Archives: Fiction S-Z

Welcome to the Fiction S-Z aisle.

Rating	Meaning
****	A must read. If you've already read it, read again!
***	A good read, well worth your time.
**	Not an entirely bad book, but only read it if you're interested in the subject matter.
*	Don't bother, unless you're on an island without anything else.
none	Under no circumstances should you read this book!

Requiem for a Dream The War Zone

by Hubert Selby, Jr. by Alexander Stuart

© 1978 ISBN # 0-938410-56-3(pbk.) © 1989 ISBN # 0-553-34878-7

Three young people try to make it rich by dealing heroin in New York. They agree to just a taste before they cut it. Eventually they become addicted & hide their "score" from each other. A sub-plot about one of the kids mother being addicted to diet pills rounds out the novel. Written in Selby's usual style, it just doesn't have the bite of The Room (His 1st novel) Although the writing style is decent, this book is too graphic with it's main theme -- incest. Also, the fact that there's quite a bit of British lingo, makes it doubly annoying. Don't read this one ever.

Rating: ** + (1/2) Rating: (none)

Perfume The Guinea Pigs

by Patrick Süskind by Ludvík Vaculík

© 1986 ISBN # 0-394-55084-6 © 1971 ISBN # 0-8101-0726-0

A novel about a murderer in 18th century France. What's remarkable about this book is that the majority of the adjectives are not about sight or sound but smell! Read this and your olafactory imagination will increase tenfold. An imaginative book about a Czech banker & his family. He (along with everyone else at the bank) steals money & is shaken down at quitting time. The security guards only return a portion of it. The "missing notes" and the protagonist's guinea pigs are the main focus of the novel. Written as a children's tale, the only criticism I have is the addressing of the story to you, dear children, throughout the book.

Rating: **** Rating: ****

The Stoned Apocalypse Conversation in Sicily

by Marco Vassi by Elio Vittorini

© 1993 ISBN # 1-56333-132-2 trans. © 1951 ISBN # 0-7043-3498-4

An alleged true account of Vassi's life. I put it in the fiction section, 'cuz the tales are too outrageous to be real. It's sorta an Kerouacian account of his life travelling across the country in the late 60's and 70's. Lotsa sex, drugs & Beatles' songs. Very easy and enjoyable. Silvestro receives a letter from his father that states that he has left his mother and gone to live in Venice with another women, and suggests that he should visit his mother. Silvestro travels to Sicily and speaks with his mother about the past which he has forgotten. Before he returns home he meets a knife-grinder and his friends that "suffers not for himself, but for the woes of the outraged world," and gets drunk. The style is mediocre at best, and the story is uninteresting.

Rating: *** Rating: **

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Requiem for a Dream		The War Zone
by Hubert Selby, Jr.		by Alexander Stuart
© 1978	ISBN # 0-938410-56-3(pbk.)	© 1989	ISBN # 0-553-34878-7
Three young people try to make it rich by dealing heroin in New York. They agree to just a taste before they cut it. Eventually they become addicted & hide their "score" from each other. A sub-plot about one of the kids mother being addicted to diet pills rounds out the novel. Written in Selby's usual style, it just doesn't have the bite of The Room (His 1st novel)		Although the writing style is decent, this book is too graphic with it's main theme -- incest. Also, the fact that there's quite a bit of British lingo, makes it doubly annoying. Don't read this one ever.
Rating: ** + (1/2)		Rating: (none)

Perfume		The Guinea Pigs
by Patrick Süskind		by Ludvík Vaculík
© 1986	ISBN # 0-394-55084-6	© 1971	ISBN # 0-8101-0726-0
A novel about a murderer in 18th century France. What's remarkable about this book is that the majority of the adjectives are not about sight or sound but smell! Read this and your olafactory imagination will increase tenfold.		An imaginative book about a Czech banker & his family. He (along with everyone else at the bank) steals money & is shaken down at quitting time. The security guards only return a portion of it. The "missing notes" and the protagonist's guinea pigs are the main focus of the novel. Written as a children's tale, the only criticism I have is the addressing of the story to you, dear children, throughout the book.
Rating: ****		Rating: ****

The Stoned Apocalypse		Conversation in Sicily
by Marco Vassi		by Elio Vittorini
© 1993	ISBN # 1-56333-132-2	trans. © 1951	ISBN # 0-7043-3498-4
An alleged true account of Vassi's life. I put it in the fiction section, 'cuz the tales are too outrageous to be real. It's sorta an Kerouacian account of his life travelling across the country in the late 60's and 70's. Lotsa sex, drugs & Beatles' songs. Very easy and enjoyable.		Silvestro receives a letter from his father that states that he has left his mother and gone to live in Venice with another women, and suggests that he should visit his mother. Silvestro travels to Sicily and speaks with his mother about the past which he has forgotten. Before he returns home he meets a knife-grinder and his friends that "suffers not for himself, but for the woes of the outraged world," and gets drunk. The style is mediocre at best, and the story is uninteresting.
Rating: ***		Rating: **