Jonna Gjevre's Commonplace Book
Posted in Words on Jun 26th, 2009
Lev Grossman is the kind of fantasist who refuses to give readers what they want, which probably explains why his brilliant new fantasy novel The Magicians is so polarizing. Some readers hate Grossman’s sobering take on the whole Harry Potter genre: they expect a charming Hogwarts-like school with earnestly heroic young wizards fighting high-stakes battles [...]
Posted in Words on Apr 19th, 2009
It is a truth universally acknowledged that any Janeite in possession of cold, hard cash must be in want of the new Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Austen’s “co-author” Seth Grahame-Smith serves up delicious thwarted love, delicious Regency manners, and delicious “bone-crunching zombie mayhem.” And his new Austen parody also has lovely [...]
Posted in Words on Jan 27th, 2009
I just found out that Neil Gaiman’s wonderful novel The Graveyard Book has been awarded the Newbery Medal.
This is great news!
I bought my copy in Scotland, and read it at Dalkeith House in one gigantic gulp. My edition features lovely and delicate drawings by Chris Riddell, while the US editions have darker, more atmospheric illustrations [...]
Posted in Words on Jan 7th, 2009
I’ve been reading Neil Gaiman’s story The Dream Hunters, both the novella illustrated in 2000 by Yoshitaka Amano and the new graphic novel by Gaiman’s frequent collaborator P. Craig Russell. Both are lovely.
The Amano version features 60 beautiful full-page illustrations, illuminating Gaiman’s spare and elegant prose.
P. Craig Russell’s version of the fairy tale is [...]
Posted in Words on Aug 13th, 2008
I teach Beowulf and Paradise Lost almost every year, something I wouldn’t do if I didn’t have a thing for epic poetry. From time to time, I’ve wondered why nobody writes epic poems anymore. You know—sprawling, thrilling narrative poems that ordinary people actually want to read.
Somebody had to bring the epic back, and with his [...]