Bookbot

Marian Lameris

    Charades
    The known world
    Les corrections
    A Border Passage
    Possession : a romance
    The Seventh Samurai
    • The known world

      • 400pages
      • 14 heures de lecture

      An epic narrative that takes a look at slavery in all of its moral complexities.

      The known world2005
      3,9
    • Les corrections

      • 694pages
      • 25 heures de lecture

      La famille Lambert est une famille comme les autres, c'est-à-dire unique. Contradictoire, en guerre perpétuelle, dévorée par sa propre histoire, par ses conflits passés et à venir, ses silences. Derrière les visages, les cerveaux abritent des choses que, désespérément, on tente de cacher : Alfred, le père, derrière un caractère de fer dissimule l'impossibilité d'exprimer ses sentiments, tout comme ses désirs les plus profonds. Enid, sa femme, derrière sa soif inextinguible de moralité, tente d'affirmer sa personnalitém - et sa libération. Gary, le banquier, le fils modèle est dévoré par la certitude paranoïaque du mensonge et de la trahison, du besoin de richesse. Chip, l'intellectuel, à la poursuite d'une gloire littéraire et de ses contradictions politiques, et Denise, en quête d'un amour véritable et de cette liberté qui la révélera à elle-même, complètent le tableau. Au travers d'une histoire aux multiples rebondissements, haletante, tout ce petit monde va s'aimer, se déchirer et tenter d'approcher de la vérité : quel visage pour l'Amérique ? Et quelle place pour les vivants en quête de bonheur, parmi les multiples névroses que ce monde s'efforce d'engendrer ?

      Les corrections2003
      3,9
    • The Seal Wife

      • 240pages
      • 9 heures de lecture

      A scientist in Alaska becomes fascinated by an Aleut woman's muteness, and her disappearance ignites his desperation. This novel intertwines myth and a gripping tale of erotic compulsion, set against the haunting backdrop of the Great North.

      The Seal Wife2003
      3,3
    • In the Forest

      • 272pages
      • 10 heures de lecture

      Michael O'Kane's problems go beyond early loss and abuse--the killing instinct is already kindled in him as he earns the title of Kinderschreck: someone of whom children are afraid.

      In the Forest2002
      3,4
    • Een brandbaar huwelijk

      • 435pages
      • 16 heures de lecture

      As Quentin Crisp used to say, "Don't keep up with the Joneses! <i>Drag them down to your level!</i>" This could be the motto of the suburbanites in A.M. Homes's fourth novel, <i>Music for Torching</i>. Homes has a subtle eye and ear for suburban reality, but beware: she is no mere satirist of what James Joyce called the "muddle crass." Behind each neat, bright lawn, vile lives writhe in darkness. On the surface, Paul and Elaine are conventionally competitive middle-aged, middle-class people with banal yearnings for French doors and a new deck. They have two strapping boys. Their neighbors Pat and George are prodigies of efficient family life. But alone with Elaine, Pat drops the Stepford Wife mask and stages loveless orgies atop the throbbing washer, amid the Downy and Fantastik and Bon Ami. Meanwhile, Paul beds a local wife and a sinister mistress. The nice old man down the street downloads Internet child porn. Local kids join the Boy Scouts and bite off teachers' fingers. It's all about lurid misery and false fronts: a minor character is named Claire Roth, surely alluding to the bitter relationship in Claire Bloom's <i>Leaving a Doll's House</i> and Philip Roth's <i>I Married a Communist</i>. <p> Paul and Elaine first popped up in Homes's collection <i>The Safety of Objects</i>, as a couple having the happiest night of their lives smoking crack while the kids are away. Their happiest night here is when they tip the barbecue and burn their house halfway down. The story proceeds with a nightmare zombie logic from there, with a funny-scary ironic tone. "Paul notices that the color of her eye shadow is Fiction, and her lipstick is called Sheer Fraud.... 'What happened to the dining-room table, Elaine? Why'd you chop it to pieces?'" he wonders. "The damage was irreparable," his wife replies. Homes describes nice people doing not-so-nice deeds in luminous, precise prose way better than Bret Easton Ellis, as well as Joyce Carol Oates, and occasionally within range of John Updike. But Homes is really the evil spawn of Grace Metalious and Quentin Tarantino. <i>--Tim Appelo</i></p>

      Een brandbaar huwelijk2000
    • A Border Passage

      From Cairo to America – A Woman's Journey. Readers Guide Inside

      • 307pages
      • 11 heures de lecture

      An Egyptian woman's reflections on her changing homeland—updated with an afterword on the Arab SpringIn language that vividly evokes the lush summers of Cairo and the stark beauty of the Arabian desert, Leila Ahmed movingly recounts her Egyptian childhood growing up in a rich tradition of Islamic women and describes how she eventually came to terms with her identity as a feminist living in America. As a young woman in Cairo in the forties and fifties, Ahmed witnessed some of the major transformations of this century—the end of British colonialism, the rise of Arab nationalism, and the breakdown of Egypt's once multireligious society. As today's Egypt continues to undergo revolutionary change, Ahmed's inspirational story remains as poignant and relevant as ever.

      A Border Passage1999
      3,9
    • Winner of the 1990 Booker Prize, this novel describes the romance between two 19th century poets and the parallel relationship of their two biographers and includes passages of 'Victorian verse'

      Possession : a romance1994
      3,9
    • Sam

      Een moeder over haar autistische kind

      • 238pages
      • 9 heures de lecture

      Persoonlijk verslag van een moeder over de relatie met haar autistische zoon; over de veranderingen in haarzelf en in haar zoon, met betrekking tot elkaar en de buitenwereld.

      Sam1993
    • Charades

      • 301pages
      • 11 heures de lecture

      This stunning and intoxicating novel speaks of passion and obsession, ranging in setting from an Australian rainforest to Boston and Toronto. A mysterious and elusive love affair haunts the lives of three women in Australia. Twenty years later, on the other side of the world, Charade Ryan sorts through story and counter-story for her father, the legendary Nicholas, and the truth about her origins.

      Charades1991
      2,6
    • Bij de rivier

      • 350pages
      • 13 heures de lecture

      Na de dood van haar moeder wordt een veertienjarig Iers meisje in toenemende mate door haar vader seksueel misbruikt, waardoor ze in verwachting raakt en wegloopt van huis.

      Bij de rivier1900
    • Ludo&#39;s mother, Sibylla, is obsessed with Kurosawa&#39;s famous film, &#34;The Seven Samurai&#34; and it plays as a bizarre running backdrop to his childhood. His search for his real father ends in disappointment but he does find out more than he needs about his mother&#39;s shaky past.

      The Seventh Samurai1900
      4,1