Book picks similar to
The Dean's December by Saul Bellow
romania
lolita
communism
reading-lolita
The Pawnbroker
Edward Lewis Wallant - 1961
But the people who came to be called “survivors” could not avoid their memories. Sol Nazerman, protagonist of Edward Lewis Wallant’s The Pawnbroker, is one such sufferer.At 45, Nazerman, who survived Bergen-Belsen although his wife and children did not, runs a Harlem pawnshop. But the operation is only a front for a gangster who pays Nazerman a comfortable salary for his services. Nazerman’s dreams are haunted by visions of his past tortures. (Dramatizations of these scenes in Sidney Lumet’s 1964 film version are famous for being the first time the extermination camps were depicted in a Hollywood movie.)Remarkable for its attempts to dramatize the aftereffects of the Holocaust, The Pawnbroker is likewise valuable as an exploration of the fraught relationships between Jews and other American minority groups. That this novel, a National Book Award finalist, manages to be both funny and weighty, makes it all the more tragic that its talented author died, at age 36, the year after its publication. The book sold more than 500,000 copies soon after it was published.
As The Twig Is Bent: A Matt Davis Mystery
Joe Perrone Jr. - 2008
On the case is Matt Davis, a plodding but effective NYPD homicide detective who is addicted to fly fishing - and chocolate. Helping him is his one-quarter Mohawk Indian partner, Chris Freitag, to whom he owes a long-standing debt of gratitude. Complicating things is Rita Valdez, a female cop looking for "true love," and not too particular about where she finds it. "As the Twig is Bent" is an explosive thriller that rips the lid off the sordid underbelly of Internet chat rooms, and propels the reader on a no-holds-barred journey toward its bone-chilling conclusion. CAUTION: Contains graphic sexual material that is inappropriate for some readers.
Symposium
Muriel Spark - 1990
Symposium stars a perfectly evil young woman (a classic sweet-faced hair-raising Sparkian horror) who has married rich Hilda's son by hook or by crook, hooking him at the fruit counter of Harrod's. There is also spiritual conversation and the Bordeaux is superb. "The prevailing mood is urbane: the wine is poured, the talk continues, and all the time the ice on which the protagonists' world rests is being thinned from beneath, by boiling emotions and ugly motives. No living writer handles the tension between formality of expression and subversiveness of thought more elegantly." (The Independent on Sunday).
79 Park Avenue
Harold Robbins - 1955
Ambitious and driven, over time she rises from street urchin to stripper, later re-inventing herself as Maryann Flood, the queen of an empire of pleasure. From her posh Park Avenue office, Maryann provides access to exciting and sensual women to sate the desires of New York's most powerful men.All is well-until Maryann runs afoul of the law and leaves her empire facing destruction. Arrested for procurement, blackmail, and bribery, she must face prosecutor Mike Keynes, who stands to benefit greatly by bringing her down-and who is facing a dilemma himself. He loves Maryann, and she loves him in return. Now he faces a choice: set aside his personal feelings for the sake of justice, or fall under Maryann's seductive spell and betray his life's work.The inspiration for the highly rated 1977 miniseries of the same name, 79 Park Avenue tells a sizzling tale of lust, power, and corruption.
The Final Judgment
Richard North Patterson - 1995
His distraught girlfriend is the prime suspect. Her aunt, Caroline Masters, about to take up a top job in the US Court of Appeals, decides to defend the young woman in the murder trial. But this will be Caroline's first contact with her family in almost twenty years, and as she prepares the case and goes through the trial, long forgotten secrets re-surface, putting Caroline against not only the police and prosecution, but also against her father (a retired judge), her sister and the memory of her young self when she, too, lost a boyfriend in suspicious circumstances. The Final Judgement is a powerful, poignant, page-turning legal thriller that confirms Richard North Patterson as among the very best writers in the bookselling area.
The Pornographer
John McGahern - 1979
But his insensitivity to this love is in direct contrast to the tenderness with which he attempts to make his aunt's slow death in a hospital tolerable. Everywhere in this rich novel is the drama of opposites, but above all, sex and death are never far from each other.
At What Cost
James L'Etoile - 2016
But while pursuing a lead, the detectives stumble upon a personal message the killer left behind for Penley. And it's attached to a human kidney.How could the killer know Penley's son is on the kidney transplant waiting list? Now Penley's baited into an impossible trap that could jeopardize his entire career. Will the detective take down the killer and place his faith in the medical establishment to heal his son? Or, will he make a deal with the devil for the transplant organ his son needs to live?At What Cost, James L'Etoile's engrossing new mystery, is a heart-stopping thrill ride that will keep readers guessing at every turn. Fans of Michael Connelly and Thomas Perry won't be able to put this down.
A Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August
William Faulkner - 2005
A boxed, paperback collection of some of Faulkner's most well know & beloved novels.
Mao: A Life
Philip Short - 1999
Eight years after his military success, Mao Tse-tung had won out over more sophisticated rivals to become party chairman, his title for life. Isolated by his eminence, he lived like a feudal emperor for much of his reign after blood purge and agricultural failures took more lives than those killed by either Stalin or Hitler. His virtual quarantine resulted in an ideological/political divide and a devastating reign of terror that became known as the Cultural Revolution. One cannot understand today's China without first understanding Mao, and Philip Short's masterly assessment -- informed by a wealth of new sources -- allows the reader to understand this colossal figure whose shadow will dominate the twenty-first century.
In My Father's House
Ernest J. Gaines - 1978
Reverend Martin comes face to face with the sins of his youth in the person of Robert X, a young, unkempt stranger who arrives in town for a mysterious "meeting" with the Reverend.
The Art and Craft of Novel Writing
Oakley Hall - 1989
...An essential resource for any writer -- beginning, published, or just plain stuck. -- Amy TanOakley Hall cites the works and methods of such great novelists as John Steinbeck, Joyce Carol Oates, Leo Tolstoy, Agatha Christie and Milan Kundera to show readers what works in the novel, and why. This book features advice on taking a novel through each of its stages, from the beginning of an idea to The End, and guides writers through the process of writing a novel.
Baghdad Diaries: A Woman's Chronicle of War and Exile
Nuha Al-Radi - 1998
She recounts the day-to-day realities of living in a city under siege, where food has to be consumed or thrown out because there is no way to preserve it, where eventually people cannot sleep until the nightly bombing commences, where packs of stray dogs roam the streets (and provide her own dog Salvi with a harem) and rats invade homes. Through it all, al-Radi works at her art and gathers with neighbors and family for meals and other occasions, happy and sad. In the wake of the war, al-Radi lives in semi-exile, shuttling between Beirut and Amman, travelling to New York, London, Mexico and Yemen. As she suffers the indignities of being an Iraqi in exile, al-Radi immerses us in a way of life constricted by the stress and effects of war and embargoes, giving texture to a reality we have only been able to imagine before now. But what emanates most vibrantly from these diaries is the spirit of endurance and the celebration of the smallest of life’s joys.
Misplaced Loyalty
M.K. Turner - 2012
Death was caused by a lethal injection. Could it be an assisted suicide or euthanasia? Meredith calls it murder.As more victims are discovered the investigation gathers pace, tension mounts within the team, and someone takes an unhealthy interest in Patsy, threatening her life. Now she doesn’t know who to trust.Misplaced Loyalty is the first book in the Meredith & Hodge series.
Thirteen
Tom Hoyle - 2014
Twelve boys have been killed so far. Coron, the crazy cult leader, will stop at nothing to bring in his new kingdom. And now he is planning a bombing spectacular across London to celebrate the sacrifice of his final victim: Adam.