I like the title "Memories of a Marriage," I like how succinct and direct it is. But this book was anything but that. I found this self-satisfied narrator to be odiously petty, judgmental and scheming; and I pretty much felt sorry for the slandered victim whose faulty marriage he investigates. ...
Most of the story is set in Harvard, but it’s less about college life than it is about the search of identity and life-long friendship. Early in the 1950s the three protagonists first meet when they move into the same suite of the college dormitory. Sam Standish – the narrator – is the son of an ...
“Quem sofre busca comunicar seu sofrimento – seja maltratando, seja provocando a piedade – a fim de diminuí-lo, e assim realmente o diminui. Aquele que está completamente por baixo, que ninguém lamenta, que não tem o poder de maltratar ninguém (se não tem filho ou criatura que o ame), seu sofrime...
"Relatively soon, I will die. Maybe in 20 years, maybe tomorrow, it doesn't matter. Once I am dead and everyone who knew me dies too, it will be as though I never existed. What difference has my life made to anyone. None that I can think of. None at all." Begley was born Ludwik Begleiter in a re...
The Man Who Was Late is an early novel by the lawyer-novelist Louis Begley. It's a story recounted through the memories, observations and conclusions of a lawyer named Jack, a New York sophisticate much like Begley, about his friend, a banker and fellow Harvard grad, named Ben.Ben is the man who ...
”She wore the smallest of bikinis. Strings around her waist and between her legs that held in place a triangle of red cloth. Two smaller triangles of the same cloth attached to strings covered her nipples. Unbroken, luxurious tan; a salacious invitation to dream of the hours she spent lying in th...
Intriguing mix of characters in this one, and it took me a while to get into it, but eventually won me over. Max is an art queen who's hugely jaded, and the opening scene reminded me in a bad way of all those insufferable rich Manhattanites that Woody Allen is so fond of. Stick with it, as the st...
The uneasiness her narration had caused me had dissipated, but for a variety of reasons, including my desire to avoid late evenings and excessive consumption of alcohol, I stuck to my resolution to decline invitations to drinks or to dinner at her place. Occasionally, we took advantage of the fin...
He did, however, find one from Charlotte, recorded in the afternoon, and a note on the kitchen table from Carrie, beside a vase full of white and pink peonies from his garden, saying Welcome, Schmidtie, we have news for you. It was a few minutes past midnight, much too late to call Charlotte. The...
For all that the world could see, his comings and goings were meticulously planned and executed; he could be counted on to leave and arrive unfailingly, and precisely at the appointed hour—whatever his destination. But he knew better. Having studied to death his own version of the universal timet...