ed_moore's reviews
224 reviews

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Barker’s ‘Regeneration’ is a different sort of war story. It focuses on the physiatrist Rivers and his patients at Craiglockhart Memorial Hospital, helping those traumatised from their service in WW1. His job is to cure them so they become mentally stable enough to return to the front, and when this is impossible the patient is deemed a ‘failure’. This mindset evolves when Rivers is assigned the poet Siegfried Sassoon as a patient, who believes the war is only still ongoing due to warmongers, all the death is futile and it can be stopped, and hence begins Rivers evolution in mindset towards the First World War.

‘Regeneration’ followed the storylines of numerous patients, and inevitably I preferred the company of some than others. Unfortunately one of the primary characters was a man called Prior who Barker placed a lot of emphasis from and I just really didn’t like the chapters that focused on him. He was generally unlikeable and though his mental condition completely justifies such, it still didn’t mean I wasn’t yearning for Sassoon. That being said, I adored the scenes between Wilfred Owen and Sassoon and the budding relationship of the two poets. The mentorship was so wholesome and yet so painful knowing how history plays out. Owen also played a very small role in the book which I would have loved to see more of.

The book felt both very static and constantly changing somehow, especially with the shift of Rivers setting towards the end which left me desiring what I already knew. The speed in which departures of characters occurred I suppose contributed to such. All together ‘Regeneration’ was heart-wrenching and traumatising given its themes and context, yet also Barker wrote it so beautifully. I am surprised that it is a trilogy however as I feel there isn’t much more to be said and its harsh conclusion made the point that Barker had intended.

Content Warnings

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

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informative medium-paced

3.5

Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ was actually a lot more enjoyable than I expected it to be. It is a discussion on what makes a good ruler, with modern and contemporary examples of leaders and why they succeeded and failed, almost serving as a guidebook to ruling a kingdom. It was quite engaging and was also really well translated and easy to follow, though wouldn’t say it was enlightening on a personal level as I can’t see myself ruling a 1500’s Kingdom anytime soon. He does also make ruling seem far more straight forward, following his principles, as I presume it was or was likely to be because of the nature of humans, they cannot be contained into a simple instruction-book list. Aside from that it was an interesting insight into one mans very direct matter-of-fact mind on politics in his time and served well for what it was.

Naked Lunch: The Restored Text by William S. Burroughs

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.5

Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ is an exploration of the drug addiction problem plaguing 1960’s America, written by an author recently recovered from 15 years of addiction. It is told primarily through a series of tangled vignettes which mixed with the nature of depicting addiction and hallucination the story is extremely difficult to follow. Instead you are just forced to take in snippets of extremely uncomfortable text to read.

I came so close to DNF’ing this, and I never do let myself DNF books, that being the only reason I pushed through. Burroughs claimed in his afterword that the goal of the book alongside depicting the American junk scene was to criticise the capital punishment system in America and question why addiction is frowned upon more than such, though both are criticised. To me, it didn’t read like this. It was just constant exposure to awful scenes of rape, murder, gang rape, child rape, violent rape. It was just a horrific pornographic book on a drug high which had no sympathy or remorse for the topics it was describing, handled them crudely with no respect and didn’t even particularly condemn such. The scenes were persistent and quiet graphic too so it was just consistently uncomfortable and sickening to read.

Rape being the prominent unsettling element of the book, it was not the only one. It was also extremely sexist, racist and would frequently discuss the concept of hypnotising the homosexuality out of someone and was blatantly crude and homophobic throughout. It really ticked every box on the type of person you don’t want to be.

I didn’t take anything positive from ‘Naked Lunch’ at all and hated it from the first chapter. If I was brave enough to DNF a book this would’ve absolutely been the first.

Content Warnings

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I reread Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ as I had forgotten much of the story and felt my initial rating of three stars a few years ago seemed too low for as I remember it, though I don’t think I was overly far off. Huxley depicts a ‘Utopian’ society where the old literature and religion has been abandoned to encourage consumerism of the new, all children are born in labs and genetically conditioned to fit a class and preached rhymes to indoctrinate them. This in audio-book form was honestly kind pf hypnotic. This loss of free will where society is convinced they are completely happy illustrates a seeming Utopia whereas upon analysis of what has been lost, especially when fronted with the opinions of the ‘savage’ John who has lived outside of this society, it becomes more dystopian.

