Marisha Pessl’s new book Night Film revolves around the mysterious, untimely death of Ashley Cordova, the piano-prodigy daughter of a reclusive cult-followed Lynch/Kubrick/Polanski-type film director, Stanislas Cordova. Although at a surface level it might seem to trot out the “Female Relative of a Male Professional” trope that an astonishing amount of novels deploy, the frictions […]
“Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere” is one of those book titles pushed so close to ridiculousness that it is almost worth it to read it on account of the name alone. That way, you can boast to your friends that lately you’ve read, “Hamlet,” “Jane Eyre,” and “Love and Terror on […]
It’s summer, so you actually can Finish It! Intimidation factors: You will come in with expectations too high. You are afraid of jealousy induced travel writing. You are over Dave Eggers–he was “so early 2000s.” (Elitist much?) Nothing. This summer provides an opportunity to kick back and read what you want to read, instead of […]
Finish It – Fight Club (book + movie) by Chuck Palahniuk, film by David Fincher starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton. Attention Spring Breakers: Here is the best way you can spend your time if you aren’t traveling. Read the book “Fight Club,” and watch the movie “Fight Club.” The book is just over 200 […]
Logicomix: an epic search for truth By Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou Art by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna 352 pages Logicomix is a graphic novel which combines fiction and non-fiction elements to depict logician and philosopher Bertrand Russell’s struggle to discover the rigorous logical underpinnings of everything, especially mathematics. “A dramatic story […]
Point Omega by Don DeLillo 117 pages Here at Finish It, we introduced you to Don DeLillo’s 832-page “Underworld.” With that under your belt, it’s time for a fun-size Finish It – this time DeLillo’s “Point Omega,” at a blink-of-an-eye 117 page clip. In short? It’s about a secret war advisor and a young filmmaker. […]
Intimidation factors: Its chronology bounces around. The narrative is driven mainly by dialogue. You think it’s that vampire movie – it is absolutely NOT that movie. 832 pages “Underworld” is a compelling title for a novel, especially when coupled with the cover’s depiction of the Twin Towers obscured by clouds and a flying bird angled […]
Intimidation factors: 672 pages It is a translation The bulk of the story is non-linear Speaks conversationally about Latin American writers you’ve never heard of More than 50 different voices give varying perspectives The Savage Detectives is ostensibly about a group of avant-garde poets in Mexico City in the 1970s, calling themselves the Visceral Realists […]
The plot of Illuminatus! is difficult to describe, but I’ll try. The offices of a magazine are bombed, supposedly by a militant conservative group of some sort. The editor of the magazine has disappeared without a trace. Detectives assigned to the case discover that the cause is actually much more confusing than they originally supposed. […]
As winter approaches, there is a four-letter word that comes to the mind of many. Cold. Winter comes bearing gifts of relaxation, snow-capped mountains, and a break from the school load. But, it also brings the type of chilling weather that exiles one indoors. These types of days are those in which sleet defaces the […]