Tag Archive

Review of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Published on November 6, 2012 By kmooney

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes is a slim novel of memory, mis-memory, and self-perception.

The rest of Part Three of Gravity’s Rainbow

Published on October 17, 2012 By kmooney

Where was I? Oh, yes, to Margherita, other children look like Bianca. Margherita is also Greta, and has played the role of Gretel. Captain Blicero moves through his own space. Greta once heard talk about “F-Gerat.” There is a seance with curtains of Imoplex G, the fabric of the future.
Slothrop falls off the boat [...]

Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Part of Part Three

Published on October 9, 2012 By kmooney

Part Three of Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a bit long, so here are the first fifteen or so sections. Things get a little confusing for a while, but still there is an atmosphere of a comical espionage story.
Slothrop is now in the Zone, home of the rockets. Enzian is introduced as the head of Schwarzkommando [...]

Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes Review

Published on September 18, 2012 By kmooney

Tim’s Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes is a history of the CIA as seen from a moral perspective. This is problematic as spying is not an ethical, or even legal, business; spies who are caught often face the death penalty for treason. As a result, it is probably no surprise that the CIA and its men fall short in Weiner’s estimation.

Don DeLillo’s Pafko at the Wall Review

Published on September 4, 2012 By kmooney

Don DeLillo has always been a big gap in my reading. For whatever reason, there was always something I wanted to read more whenever DeLillo’s name passed in front of me. But it was time I got to know something about the man and so I decided to start small with Pafko at the Wall, [...]

Hunter S. Thompson’s The Great Shark Hunt

Published on August 23, 2012 By kmooney

Great stories happen to those who know how to tell them. This sums up my respect for Hunter S. Thompson. I read his books in junior high and went slack-jawed at his gonzo lifestyle. He felt like the patron saint of breaking out from the bureaucratic, life killing nonsense, infested with an anger over what [...]

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

Published on August 21, 2012 By kmooney

The Middlesteins is the story of a Jewish family living in the suburbs of the mid-west. It centers around Edie, a grandmother whose habit of finding comfort in food has led to a weight problem that affects her entire family. There are points of humor, but for the most part it is a touching portrait [...]

Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Published on August 7, 2012 By kmooney

A little while ago I was having coffee with a new friend, the writer of the very entertaining personal-adventure blog Semi-Rad. We were talking about good travel writing, and he mentions Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which happened to be in my bag that day. When talking about personal journeys, self-discovery, [...]

Confederacy of Dunces Analysis

Published on July 17, 2011 By kmooney

John Kennedy Toole’s Confederacy of Dunces does its best to capture the atmosphere of New Orleans through a handful of larger than life zany characters. These characters continually run into each other creating the affect that the city itself consists of only about twenty or so people, each of which has their own quirks and [...]

Amazon sales ranking

Published on July 3, 2011 By kmooney

I mentioned a bit ago that I had put the last book I wrote, THE COMMITTEE, up for sale on Amazon’s Kindle platform to understand what authors’ experiences have been. I was surprised at the ease of the process and, once the book is available, how quickly changes can be made. The experience has given [...]