The diversion of to the ’Savage Reservation’ is where I believe Huxley falls short in a case of brilliant concept with not perfect execution, not that such is done awfully at all but I think it could have been bettered with shifted focuses. Though apart of the plot and I feel it doesn’t reflect on the author, the depiction of the Native American-esque tribes as ‘savages’ is clearly problematic and John’s alienation which isn’t particularly criticised or condemned is example of such. I also found the character of Linda extremely frustrating and disliked scenes around her, I guess this was frustration at her indoctrinated state despite existing among an untouched community though so should really blame the dystopian ‘brave new world’ which in that perspective Huxley is successful in conveying his points. On the other hand, the ideas surrounding indoctrination of youth and human conditioning were really interesting and if more focus was placed on this and the society built around it rather than the ‘savage’ the book would’ve equalled what I love about dystopians.

All in all however, my first read of ‘Brave New World’ was judged to harshly and on reassessment I have increased it a little from the initial three stars.

The Symposium by Plato

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funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

3.5

Plato’s ’Symposium’ recounts a fictional dinner and discussion between philosophers and playwrights in celebration of the tragedian Agathon. The most notable faces present are Socrates and Aristophanes, and Plato in his commentary on love just has a bit of fun creating speeches for these great classical figures. They each make a speech on love, some more agreeable than others and all have a little debate and laugh about it, all in all it being positive vibes.

I found the opening of a companion asking for a recount of this dinner quite detached and unnecessary, but the rest was engaging and an interesting insight on the classical conception of love, and how really after so many years humans haven’t really changed. We still drink and foolishly pursue love or lament it and many of the ideas of Plato really haven’t changed.

There wasn’t much plot but the invented personas of the “characters” were lively and pleasant, it was the type of dinner I would want to be in attendance of. Also Alcibiades’ drunken declaration of love for Socrates is absolutely marvellous.

Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’ is a cookie-cutter regency play where there is a bit of marriage drama among the lords and ladies of 1800s England. It actually felt like an extremely similar read to Sheridan’s ‘School for Scandal’. With a plot just focusing on a blip in the marriage of Lord and Lady Windermere it wasn’t a huge hit with me. Lady Windermere was a very witty and likeable character however and her agency in opposition to Lord Darlington (who is also a main character in Remains of the Day which caught me off guard a little, different lords I presume!) she was very easy to side with and appreciate the points of. Wilde is also consistent in his ability to produce beautiful lines, I will highlight:
“We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking up at the stars”
as one that really struck me - such is quoted on a statue of him in London.

Perfume by Patrick Süskind

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dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Süskind’s ‘Perfume’ to no surprise places a lot of emphasis on scent, both in its plot, character and descriptions, and never before when reading have I considered scent so much especially given I have a very limited sense of smell myself. This book was just as brilliant as the pigeon, but in an extremely different way. It was so carefully crafted yet weird, harrowing, uncomfortable and shocking (the series of twists at the ending!)

‘Perfume’ follows a child Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, as he grows into a young man and his super-human nose leads to huge successes in the perfuming business yet he seeks aims beyond profit, to create the perfect scent and also discover his own, for despite the power of his nose he himself lacks smell.

It really made me consider the impact of smell where it’s not played much of a role in my life (as I said earlier) and somehow was conveyed through words which led to the phenomenon of so intimately accessing one scent through the use of another.

The book also had a similar feeling to Dumas’ ‘The Black Tulip’ for some reason which I too thoroughly enjoyed, though was a lot more unsettling.

