Zadie Smith was one of those authors who I’d heard of and completely dismissed because she sounded like another postmodern, over-praised, elitist circler of the prize-winning circuit. This was based on mainly the fact that she was a contemporary writer, and the design of her book covers. I’m a fickle, snobbish reader. Books are where […]
Orwell is fashionable at the moment, particularly for Nineteen Eighty-Four. People are certain that they live in a time when their fundamental rights are in jeopardy, and a small group of elites are tearing down society, brick by brick, to their profit and our loss. While history never makes an exact copy of itself, it […]
Bush is back! In a fun way this time. He’s a painter now — processing his guilt? Expressing his repressed ruling class emotions? Attempting to give back? Bored around the house? Who cares? I didn’t. That’s why I own a copy. I had to have it. It’s an object of pure wonder. Once the most […]
In nearly the same way that Michael Scott marched into his offices and loudly, assuredly, declared bankruptcy, so too did European colonists trot off to lands across deserts and seas, rifles in hand and a fascinating diversity of hats on head, plant a proud flag, and declare sovereignty; and so too do the “yumans”, upon […]
I am unqualified to take on a formal review of this book. Three years of philosophy papers, three years ago, is the sharpest tool I have on me as I approach this work. My memory has grown dim through the years. I no longer see as clearly as I once did the intricately woven cords […]
I am drawn to love stories easily, like a moth to a porch light — I’m a romantic at heart. But I soon grow sick of them, because as well as being a romantic, I’m a pragmatist and a Kiwi. So first I think, aww… and then I think, yes, well, all right then, no […]
A blue-black baby is born to a mother who’s so scared of her she almost wants to smother her then and there. But she doesn’t, instead she raises her, alone, and makes sure that she’s disciplined, that she’s well-behaved, and knows the way the world works. To ensure, the mother thinks, that she’ll be as […]
Do you remember a few weeks ago, when J. K. Rowling had a good laugh at the thought of Piers Morgan being told to fuck off on live television? She tweeted as such with gleeful irreverence, at the unique pleasure the universe had granted her without any warning at all. This event is the excuse […]
Forgive me, nerds! I know this is a cliché. I am painfully aware that this book is the lady-authored equivalent of Catcher in the Rye — a great book often let down through loud, obnoxious promotion by hipsters, teachers, and Buzzfeed lists. I also know that the synopsis sounds like a real bummer. Because it […]
