I was less than impressed with this book. It was written in 2011 in the style of Dickens (working conditions of the poor) and Hardy (pastoral love stories with some grit thrown in), but ultimately it felt to me as if it was just too forced and intentional.First, everything was just too contrived...
I have just finished reading The Songs of the Kings by Booker Prize winner, Barry Unsworth. This is an eloquent and powerfully written novel that is quite thought-provoking on several levels. The novel was published in 2003, and I have to wonder if there was an external motivation behind Unswor...
This is an odd and rather pleasant little book, the account of a springtime visit to Crete around 1993. As I was reading it, I could not shake the feeling that it was written forty or fifty years ago, probably because the black and white photographs looked as if they dated from the 1950s. Barry a...
Well.....I found it slow to read, though quite a slim book. I think I liked it better once I’d finished it than while I was reading it, if that makes any sense. Once I had the whole concept in view, I found it really quite interesting, but the execution was not so compelling as perhaps it shoul...
LOSING NELSON. (1999). Barry Unsworth. ****.Charles Cleasby is a dedicated student of Lord Horatio Nelson. It is not only his hobby, it is what provides meaning to his life. He owns all of the pertinent biographies – in English – about this great man, and books dealing the events of the era....
The Stone Virgin is set in Venice in 3 different periods in time, the 1400s, the 1700s and in present day. The story opens in the 15th century with the artist facing his accusers on a murder charge but most of the novel is set present day where Simon Raikes is restoring a statue of a Madonna, a V...
The Black Death gripped Europe in the years 1348-1350, wiping out nearly half the population in cities and frequently every man, woman and child in villages and towns. People could be healthy in the morning, feverish at noon, covered in boils, spitting blood and writhing in agony in the evening ...
Once again, Unsworth delivers a wonderful synopsis of Western optimism, artsy idealism, against the backdrop of Italian government by examining the mostly American and English expatriots situated along a small road in Umbria. Each inhabitant is perfectly drawn, from the rude, bottom-line banker w...
The light was fading when he arrived at the river, but a deep stain of sunset still lingered in the sky. The hot, dry weather had continued; the air was grained with dust, giving a spreading splendor to the sunsets during these days. The crowd by the water was jostling and noisy, with people thro...
Thurso had returned from his visit to the Edgar in late afternoon, in much improved mood, having learned from Captain Macdonald that trade was brisk further east along the coast and especially in the vicinity of the Ravalli River. Thurso was intending to do some business on his own account—busine...
One can spend many days here, closely similar but never quite the same, in a sort of ruminative pottering. It is almost a shock to emerge from the town with its cafés and gift shops and kiosks with foreign newspapers, and find the unyielding Cretan landscape awaiting you. Two hours by road—and a ...