Author Archives
-
Analysis of Yaşar Kemal’s Memed My Hawk
Memed, My Hawk, which first appeared in Turkish with the original title Ince Memed, is considered one of the most significant novels in Turkish literature. An immediate international success, the novel by Yaşar Kemal’s (1923–2015) has been translated into as… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari
Published in the African Writers Series by Heinemann, Matigari is a deeply felt call to workers, peasants, and students to rise up against what the Kenyan-born author Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1938– ) refers to as “imperialism.” In keeping with the… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Jacques Roumain’s Masters of the Dew
Originally titled Gouverneurs de la rosée and published four months after the death of its author, the Haitian writer Jacques Roumain (1907–44), Masters of the Dew has remained a timeless and lyrical novel of human suffering, loss, and redemption. When… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita
The Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) wrote The Master and Margarita (Master i Margarita) between 1928 and early 1940 in a time when the official ideology of the Soviet state was based on militant atheism and obligatory historical optimism. In… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Fumiko Enchi’s Masks
Masks by the Japanese writer Fumiko Enchi (1905–86) tells the story of two rivals who pursue a young widow and of the inscrutable relationship between the widow and her mother-in-law, a woman of many secrets who holds her own malevolent… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Julio Cortázar’s A Manual for Manuel
A Manual for Manuel has the distinction of being the most overtly political novel by Argentine author Julio Cortázar (1914–84); it would also be his last novel published in his lifetime. The book is Cortázar’s attempt, as he explains in… Read More ›
-
Analysis of André Malraux’s Man’s Hope
Man’s Hope by the French writer André Malraux (1901–76) was first serialized in the communist daily Ce Soir from November 3 to December 7, 1937. The novel was then published in book form at the end of 1937. Owing to… Read More ›
-
Analysis of André Malraux’s Man’s Fate
Winner of the Goncourt prize in 1933, the most prestigious French literary award, Man’s Fate by André Malraux (1901–76) is part of an intriguing trilogy, including The Conquerors (1928) and The Royal Way (1930). Similar to these two earlier works,… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Javier Marías’s The Man of Feeling
In “Something Unfulfilled,” an epilogue to The Man of Feeling, Javier Marías (1951–2022) compares the writing of fiction to a love’s invention, “discovering or stumbling upon something” where but an image existed before, “its first throb” (Nabokov’s phrase, appropriated by… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Mandarins
In the middle of the 20th century Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) published The Mandarins, a novel that won the Prix Goncourt, France’s highest literary honor. In The Mandarins Beauvoir reveals the social and political sentiments of a particular group of… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Darcy Ribeiro’s Maíra
Maíra was the first novel by the Brazilian intellectual Darcy Ribeiro (1922–97), followed by three significant works: Mule (O mulo, 1981), Savage Utopia (Utopia Selvagem, 1982), and My-Self (Migo, 1988). Maíra was translated into English in 1984. Although Ribeiro was… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Georges Simenon’s Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett
Although Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett is the first novel written by Georges Simenon (1903–89) in the highly popular detective Maigret series, most of the hallmarks of the series as a whole are apparent in this work. The tall, burly,… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain
Considered a landmark in world literature, The Magic Mountain by the highly respected German novelist Thomas Mann (1875–1955) reveals the conflicting political and cultural trends that divided families and nations throughout Europe in the early 20th century. Set on a… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Marguerite Duras’s The Lover
The novelistic memoir The Lover by Marguerite Duras (1914–96) is a modernist story of sexual coming of age in French colonial Vietnam. It is also a portrait of the young author. It is the most accessible and by far the… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
The Russian-born novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) wrote Lolita, his 12th published novel, between 1948 and 1953. Lolita is a reworking of an earlier version of the story The Enchanter (Volshebnik), written in 1939 in Paris. Writing the text on index… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Günter Grass’s Local Anaesthetic
Eberhard Starusch has a number of problems: His teeth hurt, his dentist constantly quotes Seneca, and one of his students is trying to devise a dramatic protest against the Vietnam War. In this 1969 allegorical novel by the renowned German… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince
This last novel by the popular French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–44) is ostensibly a children’s book, set in the author’s familiar and cherished landscape of the Sahara of northern Africa. Although the central character is a pilot, this tale… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Cho Se-hui’s The Dwarf
A Little Ball Launched by a Dwarf, by Korean author Cho Se-hui (1942–2022) is a collection of 12 sequential stories, including such diverse titles as “Knifeblade,” “Moebius Strip,” “A Little Ball Launched by a Dwarf,” “Spaceship,” “On the Footbridge,” “The… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate
Mexican writer Laura Esquivel (1950– ) wrote Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies as an extraordinary tale of the unique relationship between the magic of love and the sensuality of food…. Read More ›
-
Analysis of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s The Leopard
A historical novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896–1957), The Leopard was one of the most successful literary works of 20th-century European literature. The plot is straightforward: In 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi and his forces have landed in Marsala (Sicily) to… Read More ›
You must be logged in to post a comment.