Good theatre suspends you in reality. Good theatre captures a moment in time that could be now. And The Pillowman does this superbly. This is, indeed,Good theatre suspends you in reality. Good theatre captures a moment in time that could be now. And The Pillowman does this superbly. This is, indeed, a deeply disturbing play, chiefly because it could be real.
It all begins with some dark stories. A writer has written some brutal pieces about child murder and butchery. Someone has read his work and has decided to carry out the deeds within them. The writer, Katurian, has been brought in for questioning. The opening scene is reminiscent of Kafka’s The Trial. The protagonist is being investigated and put on trial for events he has no understanding of. Kafkaesque is a word that is on the tip of the performers tongue all through the scene, but it never is actually spoken despite the blatant allusions: it doesn’t quite need to be said. This effect is later removed as the situation becomes clearer.
What replaces it is a relationship straight out of Of Mice and Men. Katurian has a younger brother, one who is strikingly similar to Lenny. His concept of right and wrong is vague, though pure of heart; he will do anything he is told to do. The two brothers have a darker past, an abusive childhood that has bound them together out of survival and mutual affection. The investigators of the crime are certain it was one, or perhaps both, of them that carried out the killings. The questions begin as does the torture, though central to Katurian’s mind is what’s going to happen to his writing if he is found guilty.
“It isn't about being or not being dead, it's about what you leave behind”
[image]
So the play questions the legacy of writing, and the responsibly of its content. Who is to blame in such a situation? Can the writer be held accountable for someone else’s obsessions and misconceptions over his work? This play may all sound terribly bleak, but running through it is a string of irony and self-reflexive moments. The characters draw attention to their own stupidity and the limitedness from the position in which they operate; thus, tragedy is infused with dark comedy making the play a true enjoyment to watch.
If you get the chance, I highly recommend watching a version of this after reading it.
Merged review:
Good theatre suspends you in reality. Good theatre captures a moment in time that could be now. And The Pillowman does this superbly. This is, indeed, a deeply disturbing play, chiefly because it could be real.
It all begins with some dark stories. A writer has written some brutal pieces about child murder and butchery. Someone has read his work and has decided to carry out the deeds within them. The writer, Katurian, has been brought in for questioning. The opening scene is reminiscent of Kafka’s The Trial. The protagonist is being investigated and put on trial for events he has no understanding of. Kafkaesque is a word that is on the tip of the performers tongue all through the scene, but it never is actually spoken despite the blatant allusions: it doesn’t quite need to be said. This effect is later removed as the situation becomes clearer.
What replaces it is a relationship straight out of Of Mice and Men. Katurian has a younger brother, one who is strikingly similar to Lenny. His concept of right and wrong is vague, though pure of heart; he will do anything he is told to do. The two brothers have a darker past, an abusive childhood that has bound them together out of survival and mutual affection. The investigators of the crime are certain it was one, or perhaps both, of them that carried out the killings. The questions begin as does the torture, though central to Katurian’s mind is what’s going to happen to his writing if he is found guilty.
“It isn't about being or not being dead, it's about what you leave behind”
[image]
So the play questions the legacy of writing, and the responsibly of its content. Who is to blame in such a situation? Can the writer be held accountable for someone else’s obsessions and misconceptions over his work? This play may all sound terribly bleak, but running through it is a string of irony and self-reflexive moments. The characters draw attention to their own stupidity and the limitedness from the position in which they operate; thus, tragedy is infused with dark comedy making the play a true enjoyment to watch.
If you get the chance, I highly recommend watching a version of this after reading it....more
“This was, I would later realise, a planet of things wrapped inside things. Food inside wrappers. Bodies inside clothes. Contempt inside smile
“This was, I would later realise, a planet of things wrapped inside things. Food inside wrappers. Bodies inside clothes. Contempt inside smiles. Everything was hidden away.”
This book made me laugh out loud, and that doesn’t happen very often. I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this good. The plot is a bit of a joke, the characters are all a bit ordinary and boring, but it is the irony and the dry wit that makes it all so brilliant.
Perspective can be an extraordinary humorous thing when the world is viewed through the eyes of an emotionless and uncaring alien. He arrives on earth and takes over the body of a maths professor, Andrew Martin. The alien is unaware of human social rules and basic etiquette and walks around campus completely naked at Cambridge University. He is quickly arrested, taken away, and finds himself having to explain his actions to the authorities. He doesn’t understand the world and is all a bit lost.
