spectracommunist's reviews
372 reviews

The perils and perks of being a good butler .... and blah! blah! a lot of formalities. Was it a travel book? Can't find any adventure till here, the protagonist lives in his past rather than being in the moment.

Harrowing! Touching!
This explains the best how the gifts of prose come along with agony and trauma, but actually, the suffering is the blessing, the words are the fruits of a mental toil and depression. And in a broad sense, every single soul is suffering, that's why these proses help like roses! It's only when someone shares one's shortcomings and vulnerability, we feel that we're not alone.
Her words mostly hit on the subconscious, that why they're larger than a single experience and a metaphor for a spectrum of pain.
I didn't take it much to a feminist perspective but from an individual human, doomed to be an island universe within!
I found Lady Lazarus, Daddy, Cut, A Birthday Present and Fever 103 to be most compelling

I'm moved, evolved, changed, transformed, metamorphized, resurrected like them dead people with flowery hearts rising again from their own ashes like a phoenix with a little help from shaman that howls, naked, dancing around a bonfire, uttering those holy hymns in the form of moans.
I wish to start a new religion or a new political faction based on this ideology, unwaveringly. And that's not a new thing. Even Jim Morrison saw this vision and strived, moaned and even thrived; So I propose to carry on this immaculate perception of the dream.
Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin! Listen, to this howls of the wilderness; Wild violent animals in their sanctuary are all geared up to break-on-through. Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Not being a sexist but only a true man can understand this book or those who've been in a true man's shoes.
So long, reading this ...

This book was tearing me apart, man! In the last chapter, I wasn't able to hold the overflow of my tears. The story is something that everyone can relate to: not necessarily gay but an admiration, almost a holy worship to someone in one's heart. I haven't read any book that portrays insecurity, fear, loathing, restriction and a wanting so bad, Like Elio's memoirs of Oliver: Oliver Sofa, Oliver Shorts, Oliver Table, Oliver Bed, Oliver kids, Oh my God! We were all this weirdly mad for someone at least once in our shitty little lives and that's such great mementos for ourselves: that insanity and wanting are as powerful as our every little but still huge enough childhood desires.

It took me to a nostalgia on whatever affections I had in my past and all the people who were simply there for me against all the odds and also them who betrayed my trust.

I haven't had a catharsis this enormous after a long time in my life. It's so much a supplement to enhance a balance among all my emotions. It feels so good and I loved this book.

This audiobook was narrated by Armie Hammer and the voiceover was so classy. I'm ready for the movie now. Bring it on!

So pungent and harrowing. Poems that'll make you recall and reimagine the ones you fantasized, the punitive love affairs and heart-shattering breakups.

I've recorded an audiobook, just so that I can listen to my voice in sorrow and pain under natural unfiltered circumstances:
Google Drive Link

This book was something so unexpected. It's not only Zen and not much about technicalities of motorcycle maintenance. It's a deep inquiry into our value-system, how we deal with technology these days. No just that, there's even a kinda suspense that hooks one up until the end: It's basically about the author and his son Chris' motorcycle journey whilst Chris was on the verge of some mental illness and also there used to be a romantic counterpart of the author: Phaedrus (i.e. A Wolf!) more like an opposite personality back then that he retrospects here: how he used to chase the true meaning of 'quality' (75% of the book revolves around defining quality) and other philosophical speculations that leads him to some kind of madness. So these events in the past build up much psychological tension in the entire book.

This book even delves into the history of philosophy and evaluates its relevance in modern times: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Heraclitus, etc. It even juxtaposes science with philosophy and art with technology.

I'm so much glad that I came to this book at this particular times where I'm into disillusionment and heavily suffering from existential crises and even from split personality problems sometimes. I picked up reading this book when I backpacked for a little 'Holi' vacation around cold mountains with my friends in the Uttarakhand: Rishikesh, Haridwar, Kanatal, Tehri, and Mussoorie. There we did a lot of motorcycle riding approx. 270 km up and down those mountains. It was a beautiful experience and I learned a lot of Zen if not much motorcycle maintenance.

It's a must-read for every voracious reader who is in a constant odyssey of seeking meaning and logic in this incomprehensible universe!

"In the Penal Colony" revolves around the rather, um, unique system of justice and punishment used in the place where it is set. The judicial system of this penal colony is based on the idea that, as one character says, "Guilt is never to be doubted." The accused are never tried nor given an opportunity to defend themselves. Instead, they are simply put to death at the order of the judge in an elaborate and apparently brutal fashion.
This short story explores the practice 'Capital Punishment' in a terrific theme with surreal scenes describing primitiveness in a colony of conservative soldiers.