Read the
following novel reviews, Identify the reviewer, the topic, and the social
function of each review
Review 1
THE MARS ROOM
Woman behind bars
BookPage Top Pick in Fiction, May 2018
Much of the action of Rachel Kushner’s
brilliant new novel is set in California prisons. She has done her research,
and the novel is filled with distressing factual details like death-row inmates
sewing sandbags and prison staff using a powerful, probably toxic disinfectant
called Cell Block 64. And of course there are the stultifying, dehumanizing
prison routines.
But the moral scope of The Mars Room is
really too large for it to be considered a prison novel. Through its vividly rendered
characters, it asks the reader to ponder bigger questions—Dostoyevskian
questions—about the system of justice, the possibility of redemption and even
the industrialization of the natural landscape.
The novel’s central character is Romy Hall.
We meet her as she is being transported from a Los Angeles jail to Stanville, a
prison in California’s agricultural heartland where she is to serve two life
sentences. She is 29, born to a cruel mother in a San Francisco neighborhood
that bears little resemblance to the high-tech mecca of today. She is the
mother of a young son she worries about obsessively. Until she fled a stalker
by moving with her son to Los Angeles, she hustled as a lap dancer at a place
called the Mars Room in downtown San Francisco. We don’t learn the details
until late in the novel, but we know that because of her ineffectual lawyer,
she ends up in prison for killing her stalker.
Kushner (Telex from Cuba, The Flamethrowers) is both
tough and darkly funny in writing about her characters’ situations, and she
writes not so much for us to empathize with them, but rather to understand
them. The Mars Room is a captivating and beautiful novel.
Review 2
MY EX-LIFE
As we stumble along
Stephen McCauley’s bittersweet seventh novel
gives the lie to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s pronouncement that there are no second
acts in American lives. Because for all their missteps, the angst-ridden
characters that populate My Ex-Life seem
determined, in their endearingly flawed ways, to make the best of their unique
circumstances.
Most of the novel’s action unfolds in the
slightly shabby seaside resort of Beauport, just north of Boston. It’s home to
Julie Fiske and her restless daughter, Mandy, who’s on the cusp of high school
graduation. In the midst of a fractious divorce and pressured by her husband to
sell the rambling home they once shared, Julie reaches out to her first
ex-husband, David Hedges, a college admissions consultant, in a desperate bid
to help her daughter and bring order to the chaos of her life. David left Julie
three decades earlier after discovering his true sexual orientation, and he now
lives in San Francisco, where he faces his own real estate crisis—an impending
eviction.
McCauley seasons the novel with a liberal
helping of the anxieties of contemporary American life, chief among them
upper-middle-class parents’ apprehension about their children’s futures and
aging baby boomers’ regret that life’s brass ring will always be just out of
reach. He excels in some wickedly funny scenes that depict Julie’s fumbling
efforts to turn her home into an economically productive Airbnb, as well as a
tender portrayal of the odd sexual tension that bubbles up during Julie and
David’s reunion. They’re the sort of people who know their lives possess all
the ingredients for happiness, but who seem to have lost the recipe. For all
the idiosyncrasies of McCauley’s creations, it’s likely many readers will see
aspects of their own lives reflected in these pages.
https://bookpage.com/reviews/22552-stephen-mccauley-my-ex-life#.Wus_pMiFPIU
REVIEW 3
MR. FLOOD'S LAST RESORT
Watch your step
What do you get when a cantankerous old
hoarder in a decrepit mansion collides with a world-weary caregiver who has a
reluctant talent for communing with the dead? The answer is Jess Kidd’s
imaginative second novel, Mr. Flood’s Last Resort, an
enchanting thriller that disarms and delights.
When Maud Drennan is assigned to look after
Cathal Flood, all she knows is that he has managed to run off his previous
caregivers through a combination of psychological warfare, booby traps and
outright hostility. However, Maud is made of stronger stuff than her relatively
plain appearance would suggest, and she arrives at Cathal’s doorstep ready for
a fight. With dogged determination, Maud slowly enters into an uneasy truce
with the inscrutable old man, but she also comes to realize that there is more
to Cathal—and his property—than meets the eye.
While the moldering manor house is filled
with decades-old detritus and an army of slightly feral cats, it is also a
mausoleum of secrets, potentially lethal ones. When Maud learns about the
suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Cathal’s wife—and the house
begins to offer up clues regarding a cold case that eerily echoes memories from
Maud’s traumatic childhood—she knows it is up to her to uncover who Cathal
Flood truly is and to appease the restless spirits that haunt the halls of his
home.
Unique and unconventional, Mr.
Flood’s Last Resort is an unforgettable mystery that will
appeal to fans of Tana French and Sophie
Hannah, as it charms and unsettles in equal measure. Kidd (Himself) deftly
balances whimsy and humor with a genuine sense of malice and danger. Savvy
readers will question who can be trusted, as nothing—not even Maud—is as it initially
seems.
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Component
|
REVIEW 1
THE MARS ROOM
|
REVIEW 2
MY
EX-LIFE
|
REVIEW 3
MR.
FLOOD'S LAST RESORT
|
|
Name of Reviewer
|
Alden Mudge
|
Harvey Freedenberg
|
Stephenie Harrison
|
|
Social Function
|
To appreciate novel
|
to
appreciate a novel
|
to appreciate and to critic
a novel
|
|
Generic structure
|
Orientation/
Introduction
Much of the action of Rachel
Kushner’s brilliant new novel is set in California prisons.