Ironically, the family of Andrew begins to prefer the alien to the original version. He is far more interesting and attentive to their needs in his efforts to conform to human social norms. He was sent to Earth to erase a big mathematical discovery that the original Andrew made, to halt the progress of humanity and to restore balance to their development. His mission is to also erase everyone who may also know about Andrew’s discovery, so it remains a permanent secret. However, the alien begins to like his newfound humanity and struggles with his task. He quite likes having a wife and a son and seeks an alternative life, a human life.
“Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you’d be happy to die doing.”
And that’s important advice and the book is full of it. Matt Haig is a self-help author as well as a novelist, and that does shine through the narrative. I feel like his books are always written with the intention of helping people in some way shape or form. This is the first novel I’ve read in several months because my reading time has been taken up by academic books, so I’m glad I chose wisely and had so much fun reading this. I hope you do too.
On another important note about the author and the book, I recently realised he’s a vegan. I didn’t know going into this but came across this quote:
“A cow is an Earth-dwelling animal, a domesticated and multi-purpose ungulate, which humans treat as a one-stop shop for food, liquid refreshment, fertiliser and designer footwear. The humans farm it and cut its throat and then cut it up and package it and refrigerate it and sell it and cook it. By doing this, apparently they have earned the right to change its name to beef, which is the monosyllable furthest away from cow, because the last thing a human wants to think about when eating cow is an actual cow.”
The alien is horrified by the ways in which we treat animals, and how we hide behind this façade of renaming them to make the notion more attractive to us. Things are hidden from the human eye behind wrappers, false names and distance. And this is certainly a great point to take away from this book and to close my book review with.
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This is a beautiful book that combines exquisite illustrations with poetry for the purpose of restoring lost language, that captures our declining natThis is a beautiful book that combines exquisite illustrations with poetry for the purpose of restoring lost language, that captures our declining natural world, and placing it back into our lexicons.
It’s marketed as a children’s book, but this is important for everyone to read and to remember what has been lost. We all need to read these words and to fight for their survival and their usage because it is so important that we don’t lose our natural world and the words used to describe it.
This is strikingly educational; it’s a book we should give to our children and to our adults to help them see the sense of wonder that is outside, and it’s captured perfectly though the power of words and illustrations. Let us not forget these words, let us make an effort to keep them (and the natural world they represent) alive.
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I am so impressed with Dale Vince and his story. I find success stories really inspiring, and this really is quite a remarkable one. Dale Vince went fI am so impressed with Dale Vince and his story. I find success stories really inspiring, and this really is quite a remarkable one. Dale Vince went from living in a van, to the owner and founder of a multi-million-pound green energy company as well as the chairman of a football club.
How did he achieve all this?
He did it through green principles and green politics; he did it by creating a green electricity company and building the foundation for clean and renewable energy in Britain. It started with one windmill, producing a small amount of power, to many windmill farms producing huge amounts and powering massive companies. So, this is a biographical piece that is inspiring and driven by powerful principles that have led to success. And nothing was harmed in the process!
"I reckon being vegan is the biggest single factor, biggest point of interest- even now, years later. It just doesn’t get old."
Dale Vince has done this in a clever way, he used his football club to bring his ideas to the masses. Forest Green Rovers have become a vehicle to create change. Eco-awareness through sport is a fantastic idea. The football club promotes the energy company on their shirts and eat a plant-based diet when they are at the stadium. The club only serves such food and demonstrates the need for change in the behavior of all consumers if we are to tackle the climate crisis (see what I did there!)
"We explain to our fans not just what we are doing but why, and we hope they take something home with them, that they become open to making changes themselves. We don’t preach, don’t tell people what to do – we just do the things we believe in. We lead by example. "
There’s a lot of history here too. A firsthand account of the battle of beanfield that I found quite shocking along with dealings with other industry giants. Behind it all though, there’s a drive to do good and to change the world. A drive to lead by example and to encourage others to act in a way that benefits others and the planet.
This is a great book, informative and knowledgeable, that presents a striking case for the need for green change in energy, transport and food. I was given the book for free by Ecotricity representatives at Vegan Camp Out festival here in the UK, and I am so glad of it. I learnt so much here and I recommend this book highly.
