Jay leaves college, determined to become a writer, and heads to Paris. There he meets a young model, Katerina, and falls in love. Twenty-five years later, Jay is a writer--famous and rich--but he's lost his way. Then he receives a message from a lost love. The message draws him back to memories of his old life and his old loves.
Years ago, James Frey dazzled me with A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard. I loved those books so much, and while I was aware of some of the controversy surrounding Pieces, I don't think I fully grasped it. Katerina is a strange book--a memoir type story hidden as a novel that loosely covers Frey's life, including the time he wrote a novel that was sort of a memoir. Following? Confused? Me too.
I thought Katerina was a book, fiction, but it's really Frey's retelling of his life, trying to cast himself as a sympathetic character (I think? Jay doesn't exactly come across as all that likeable.). It did intrigue me enough to read up more on the past controversies of his life and truly, the end result was that I didn't care for Katerina all that much, and I felt disillusioned about Pieces, a book I really enjoyed. Sigh.
Katerina uses the same stream of consciousness writing style from Pieces, and if you don't want your writing filled with profanity and sex, I wouldn't go near Katerina with a ten-foot pole. There's drinking--so much drinking here--that it physically pained me at times. It's an emotional read--Frey excels at that--and there are some twists. I won't lie, I found it interesting at times, and narcissistic and boring at others. Jay is hard to like in the past and present (the book splits it time between the two), but I do not think Frey cares, and it covers Frey's scandals lightly disguised as Jay's.
It's a beautiful love letter to Paris; the descriptions of the city are wonderful. There's no real characterization of Jay's beloved Katerina (the person), though, and many descriptions are just repetitive. The ending comes up quickly, as well.
Overall, while I found pieces of this novel engaging, I was disappointed overall. Honestly, I'll probably never be able to capture the magic I found in Frey's early works. 2.5 stars.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) in Movies
Feb 13, 2018 (Updated Feb 13, 2018)
Old enemy from the TV show is rediscovered, vows revenge on Kirk; many rousing space battles and well-handled character moments ensue. Ricardo Montalban really goes for it as Khan; William Shatner gives a proper movie leading man performance. Relatively low budget is artfully concealed.
Benefits considerably from being willing to acknowledge that everyone has aged since the original TV show; Kirk has to confront the consequences of choices he made as a young man (later movies disregarded the fact the crew were becoming increasingly geriatric). The essential Trek philosophy of optimistic liberal humanism somehow gets a bit lost along the way, but you really don't care as the rest of it is so much fun. Almost unreasonably well-written when you consider the script was done in less than a fortnight.
ClareR (5716 KP) rated My Sister, the Serial Killer in Books
Dec 21, 2018
Korede feels a responsibility for her younger sister - something which seems odd to do given the circumstances, but is explained later in the book.
Korede is quite a sad character, really. Ayoola is the beautiful sister, she is not. Yet she still protects her and keeps her safe, stops her from posting on Instagram after her boyfriend goes 'missing'. Ayoola certainly has issues - she has no problem with the murders she commits, no guilt. She gets on with her life, on to the next man, and Korede is left to clean up and worry. The eternal problem of the older sister (usually minus the murders, mind you!).
I really enjoyed this, and it seemed to end very quickly. It's well worth reading.
The Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh: Personal Writings 1903-1921: Precocious Waughs: Volume 30
Evelyn Waugh, Alexander Waugh and Alan Bell
Book
This volume is part of the Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh critical edition, which brings together...
The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women
Book
America's greatest living crime writer gives us a raw, brutally candid memoir-as high intensity and...
Saturday
Book
Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man - a successful neurosurgeon, the...
Owain Glyndwr: The Story of the Last Prince of Wales
Book
If it had not been for Owain Glyndwr's 15-year struggle against overwhelming odds, the Welsh would...
Kim Pook (101 KP) rated Searching (2018) in Movies
Sep 20, 2020
At the beginning we see a montage of clips and photos from the Kim family's life where we learn that the mum (pam) passes away from cancer. Fast forward a few years later and Margot - pam and David's daughter- is all grown up and everything seems to be going fine, that is until Margot goes missing.
David starts frantically searching on social media only to discover he didn't know Margot as much as he thought he did, and finds out some unusual information about her.
For a one time watch I did enjoy this movie, it shows how things can develop online from parent blaming to people pretending to be the missing persons friend, and writing 'heartfelt' messages. It also shows the hidden dangers of the online community such as how easy it is to obtain information. It was very gripping and kept me glued right to the twist at the end which I was not at expecting.
The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade
Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello and John Romita JR (art)
7.0
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Book
Frank Miller, along with co-writer Brian Azarrello and artist John Romita Jr., revisit the gritty...
Batman
Consumed by Fire (Fire, #1)
6.0
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Book
Evangeline Morrissey remembers the last time she saw her husband: it was during their honeymoon,...
romantic suspense romance