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40x40

Sjon recommended Fish Can Sing in Books (curated)

 
Fish Can Sing
Fish Can Sing
Halldor Laxness | 2001 | Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Set in Reykjavík at the turn of the 20th century this novel has a Chaplin-esque quality in its celebration of how the good values of society are to be found among those clinging to its lowest rung. Álfgrímur is an orphan living with an old couple who have opened their small farm to the misfits and the meek. A nearby graveyard becomes the boy’s playground, and it is there he is discovered to have “the pure tone” while singing at funerals of the lost and lonesome. From their gravesides he goes into the world to become a singer. It is my favorite book by Laxness, not least because it is his attempt to understand why someone like himself, born in a town of 10,000 people, found the right melody to transform the stories of a small world into world literature."

Source
  
40x40

Acanthea Grimscythe (300 KP) rated Boom Town in Books

May 15, 2018  
Boom Town
Boom Town
Glenn Rolfe | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror
4
6.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
For whatever reason, I found myself struggling to get into Boom Town, a short novella by Glenn Rolfe. While it bears no shortage of horror elements, I simply didn’t find it as engrossing as Becoming. That could be due to lack of character development.

The only characters we truly get to know this time around are Kim, Brady, and their immediate family. There’s no real attempt to establish their home town outside of the flea market, and aside from the main villain, Alan, the focus on the alien-like creature invading the small town is minimal.

I wanted really badly to like this novella, but the plot progression felt a little too slow; it seemed like things were hung up on a budding romance between Brady and Kim which, at the stories conclusion was for a reason and did have its intended impact, but was something that I, as a reader, could have done with out. Over all, this is not one of my favorites of Rolfe’s work and I would not consider recommending it to other readers unless they specifically ask for something with aliens and earthquakes.