Evaluatioan:
The moral scope of The Mars Room is
really too large for it to be considered a prison novel.
Interpretative
recount:
The novel’s central character is Romy
Hall. We meet her as she is being transported from a Los Angeles jail to
Stanville, a prison in California’s agricultural heartland where she is to
serve two life sentences. She is 29, born to a cruel mother in a San Francisco
neighborhood that bears little resemblance to the high-tech mecca of today.
She is the mother of a young son she worries about obsessively. Until she
fled a stalker by moving with her son to Los Angeles, she hustled as a lap
dancer at a place called the Mars Room in downtown San Francisco. We don’t
learn the details until late in the novel, but we know that because of her
ineffectual lawyer, she ends up in prison for killing her stalker.
Evaluative
summation:
The Mars Room is a captivating and
beautiful novel.
|
Orientation/
Introduction:
Stephen McCauley’s bittersweet
seventh novel gives the lie to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s pronouncement that there
are no second acts in American lives.
Evaluatioan:
The angst-ridden characters that
populate My Ex-Life seem determined, in their endearingly flawed ways, to
make the best of their unique circumstances
Interpretative
recount:
Most of the novel’s action unfolds in
the slightly shabby seaside resort of Beauport, just north of Boston. It’s
home to Julie Fiske and her restless daughter, Mandy, who’s on the cusp of
high school graduation. In the midst of a fractious divorce and pressured by
her husband to sell the rambling home they once shared, Julie reaches out to
her first ex-husband, David Hedges, a college admissions consultant, in a
desperate bid to help her daughter and bring order to the chaos of her life.
David left Julie three decades earlier after discovering his true sexual
orientation, and he now lives in San Francisco, where he faces his own real
estate crisis—an impending eviction.
Evaluative
summation:
For all the idiosyncrasies of
McCauley’s creations, it’s likely many readers will see aspects of their own
lives reflected in these pages.
|
•Orientation/Introduction
What do you get when a cantankerous
old hoarder in a decrepit mansion collides with a world-weary caregiver who
has a reluctant talent for communing with the dead?
Evaluatioan:
The answer is Jess Kidd’s imaginative
second novel, Mr. Flood’s Last Resort, an enchanting thriller that disarms
and delights.
Interpretative
recount:
When Maud Drennan is assigned to look
after Cathal Flood, all she knows is that he has managed to run off his
previous caregivers through a combination of psychological warfare, booby
traps and outright hostility. However, Maud is made of stronger stuff than
her relatively plain appearance would suggest, and she arrives at Cathal’s
doorstep ready for a fight. With dogged determination, Maud slowly enters
into an uneasy truce with the inscrutable old man, but she also comes to
realize that there is more to Cathal—and his property—than meets the eye.
While the moldering manor house is
filled with decades-old detritus and an army of slightly feral cats, it is
also a mausoleum of secrets, potentially lethal ones. When Maud learns about
the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Cathal’s wife—and the
house begins to offer up clues regarding a cold case that eerily echoes
memories from Maud’s traumatic childhood—she knows it is up to her to uncover
who Cathal Flood truly is and to appease the restless spirits that haunt the
halls of his home.
Evaluative
summation:
Unique and unconventional, Mr.
Flood’s Last Resort is an unforgettable mystery that will appeal to fans of
Tana French and Sophie Hannah, as it charms and unsettles in equal measure
|
|
Language feature
|
Adjective:
Brilliant, dehumanizing, worries,
captivating, beautiful.
Complex
Clause :
Until she fled a stalker by moving with her son to Los
Angeles, she hustled as a lap dancer at a place called the Mars Room in
downtown San Francisco.
Metaphore:
She is the mother of a young son she
worries about obsessively.
Tense:
Present simple and past simple
|
Adjective:
Best, divorce and pressured, funny.
Complex Clause :
He excels in some wickedly funny
scenes that depict Julie’s fumbling efforts to turn her home into an
economically productive Airbnb, as well as a tender
portrayal of the odd sexual tension that bubbles up during Julie and David’s
reunion.
Metaphore:
In their endearingly flawed ways, to
make the best of their unique circumstances.
Tense:
Present simple and past simple
|
Adjective:
disarms and delights,
charms and unsettles,
malice and danger.
Complex Clause:
-When Maud Drennan is assigned to look after Cathal Flood,
all she knows is that he has managed to run off his previous caregivers
through a combination of psychological warfare.
-However, Maud is made of stronger stuff than her relatively plain
appearance would suggest, and she arrives at Cathal’s doorstep ready for a
fight.
-While the moldering manor house is filled with decades-old
detritus and an army of slightly feral cats, it is also a mausoleum of
secrets, potentially lethal ones.
Metahore:
There is more to Cathal—and his
property—than meets the eye.
Tense:
Present simple and past simple
|
Part 2: Constructing Review
|
Reading Review
1.
To read Review
text
Writing Review
1.
To determine the social
function of the review text
2.
To write the background and summary of the book or movie
3.
To write the evaluation and intrepetation
4.
To write the Evaluative Summation
: The last opinion consisting the appraisal or the punch line of the art
works being criticized.
|
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