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This is a book that seeks to challenge you. It wants you to consider your food choices and your morals. Can you really love animals if you still eat tThis is a book that seeks to challenge you. It wants you to consider your food choices and your morals. Can you really love animals if you still eat them? This is the question Jeffrey Masson asks.
And it’s an important one because many people call themselves animal lovers but continue to eat them. Is this not morally inconsistent? Masson delves into the emotional lives of animals, highlighting the pain and torment they go through when they are farmed for human consumption. He highlights the unnatural environments, the unnatural behavior patterns they display and how far removed they become from their natural selves.
He focuses on chickens, sheep, cows, ducks, and pigs. He looks at how unhappy they are in farmed conditions, and proposes that we should stop using animals entirely on moral grounds because we enforce on them the most unnatural of lives. He also looks at how they treat each other, how they fight for their young and how they seek to protect members of their same species. He considers their emotional intelligence and considers that perhaps we could learn a thing or two.
“Just imagine how rewarding it could be to contemplate the emotional superiority of an animal when it comes to compassion or love: to think we have something to learn.”
I like this quote in particular because it captures the intrinsic value that comes with non-human animals; it captures that, in many ways, we could learn a thing or two because our values have become so distorted. Overall, this is a great piece of writing.
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The Living Mountain is a short piece of writing that is rich in allegory and meaning; it comes from a dream brought on by anxiety surrounding the AnthThe Living Mountain is a short piece of writing that is rich in allegory and meaning; it comes from a dream brought on by anxiety surrounding the Anthropocene and its connotations: it comes from nervousness about the future in the wake of our attitude towards the natural world.
This takes on the form of a fable, one that highlights exactly what can go wrong if we dominate nature and cultivate too much of her riches and resources; it is a story that is very ecologically aware and one that is cautionary and intelligent: it is a very timely and important piece of writing. I find myself drawn to more and more books like this, books that engage with issues of ecology and the environment.
“How dare you speak of the Mountain as though you were its masters, and it were your plaything, your child. Have you understood nothing of what it has been trying to teach you? Nothing at all?
Amitav Ghosh is becoming one of my favorite writers because of the way he tackles environmental crisis and the way he situates it in a postcolonial space. And this is strikingly important, I have only ever seen a small handful of writers do this. When he talks about the mountain he is talking about nature as an entity, as a living system that we cannot control or should never attempt to do so. When he talks about invaders attempting to take all its resources, he is using the fable as an allegory for colonialism and its impact on the natural world.
Overall, this is a strong short story and I would love to see more of these from him. This would fit perfectly in a collection of them addressing similar themes.
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The beauty of The End of the Affair resides in its ability to capture the multifaceted nature of love in such a marvelous display of tremendous pain aThe beauty of The End of the Affair resides in its ability to capture the multifaceted nature of love in such a marvelous display of tremendous pain and anguish.
Love makes life worth living but it also makes us want to die. Love can drive us into madness or it can make us happy. Love makes us jealous and unreasonable and angry and it can turn us into something we don’t recognize. Love can be possessive and haunting; it can leave us feeling empty and dissatisfied when our needs aren’t met or it can be overwhelming and terrifying if we don’t quite know how to process it or deal with someone else’s love we can’t reciprocate. All this Greene captures in this slender novel. He certainly focuses on the darker side of love.
Human relationships are complex and often tragic especially when they end over banality or a failure to properly communicate needs, wants and desires. So, the writing here takes on a stark introspective nature, exploring the psychology of what it means to live when one’s love has been lost. Moving on from a relationship is difficult, looking at another can feel impossible when one’s heart belongs in the past. Life can feel like an endless sea of grey; it becomes monotonous, tasteless, and expressionless: it feels like an empty void. And then suddenly color returns. Life returns.
For Maurice, the narrator and protagonist embarking on this dark journey into his own psyche, life returns when his lost love reappears in his life and causes him more pain, drama and anguish. But that also comes with hope and a desire to rekindle the past. Without giving the rest of the plot away, what follows is an even more potent exploration of how easily love can turn into hate and how they walk together on a spectrum of sorrow.
