Difference between revisions of "Forthcoming Publications"

Latest revision as of 10:03, 22 October 2025

29 JANUARY

Review of

Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman

It could be argued that the pervading theme of this book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that something in your life is not quite right. The protagonist, a disgraced professor on the brink of losing both his career and his relationship, embodies this feeling. However, Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a force which is seductive, radical and unnerving: Helen. The connection between Helen and the protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the former owner of the countryside house he's considering, Helen represents a volta in his life, her past tied to his potential fresh start. The realtor who shows the protagonist around the house shares stories about Helen, and describes her as an entity that is pure consciousness, beyond form. Although she lives in an assisted living facility now, Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the reader gets the sense are not altogether innocuous. Full Review

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 __NOTOC__
-'''24 APRIL'''
+'''29 JANUARY'''
 {{Frontpage
-|author=Ian Penman
+|author=Makenna Goodman
-|title=Erik Satie Three Piece Suite
+|title=Helen of Nowhere
-|rating=3.5
-|genre=Biography
-|summary=This unconventional biography somewhat mirrors Satie's admittedly effusive personality: whimsical, experimental and creative. It is divided into three sections: the first, an essay, the second, an A-Z encyclopedia on Satie and the third, a 'Satie Diary', documenting Ian Penman's thoughts surrounding Satie, his muse.
-|isbn=1804271535
-}}
-'''5 JUNE'''
-{{Frontpage
-|author=Helene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)
-|title=Lili is Crying
 |rating=4.5
 |genre=Literary Fiction
-|summary=First published in 1953 in French, this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the page and positions them elsewhere, disjointed, truncated. Like the lives of her characters, they are often left tragically incomplete.
+|summary=It could be argued that the pervading theme of this book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that something in your life is not quite right. The protagonist, a disgraced professor on the brink of losing both his career and his relationship, embodies this feeling. However, Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a force which is seductive, radical and unnerving: Helen. The connection between Helen and the protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the former owner of the countryside house he's considering, Helen represents a volta in his life, her past tied to his potential fresh start. The realtor who shows the protagonist around the house shares stories about Helen, and describes her as ''an entity that is pure consciousness, beyond form''. Although she lives in an assisted living facility now, Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the reader gets the sense are not altogether innocuous.
-|isbn=1804271675
+|isbn=1804272205
 }}