I am quickly falling in love with Süskind as an author.

though the orgy scene was really weird I didn’t love that…

Content Warnings

1985 by Anthony Burgess

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dark informative inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Burgess’ ‘1985’ is a two part commentary on Orwell’s 1984, the first part as series of essays on 1984 that explored the role of Bakunin in the birth of anarchism, how Orwell’s broadcasting house reflects Room 101, the idea of a cacotopia being a state of cacophony beyond a dystopia and how the term Orwellian is now used in events that really aren’t Orwellian, but minor inconveniences. These were fascinating and I often caught myself saying myself how exciting or engaging a certain point in these essays were.

My review of this is complicated by part two, Burgess’ own interpretation of an Orwellian dystopia, which unfortunately I cannot make the same praises about. 1985 follows Bev Jones in a future where Orwell was killed in the Spanish Civil War and never wrote 1984. Therefore a different dystopia has formed where Britain is known as Tucland, it is under muslim governance and there is constant worker strikes amid a socialist state. Where elements of this are supposed to parallel Orwell’s dystopia, most parts feel like they are included for no particular reason and the worldbuilding of 1985 is generally confusing and flat, taking 1984 into account or viewing 1985 as an independent story. Things happen suddenly, resolve suddenly and a lot occurs with no real reason or explanation. The circumstance of constant strikes is an interesting and well done element, I just feel Burgess tries to include more alternate realities beyond this and it really just complicates the narrative and adds little.

The essays would warrant 5 stars, but regarding the narrative part as the main text my opinions on the book as a whole therefore suffer.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

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informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Gibran’s ‘The Prophet’ is a short but really intense book which I struggled to rate and review. It is just a series of small observations on aspects of life such as eating, death, friendship or giving, and makes some nice philosophical points but isn’t particularly engaging in formula. A man called Al-Mustafa is about to leave Orphalese and speaks to a group of people who just vaguely ask them about their area, for example a merchant goes “tell me about buying and selling” or a priest asks “tell me about prayer” and Mustafa will reply with an observation for 2-5 minutes. These were all good natured and valuable but as highlighted in the introduction due to the book being made of Gibran’s years of thoughts, it only speaks the answers rather than offering the roots and reasoning that brought him there, hence can seem very direct and uninspired in places. I felt there would be a lot more payoff if we heard of this journey in thinking. It was no means bad and as mention has value as a short read, but was really expecting the satisfaction and awakening that Hesse’s ‘Siddhartha’ gave me, but this was far more basic hence far from the case.

The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel

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dark informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Mantel’s ‘The Mirror and the Light’ references to Henry VIII being the ‘mirror’ and ‘light’ of all kings, exploring Cromwell in his height of power but as a consequence facing a height of political enemies. It is by far the longest of the Wolf Hall trilogy as Mantel forces the rest of Cromwell’s story into one book, ‘Bring

up the Bodies’ only concluding with the death of Anne Boleyn. Hence, I had to put in significant effort to read all 38 hours of the audiobook before my hold expired.

In the nature of Cromwell’s history, much of the book continues to just document courtly affairs and the constant search for Henry VII’s next wife, many long periods of conversation getting very repetitive and uninspiring. Aside from chronicling courtly affairs, Mantel also included a multitude of flashbacks to previous courtly affairs of the last two books that really added nothing other than dragging out the book further. Ultimately, due to the set up of the previous two books and the repetitive nature of the series there was hardly any character development across 900 pages worth of prose and due to knowledge of the history not much plot intrigue.

That comes across as really scathing but in reality ‘The Mirror and the Light’ was no weaker than the other two books in the series aside from the fact I have therefore read it all before. I can however credit Mantel for her historical efficiency in covering all the courtly events of Cromwell’s life, from having studied the man before I can’t think of any stone she left unturned. Also, despite knowing Cromwell’s inevitable fate and hence the trilogy’s conclusion, having spent so long with him it was still a challenging and emotionally impacting conclusion which was evidently written so much more powerfully than many mundane scenes across the series. That being said, I still stand by my comments regarding ‘Bring up the Bodies’ that it isn’t worth reading past ‘Wolf Hall’ as much of the rest is the exact same, though the conclusion was a highlight of the series, hence my parallel rating to ‘Wolf Hall’.

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ed_moore's reviews 224 reviews

ed_moore's reviews
224 reviews