This is a special piece of writing; it’s a book that deals with grief and broken hearts, though it does so in a delicate way. It understands that time can cure everything. Life will never quite be the same after a broken heart, everything will feel a little different, but it will make you stronger.
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“There are boundaries in nature. There are rivers, forests, escarpments, ravines and mountain ranges; there are cellulose walls. But these boundari
“There are boundaries in nature. There are rivers, forests, escarpments, ravines and mountain ranges; there are cellulose walls. But these boundaries are in fact areas of transaction, semi-permeable membranes. The notion that a perimeter should be impenetrable is a human contrivance alone.”
The land belongs to everyone and nobody. We shouldn’t be able to place restrictions on who can go where and what we can see and be part of. Although we have long since forgotten it, we are part of nature and we should be able go wherever our instincts take us.
Hayes offers a passionate case for breaking boundaries between the wild and society; he offers a polemic that strikes at the heart of a restricted landscape. He trespasses to see nature as it ought to be seen, up close and personal rather than through a fence or over a wall gazing into land owned by the rich. Private ownership of the country’s natural landscape has robbed us of our comment heritage, and it impoverishes us all. This shouldn’t be so.
The book becomes a manual on how to traverse these natural spaces when the law says we shouldn’t be there. Hayes has filled his book with illustrations, illustrations penciled down hastily when he was loitering and very much aware he may run into an angry gamekeeper or landowner at any moment. And through this he captures an aspect of the wild, one untamed that should be accessible to all.
This is a fantastically written book because it is so atmospheric; it feels like the history of the land is being told around a campfire. As Hayes recalls the stories associated with each space he trespasses in, he offers a glimpse into historical injustice and how it is still being perpetuated today.
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Gun Island is a beautifully written and clever novel that deals with myths and legends, environmental crisis and how our place in the world is fueled Gun Island is a beautifully written and clever novel that deals with myths and legends, environmental crisis and how our place in the world is fueled by uncertainty and catastrophe.
Amitav Ghosh is a writer whose work I've come to admire greatly. This novel deals with several themes that consider the difficulties of living in the modern world; it engages with displacement and identity, refuge and relocation: it captures the ever changing and ever evolving nature of a multi-cultural metropolis in the wake of increasing urbanization. It also captures the issues asylum seekers face as they cross boarders into the unknown. In the wake of tornedos and a shifting natural landscape, people are forced to evolve and adapt into something new: it’s a book written under the ever reaching and ever increasing shadow of climate change as we begin to enter an unrecognisable space. It's remarkable and potent.
“We’re in a new world now. No one knows where they belong anymore neither humans nor animals.”
Such is the dilemma of the protagonist, Deen Datta. He is a rare book dealer with Bengali background feeling at odds with his comfortable New York life. He feels out of place and like he has lost a sense of his true heritage. He goes on a quest to discover the details of The Gun Merchant, a fictional character evident in Bengali oral tradition, and in doing so learns a lot about himself, the world and life itself. The story is a slow burn, and in taking it cautiously Ghosh reveals the interconnected nature of the themes and characters.
I’m impressed with the number of themes Ghosh has engaged with here, and he has engaged with them carefully and sensitively. I’ve read a lot of his non-fictional work and I can see a lot of his interests pouring through into the narrative here. For me, he occupies a completely unique place in the fictional world because of what he addresses (and how he address it.) He is certainly an author that explores his ideas creatively through the act of writing.
I’m going to end my review by sharing a quote that sums up a large part of the central motif behind this novel here:
“Only though stories can invisible or inarticulate or silent beings speak to us; it is they who allow the past to reach out to us.”
And we can use them to inform the present. We can use them to understand the changes we are facing. I liked this novel, a lot.
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“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in retu
“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.”
There is something special about this book. It really speaks to the activist in me and the nature lover in me. And if, like me, you’re into nature writing then this is certainly the book for you; it’s one of the best in the genre I have ever read because of the way it captures the essence of what our role (as humans) should be in the natural world: we are here to protect and nourish, not destroy and overuse. The emphasis here is on gratitude and learning from plants, animals and the natural world as a whole.
Aside from the love of nature the writing possesses, it also stresses the importance of independent thought and academic originality in the face of overwhelming conformist data and rigid thinking. Science can be black and white; it can be data driven, practical and cold: it’s all about observation without really seeing and without really understanding. Robin Wall Kimmerer argues that science can be infused with folklore, stories, and history to enrich it and enhance it. We should never lose the wisdom our ancestors possessed. Kimmerer is from Native American decent; thus, she brings much of her lineage to her writing.
“Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”
I want to also talk a little bit here about the quality of the prose, of the author’s ability to enchant the reader and capture the essence of the natural world through playing on every sense is of the highest quality. She writes remarkably well and the book flows very well from sentence to sentence, from description to description. However, it loses a star because of how disorganized the chapters are. Don’t get me wrong, I like the way thoughts and stories interrupt the narrative but structurally speaking it is a little bit messy and needs some editing. Other than that, it is a fantastic piece of writing and I recommend it most highly.
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Life lessons to take away from The Death of Ivan Ilych:
1. Marry for love only not because you feel like you have to.
2. Don’t become obsessed with staLife lessons to take away from The Death of Ivan Ilych:
1. Marry for love only not because you feel like you have to.
2. Don’t become obsessed with status or money.
3. Find work you enjoy.
4. Your life is your life, live it on your own terms and not by the standards of others.
5. Work on your relationships, especially the one you have with yourself.
6. Death comes for everyone, no matter how “well” you think you’ve lived your life or how undeserving of it you think you are.
7. The most important one: don’t waste your life, not even a second of it because it will be gone before you know it.
Final Thoughts
So this was a great piece of writing with a lot of wisdom to share by providing an example of exactly how not to live your life. And for me it was a good introduction to Tolstoy, I keep trying to read Anna Karenina but always give up after a 100 pages. So I was glad to actually finish this one.
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The Great Derangement is a term Ghosh has coined, and it refers to the inability of modern art, especially the novel, to address the issue of climate The Great Derangement is a term Ghosh has coined, and it refers to the inability of modern art, especially the novel, to address the issue of climate change. And this is, indeed, deranged because it keeps the climate question out of a very important cultural space.
Ghosh also suggests that unlike literary fiction, fantasy and science fiction dare to address the issue of climate change and put it into the forefront of their narratives. Unfortunately, at the time when Ghosh wrote this, in 2016, climate change was rarely – if at all addressed – in literary fiction.
Fiction involving climate change certainly would not be making best seller lists or onto literary reviews. And then came Richard Powers to turn that all on its head. But that’s beside the point because it has taken us far too long to get to such a moment.
I am so impressed with everything Ghosh has to say in this. I want to situate it in the realm of literary criticism. Ghosh is arguing a point, a point that to my knowledge no other mainstream author was championing, and its rather groundbreaking. Remarkably, though, Ghosh is suggesting that because of how innovative science fiction and fantasy has been in this regard, the writers actually dare to address the biggest issue of our time, and because of this genre fiction should be given more consideration from critics.
I heartedly agree with this point. I’ve always felt there is a certain sense of literary snobbery when it comes to realist fiction. Ironically, how real can it be if it ignores real issues? Food for thought. Overall this is a fantastic piece of writing.
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This is essential reading for children and adults alike because it will help them understand the perspective of others.
I listened to the audiobookThis is essential reading for children and adults alike because it will help them understand the perspective of others.
I listened to the audiobook version of this on a flight from England to Rome this morning to help pass the time. And I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it was. I thought it would be a nice simple novel about horses that would help me feel relaxed as I tried to forget about my dislike of heights and airports. Instead, it’s a heartbreaking tale with a very powerful animal rights message.
The novel is told in such a clever way. It’s told from the perspective of a horse, Black Beauty. He experiences all manner of treatment from humans: kindness, neglect, ignorance and objectification. Some of his worse experiences are when he is a cart horse. And as I walked round Rome and saw the sad looking horses strapped to carts to drag tourists around the city, it made me think about this even more. Why do we still do this in the 21st century? Why are we still using horses as beasts of burden?
Of course, this is more prevalent in other parts of the world and in other cities. And it was even more prevalent during the era in which this book was written. And it is so easy to forget about the silent victims of society and history. This novel asks us to look a bit closer; it ask us to consider what our way of life costs other animals. And I really do encourage everyone to read it because it has a very powerful and very important message to share.
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After finding The Great Gatsby completely underwhelming, I’ve been meaning to try another of Fitzgerald’s works for a very long time.
