Task 4
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 review by Alden Mudge
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
Book Page review by Harvey
Freedenberg
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
BookPage review by Stephenie Harrison
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.
The Identification of
the reviewer, the topic, and the social function of each review
|
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.
Metaphore:
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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