Author: Elaine

This was an entertaining book with plenty of interesting-enough characters, some moving parts, and drama. However, as far as a contender for the Great American Novel goes, I don’t think this should be up there on the list, mostly because I think the American Dream should be portrayed in a more favorable light. Poor James Read more

Wow. This was the least-enjoyable book I’ve read in a long while. It reads like a horror-dystopian film with a green-black tint over every scene, and characters with hideous stage makeup that creates the fantastical and nightmarish aesthetic. I only like horror novels with a redeeming lead character, which McTeague lacked. Speaking broadly, it seems Read more

The Red Badge of Courage started very poorly and got a little better over time, but not much. When I write reviews, especially less-than-favorable ones, my tendency is to qualify everything with statements such as “my opinion” and “I think.” Now, surely that’s obvious, that this is my opinion and what I think and I Read more

I must confess that it has been years since I’ve read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and I did not re-read it for this week’s blog because I didn’t enjoy it the last time. I really want to like this book, and Mark Twain, but I only believe one of his books is a masterpiece, and Read more

Moby Dick would be truly great—in my humble opinion—if an editor could divide the book into Moby Dick and Addendum Encyclopedic Account of Whaling in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Though Ishmael takes careful pains to educate his readers on all there is to know about whaling et al, I’d say it’s quite unnecessary for a casual Read more

The Scarlet Letter was originally published in 1850, but it reads much older, perhaps intentionally, as a historical fiction set in the mid 17th century. As such, it is not today what I would consider an example of engaging writing—Nathaniel Hawthorne passes years with a few rambling sentences until he happens upon a plot-promoting point Read more

I rate The Last of the Mohicans 8/10 The first half was sufferably long-winded and dull, but by the second-half, the wordiness seemed quaint and charming, and I read with real interest and enthusiasm. This might imply that the action didn’t start until the second half, but not so. The entire thing was an action-packed-adventure-war Read more