And I wasn’t disAfter finding The Great Gatsby completely underwhelming, I’ve been meaning to try another of Fitzgerald’s works for a very long time.
And I wasn’t disappointed with this one. I watched the film a long time ago, and I quite enjoyed it, but it failed to capture the perplexing nature of this case. The situation just doesn’t make much sense and there aren’t any real answers to be had, and that’s the beauty of it because it leaves you wondering.
Indeed, a good short story leaves you wanting more. The message is brief and it sweeps over the plot offering you only a glimpse into the character’s lives. Your imagination fills in the blanks as you ponder what else could have happened. And this helps define a truly great piece of writing; it has autonomy and it exists beyond the words on the page: there’s so much more to it. I feel like this short story creates many questions but leaves them totally unanswered.
Why did it happen? Why was Benjamin Button born an old man? Is it a gift or a curse? The story does help to put many things into perspective though about life and aging. It’s a clever idea and a very clever piece of writing.
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The Shadow Casket is a fantastic sequel in a very exciting, yet dramatically underrated, series.
It’s been five years since I read the first book iThe Shadow Casket is a fantastic sequel in a very exciting, yet dramatically underrated, series.
It’s been five years since I read the first book in the series, The Ember Blade. Back then, I used to read so many more fantasy novels. But this one really stuck out for me. Not only was it an absolute behemoth of a story, but it was also one that was immersive and subversive. The characters are all great, as is the world, though the strength of this story comes from its ability to turn standard fantasy tropes on their head.
Wooding seems to set up the story to follow a simple a basic fantasy narrative, one we’ve all seen dozens of times before, but then he takes the story in new and unexpected directions. And he did that again here. The Shadow Casket surprised me on several occasions. I had no idea where any of this was going. This might seem a basic and obvious point to make, though I think its fair to say that nobody wants to know the ending before the story has even begun. Nobody wants predictability in fantasy.
It’s only just beginning
I’m not entirely sure how long this series is going to be because there is so much room for expansion. It feels like it is just getting started in a way. And that’s because the world feels so huge. The action in this book is just a glimpse of what is happening elsewhere and across the continent. For me this is one of the most vital aspects of fantasy. I need to feel like the world has existed before the events in the book and will continue to exist after. And Wooding has nailed this aspect of writing terrifically. The storytelling scope of this series is on par with The Wheel of Time or, at least, it could be if it keeps flowing like this.
There are several characters who each have so much potential for development too. I like the way Wooding has built on a number of them here and fleshed them out. It’s also worth mentioning that he isn’t afraid to kill of characters too when their part in the story is over. Again, this is another important aspect of writing in the genre because too many fantasy writers are a bit precious about their characters and keeping them alive. So he’s got this right too and it makes the action and quests seem all that dangerous, knowing the heroes can be killed off.
A heartfelt recommendation
I recommend this to readers who like Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Tad Williams and Robin Hobb. Wooding is very much on par with them and he is essential reading for those that love epic fantasy, especially those who like writers that take their time to write stories that slowly develop into something grand. I look forward to the next book in the series.
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Middle-Earth is is where I go when I need to escape from reality and be somewhere better and more magical than the mundanity of normal existence.
I’ve Middle-Earth is is where I go when I need to escape from reality and be somewhere better and more magical than the mundanity of normal existence.
I’ve read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit countless times. I’ve also read almost everything published under the name Tolkien (bar the history of middle earth) and I will continue to keep reading books published under his name. Why? Because I hope to get a glimpse at something new or a snippet of information that I did not know about.
Yes, some of the newer stuff is incomplete and some of it is very clearly cash-grabs. But I will keep buying them and reading them because that’s how much I love Tolkien and his words and ideas. He occupies a truly unique place among fantasy writers because there has never been a writer quite so great as him to try their hand at the genre. Nothing else really compares to him no matter how hard new writers attempt to emulate his works. Every fantasy writer since stands in his shadow.
The Nature of Middle Earth isn’t a straight narrative. It’s a book to dip in and out of, and one to add to your collection only if you’re a bit Tolkien obsessed. The book is a mixture of essays on language, elves and metaphysics. There a total random mix of topics that depth to an already very deep and rich world. I loved it!
I wonder how many more of these posthumously publish works are yet to come. There have been so many already.
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Sean Barrs
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