Author name: Ed Frey

Missive #356 Published 30 September 2024

John Dos Passos, the distinguished American novelist and historian has been personally interested in Brazil for the last fifteen years. He first visited the country in 1948, and returned again in 1956 and 1962. This book, which is based on his experiences in Brazil, presents the people and landscapes of a young country on the move. Here you will find several extraordinary reports on Brasilia, first in the planning stage, second in the wildly frantic period when it was a half-finished group of buildings, and, finally, as it appeared to Mr. Dos Passos in the summer of 1962 when it was at last beginning to function as a city.<.p>

Missive #353 Published 25 September 2024

Note: There is a movie being made based on this novel. If it follows the book closely I would suggest that you do not go see it.

In the Kirkus Review it is said that McCarthy uses 'pretentious prose' he also avoids using any punctuation and when rendering dialog likes to do so using Spanish whenever possible. He does break up the 'gore and blazing sun' somewhat with some very descriptive writing about the landscape, flora and fauna that the scalp hunter are passing through. However, even there he can not help himself and loads the descriptions with pretentious adjectives — either ignore them or treat the book as a vocabulary builder.

Missive #352 Published 23 September 2024

Alternate Generals II is a collection of short alternate history stories, edited by Harry Turtledove.

Missive #349 Published 18 September 2024

No book promos found and only the one meaningful customer review. This is not a well read book now and probably not a big seller in 1944 when it was published. It does provide some good history about the Mississippi Delta so if your reading the Mainstream of America Series don't give this a miss.

Missive #348 Published 17 September 2024

In my opinion, the best parts of this book are those where he writes what he thinks. Those that are star struck may enjoy what he has to say about his screenwriting days. I think you will like this book.