I just reviewed for Impakter Magazine two great books, perfect reading for our pandemic times. Here is the opening of the article:
Book Reviews: The End of October by Lawrence Wright, published April 28, 2020, by Knopf (400 pages) ; The Cover Up by Oscar Sparrow, published September 19, 2019, by Gallo Romano Media (107 pages, free on coronavirus lockdown) These pandemic novels are unexpected for two reasons: it is so early in the COVID-19 outbreak that nobody expects writers to (1) come up with a meaningful fictionalized version of the pandemic, and (2) offer a perfect escapist book to try and forget our sorrows.
Yet two writers managed just such a feat: Lawrence Wright with The End of October and Oscar Sparrow with The Cover Up.
The Cover Up is a literary spoof that provokes peals of laughter and is as distant from the pandemic as can be. Yet it is relevant in that it addresses a nation's collective reaction to what is perceived as a national catastrophe. The End of October confronts the pandemic heads on. It presents itself as a futuristic thriller but it’s a very serious book. Nothing futuristic about it, on the contrary, it’s very much about the here and now. And it poses existential questions about the pandemic we are living through, the kind of questions we all need to consider.
They are both widely and wildly different, standing as far apart as can be, at each end of the literary spectrum of possible genres. Yet both, in their own way, manage to provide us with an expanded perspective on what is happening now - which is precisely what we demand from good fiction.
Both are excellent in their own way, the kind of novel that draws you in from the first page, that keeps you reading as fast as you can, and when you’ve reached the end, you close the cover and wish it would go on. And you start thinking about it, the plot, the characters, the setting, the meaning of it all.
Let’s take a closer look at each one.
As Scott Detrow said in his review on NPR, this book has “everything you ever wanted to know about pandemics.” As he put it, as we go through the worst “outbreak in a century, these stories provide a strange mix of catharsis ("I felt the SAME way that character did!" — and relief ("Welp, at least things are nowhere near THAT bad!").
...
The rest is on Impakter, to read it, click here.
To read more of my articles, please click here: https://impakter.com/author/claude-forthomme/
I haven't had the time to post on my blog, including several articles about the ongoing pandemic. My sincere apologies.
Book Reviews: The End of October by Lawrence Wright, published April 28, 2020, by Knopf (400 pages) ; The Cover Up by Oscar Sparrow, published September 19, 2019, by Gallo Romano Media (107 pages, free on coronavirus lockdown) These pandemic novels are unexpected for two reasons: it is so early in the COVID-19 outbreak that nobody expects writers to (1) come up with a meaningful fictionalized version of the pandemic, and (2) offer a perfect escapist book to try and forget our sorrows.
Yet two writers managed just such a feat: Lawrence Wright with The End of October and Oscar Sparrow with The Cover Up.
The Cover Up is a literary spoof that provokes peals of laughter and is as distant from the pandemic as can be. Yet it is relevant in that it addresses a nation's collective reaction to what is perceived as a national catastrophe. The End of October confronts the pandemic heads on. It presents itself as a futuristic thriller but it’s a very serious book. Nothing futuristic about it, on the contrary, it’s very much about the here and now. And it poses existential questions about the pandemic we are living through, the kind of questions we all need to consider.
They are both widely and wildly different, standing as far apart as can be, at each end of the literary spectrum of possible genres. Yet both, in their own way, manage to provide us with an expanded perspective on what is happening now - which is precisely what we demand from good fiction.
Both are excellent in their own way, the kind of novel that draws you in from the first page, that keeps you reading as fast as you can, and when you’ve reached the end, you close the cover and wish it would go on. And you start thinking about it, the plot, the characters, the setting, the meaning of it all.
Let’s take a closer look at each one.
The End of October by Lawrence Wright
The book, just out, is already climbing Amazon’s rankings and has been applauded by reviewers in the mainstream media, from the New York Times ("the book not only reads like nonfiction, it is nonfiction"), the Wall Street Journal (“an eerily prescient pandemic thriller”) to the Texas Observer:The Texas Observer hasn't always been kind to me, but this makes up for it. https://t.co/RxmTqeBSll— Lawrence Wright (@lawrence_wright) May 9, 2020
As Scott Detrow said in his review on NPR, this book has “everything you ever wanted to know about pandemics.” As he put it, as we go through the worst “outbreak in a century, these stories provide a strange mix of catharsis ("I felt the SAME way that character did!" — and relief ("Welp, at least things are nowhere near THAT bad!").
...
The rest is on Impakter, to read it, click here.
To read more of my articles, please click here: https://impakter.com/author/claude-forthomme/
I haven't had the time to post on my blog, including several articles about the ongoing pandemic. My sincere apologies.
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