literary fiction Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Home For Fiction

literary fiction

Review of Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

September 20, 2019

book, fiction, Gothic, Japan, literary fiction, literature, Murakami, review

As I might have mentioned before, I am a fan of Japanese literature. I’m really drawn to the minimalist, abstract, sometimes absurd and sometimes mundane style of many Japanese authors. Haruki Murakami is such an author, but when I began reading his Killing Commendatore I would never expect that a review of Killing Commendatore would include the tag “Gothic”.

As a typical Murakami book, it’s not quite simple to put it into a prefabricated shape. It’s many things, and yet it isn’t. It has a beginning and an ending, and yet it doesn’t. It’s one of those novels that you’ll either love or hate. The good news is, fans of Haruki Murakami will most definitely love it.

Review of Killing Commendatore — The (Gothic) conflict between natural and unnatural, real and unreal, becomes literally true in *Killing Commendatore*

(more…)

A Poem for the Fall (excerpt from the Self versus Self Project)

August 12, 2019

Fiction

fiction, LGBT, literary fiction, literature, poetry, self versus self, sexuality

I know, I know, it’s still summer. At least in some parts of the world. In the southern hemisphere August is the last month of winter. And in Finland, summer is the time of the year that it can be sizzling hot or snowing. It’s all a mater of perspective. This is what this poem for the fall conveys.

Note: what follows is an excerpt from my Self Versus Self project, that contains a narrative poem and a literary-fiction novel. It’s not available for sale, but see the bottom of this post for info on how to download it for free.

Fall can be a time of melancholy; or elation. It’s all a matter of perspective. This is what this poem for the fall attempts to convey

(more…)

Review of Rachel Cusk’s Outline

July 21, 2019

Book Review, Criticism

book, fiction, Greece, literary fiction, literature, Rachel Cusk, review

This post features another book review, and yet it’s so much more than a review. Writing this review of Rachel Cusk’s Outline is a fantastic opportunity for me to talk about literary fiction. What it should be and what it doesn’t care about.

Often on this blog I talk about over-explaining in fiction, or about realistic characters versus insignificant plots. Rachel Cusk’s Outline is one of the best examples of what high-quality (literary) fiction ought to be.

Outline is not perfect (we’ll talk about its flaws in a while), but as an example it’s near-flawless. In other words, it’s great teaching material.

(more…)