genuinely funny to read.

The former sprung forth through the likes of Thomas De Quincey in the 19th century, who candidly discussed his addiction to opium. The latter, down and out literature, I first came across when I read several of George Orwell’s works, which dealt with poverty and social and economic injustice – a sad situation which hasn’t advanced a great deal since Orwell’s day.

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Jean-Paul Sartre - Iron in the Soul
Posted in Fiction

Jean-Paul Sartre: Iron in the Soul

Posted on by Mr. Wapojif

Sartre’s Roads to Freedom trilogy ends here, in an epic novel which advances the story of Mathieu Delarue on his quest for personal freedom. The Age of Reason and the Reprieve, over 600 pages, develop his character considerably, from a bumbling university professor to a man on the brink of war, before, finally, being thrown into battle for Iron in the Soul (also known as Troubled Sleep – for this review, I’ll stick with its original translation).

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The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre
Posted in Fiction

Jean-Paul Sartre: The Age of Reason

Posted on by Mr. Wapojif

With its existential themes and mission to examine and expose the nature of personal autonomy, Sartre’s epic Roads to Freedom trilogy was completed in a mighty flurry of activity, with the Age of Reason published in September 1945 shortly after the Nazi occupation of France and World War II ended.

It was joined immediately by the Reprieve, the writing style of which uses simultaneity as events unfold at the same time, with Sartre considering numerous characters at once as they jostle for position on page.

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Gerald Durrell - My Family and Other Animals
Posted in Non-Fiction

Gerald Durrell: My Family and Other Animals

Posted on by Mr. Wapojif

After the hedonism, madness, and squalor of the first two Moonshake Book reviews, this time out I’m having a detailed look at a delightful classic.

I first read My Family and Other Animals in the summer of 2005. University had ended for the second year and there were two months of peace and quiet before the onslaught of the third year began – I used this time to opportunistically cram in a few extra novels. Not as part of my English course (which, over three years, offered little of interest for me – Beowulf, anyone?), but more as a means to discover new writers.

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Venedikt Yerofeev - Moscow Stations
Posted in Non-Fiction

Venedikt Yerofeyev: Moscow Stations

Posted on by Mr. Wapojif

Welcome to the wild, unhinged, mental, and quite brilliant world of Venedikt Yerofeyev’s Moscow Stations.

The Russian writer (whose surname is also written as Erofeyev, Yerofeev, and Erofeev – there seems to be a tremendous amount of confusion about this) penned it in 1969, but it was first published 20 years later as a warning to the population about heavy drinking.

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