Lee Hunts

American Pastoral: Book Review "At once expansive and painstakingly detailed.... The pages of American Pastoral crackle with the electricity and zest of a first-rate mind at work." —San Francisco Chronicle I just finished reading American Pastoral, a novel written by Phillip Roth. This book is a literary fiction novel about a man (the Swede) who represents the American Ideal: he was the star athlete in high school, he went on to marry the Miss New Jersey he met in college, and he inherited his father's glove making industry. And this book depicts this man's destruction when his daughter is ensnared by a radical communist ideology. This book is well-praised and held up as a great work of literature. It even won the Pulitzer Prize. I've only heard of that honor in passing, but apparently it matters. Of course, I absolutely despised this book in almost every respect. In terms of execution, I thought the ideas were horrifically handled and written. From the line level

I just finished reading Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn. I have already read Sharp Objects (and I have a review of that), and I rather enjoyed that book for its atmosphere and its characters, even if the twists at the end were rather predictable. That motivated me to pick up another book by Flynn, and this is the next one on the block. This book is primarily about Libby Day, the sole survivor of a massacre of her whole family by her brother. She was the witness that helped put her brother behind bars. Now, she is pulled back into case twenty-five years later when a member of a true crime club contacts her. What follows is another novel steeped in dark emotions, disturbing sexuality, and violence, complete with a twisty plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat. As usual, for mysteries, I think the story is best consumed with as little information as possible. That the author is Gillian Flynn should be enough of a pitch. As such, I will only be doing a spoiler review. Overall, I loved