Smashbomb

"When I got into documentaries in the mid-eighties, I discovered how you could not just observe but also sculpt reality. This is when I fell in love with the Czech New Wave. So Forman, Passer, Nemec. My favorite film from that era is probably Loves of a Blonde, which looks at the world without an agenda, rhetoric, or plot mechanics, but with lots of empathy and irony. It shows that if you have a good sense of casting and know where to put the camera and when not to cut, the most ordinary things can be lifted into something poetic and timeless."

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Kudos

The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated The White City in Books

Oct 5, 2020

Sweden's bestselling author Karolina Ramqvist brings us a story touted as a powerful novel of "betrayal and empowerment." This short but complex study centers around how one woman, alone and lonely, is forced to grab at anything she can that might pull her out of abject despair after her criminal boyfriend abandons her with a newborn baby, with no money or prospects and the looming loss of her home. You can read what I thought of Ramqvist's latest novel, "The White City," in my review here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2017/05/20/harsh-reality-with-a-sweet-dream/

Kudos

The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated The Kitchen Daughter in Books

Oct 7, 2020

It isn't often that I say "I couldn't put this one down" but its the truth about this one! The author grabs the reader at the very start, with her main character Ginny. And while the "magic realism" part could have been too much, it is tempered nicely with the reality that Ginny is trying to cope with. That, together with the recipes that Ginny cooks up (which bring on the ghosts) would make one think Joanne Harris meets Mark Haddon. You can read my full review here https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2013/07/25/comfort-foods-and-curious-phenomena/