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Alan Bray
- Dec 9, 2021
- 4 min
There Are No Coincidences
– Don Juan, in Carlos Castenada’s The Teachings of Don Juan No coincidence, no story - an ancient Chinese saying. Two mutually exclusive...
Alan Bray
- Dec 2, 2021
- 5 min
Magic Theater
Last week, we talked about how the first section of Steppenwolf—after the preface—describes Harry Haller’s painful existence. He is glum,...
Alan Bray
- Nov 25, 2021
- 4 min
Rage Against the Machine
Harry Haller’s purported journal begins with a description of his day—written in past tense, something we must return to later. He is, to...
Alan Bray
- Nov 18, 2021
- 4 min
Get Your Motor Running
This week, a new book, Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf, first published in 1927. I am using a Picador edition published in 1963 which...
Alan Bray
- Nov 11, 2021
- 5 min
Walkin' the Dog
An important idea is that reading a story changes the reader, that being with a story—and we should say, the implied author of the...
Alan Bray
- Nov 4, 2021
- 3 min
Time And The Hour Runs Through The Darkest Day
Last time, we were musing about what connects the sections in Casting Shadows, that there seems to be a pattern of the narrator...
Alan Bray
- Oct 28, 2021
- 5 min
Casting Shadows
This week, a new story, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Casting Shadows, a short story or novel excerpt, published in the February 15th 2021 issue of The...
Alan Bray
- Oct 21, 2021
- 4 min
Search For The Author - Implicated
This week, as we wrap up our reading of Three Horses, a little background on the concept of the implied author. (Whiny voice: Are you...
Alan Bray
- Oct 14, 2021
- 4 min
You Can Count On Me
The narration in Three Horses is written in first person. After all, the very first word is “I,” as in “I only read used books.” Is this...
Alan Bray
- Oct 7, 2021
- 5 min
Selim
Besides Laila, the other key character in Three Horses is Selim, a man whom the narrator befriends and helps, acts of kindness which have...
Alan Bray
- Sep 30, 2021
- 4 min
Ms. Sandman, Play Me A Tune
Usually, in this blog, I don’t want to merely describe the plots of the books I discuss in the manner of a book review. My purpose is to...
Alan Bray
- Sep 23, 2021
- 5 min
Steam Powered Love
As mentioned last week, Erri De Luca, the author of Three Horses, states he can only write about things he’s experienced, placing himself...
Alan Bray
- Sep 16, 2021
- 4 min
Three Horses
This week, a new novel, Erri De Luca’s 1999 book Three Horses, translated from Italian to English by Michael Moore in 2005. I first read...
Alan Bray
- Sep 9, 2021
- 4 min
I'm Hiding
The Sea is the story of a troubled man who, after great personal tragedy, returns obsessively to the site of an earlier tragedy and...
Alan Bray
- Sep 2, 2021
- 4 min
Haunt Me
The drowning of Chloe and Myles Grace, is alluded to mysteriously in The Sea’s first line: “They departed, the gods, on the day of the...
Alan Bray
- Aug 26, 2021
- 4 min
To Whom Am I Speaking?
A central question (not the only one) in The Sea is to whom is the narrator, Max, addressing his narration? Max’s narrative has the feel...
Alan Bray
- Aug 19, 2021
- 3 min
A Journey of Surpassing but Inexplicable Importance
The premise of The Sea is that, after the death of his wife, a man is grieving, trying to go on but struggling, not only with the loss,...
Alan Bray
- Aug 12, 2021
- 4 min
The Sea
This week, a new novel: John Banville’s The Sea, published in 2005 and the winner of that year’s Man Booker Prize. It begins: “They...
Alan Bray
- Aug 5, 2021
- 4 min
Synergy
One of the ways Olive K. is novel-like is the development throughout the book of the main character, Olive Kitteridge. The first chapter,...
Alan Bray
- Jul 29, 2021
- 4 min
Where or When?
Is Olive K. a dis-continuous narrative in the manner of such modernist works as Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury? So says the Wikipedia...