Word: novelization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...compiled his collegiate memories, loosely and occasionally associating them with his former music teacher's amazing vocal ability (a connection just as random as it sounds). While Chaudhuri claims the novel attempts to reconcile the English world with the protagonists Indian childhood, the pages read more like an inventory of incidents enveloped in a romantic haze...
...attempt to create art from this cobweb of genealogical entanglements. He jumps from character to character without ever presenting the full picture. This confuses an already befuddled reader who has enough trouble sorting out the foreign names of the members of the families. Unlike the first novel where Chaudhuri acts as a benevolent guide, this story assumes a knowledge of Indian marriage matchmaking rituals and cultural customs that the lay reader simply does not possess...
From the start one expects something impressive: written by a Romanian-born poet, essayist and English professor whose last novel,The Blood Countess,was a national bestseller, Messiah promises to stun the reader. The dust jacket insists that "mordant social commentary and incandescent characters" lie within. A short plot summary instantly intrigues. And so one has every reason to expect a marvel between the covers of Messiah. Unfortunately, one has just as many reasons to be disappointed...
...Jerusalem, a girl who has survived the internment camps of Sarajevo, appears mysteriously at the door of a convent. Quickly taken in by the nuns and the scholars in residence, this girl, Andrea, charms everyone. Her obsession with the show Wheel of Fortune becomes a central theme of the novel. Codrescu's interest focuses on Vanna White, a subject of mass worship who brings meaning to the world by connecting letters into words. References to the game-show throughout the novel bring with them the hope that somehow all the loose ends will eventually be tied...
...convent decide to invent a story about a gathering of history's greatest minds in New Orleans. The unfolding of their story effects the fabric of reality, and the great minds descend on Louisiana, sent there by heaven to pass judgment on the world in what is, perhaps, the novel's weakest link...