Gabriel Garcia Marquez: OF LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS (3/5)

A short novel by the maestro of magic realism. It is about a neglected young girl who was claimed to be possessed by the devil. The girl wass the daughter of a Marquis but was raised among the black slaves. The Bishop sent his assistant priest to exorcise the girl, but complications arose when the thirty-six-year old priest fell in love with the girl. A sad and tragic story woven in the grand tradition of a Marquezan terrain.

J. M Coetzee: ELIZABETH COSTELLO (4/5)

This is Coetzee's novel after the much awarded Disgrace and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Elizabeth Costello is an aging novelist, made famous for her work about Marion Bloom, the wife of Leopold Bloom, the protagonist in Joyce's Ulysses. Elizabeth has long stopped writing; she, instead, is now spending time just giving talks about other people's works. Through a series of speeches delivered at different occassions, Mrs. Costello essayed the woman she has come to be: strong-willed and formidable.

Years after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, Coetzee never rests his laurels and continues to push the limits of the narrative form.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: IN EVIL HOUR (2/5)

A town got into confusion, fear, and chaos when lampoons of unknown source, revealing secrets of some people, were discovered every morning. This compelled Cesar Montero to kill Pastor, a clarinet player who was alledgedly the lover of Cesar's wife. The Mayor who could not do anything to prevent the proliferation of lampoons decided to declare martial law and used this power against his political enemies.

The novel is so rich in meanings and symbols, but unfortunately, it has a very disappointing ending.

Edith Wharton: ETHAN FROME (2.5/5)

This novel by Edith Wharton is about the tragedies in the life of Ethan Frome, a farmer in Starkfield, Massachussetts. Ethan Frome is claimed to be an autobiographical novel: Edith being Ethan, Mattie being Edith's lover, Zenobia as Edith's husband.

Don DeLillo: FALLING MAN (3.5/5)

Falling Man pertains to the man, caught by the camera, who jumped, head first, from one of the towers of World Trade Center on that fateful day of September 11. For this novel, it also pertains to the performance artist who mimicked that man.

This is a novel that examines what happened to a survivor's family immediately following that tragedy: how it changed them and how they coped to move on.

Like any De Lillo novel, this is so well written and, at times, poignant.

Ian McEwan: AMSTERDAM (3.5/5)

This Booker-prize winning novel of Ian McEwan is a fully realized black comedy. It is about four men who became lovers of Molly Lane: Clive Linley, a famous of composer; Vernon Halliday, the editor-in-chief of Judge; Julian Garmony, the foreign secretary; and George Lane, the husband of Molly. It is about how Vernon and Clive turned their friendship into a viscious hate and revenge.

Ian McEwan: ENDURING LOVE (2.5/5)

On a cloudless, beautiful day, a balloon accident happened. People who helped to rescue the child on that balloon were forever changed by that fatal day, when lives would be intertwined and convoluted by that one unfortunate event.

The opening chapter was the most gripping I have read in years!