Alfred and Guinevere

 

This was an ok novella written by poet James Schulyer. It didn't blow my mind away, but its simplicity was kind of beautiful. It's about a brother and sister who go to their uncle and grandmother's house. It is told mostly through Guinevere's diary. The book tries to get into the mind of children and their attempts at understanding the world around them. Some of it was funny. I read from New York Review Books all the time. They really do uncover treasures from the past. I haven't found one of their books yet that wasn't worth reading. 

Beside the Sea

 

This book was just ok. It was suggested by a website as one of the best novellas ever written which is something I disagree with. It's about a mentally ill woman who ends up taking her children's lives. She tries to protect her children all the time, but it turns out their own home is where the trouble really lies. While the book was believable and written well, I didn't anything unique in its depiction. This plot has been written so many times.   

The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles

 

I loved The Garden of the Finzi-Continis so I decided to read another one of his books. This is about the friendship between a gay doctor and an Italian Jewish student. When the doctor's secret gets unraveled, he loses his clients, and he loses it committing suicide. While the book tackles homosexuality it also goes into the anti-Semitic behavior of the time. So, both characters are ostracized. At the end the only people really having sympathy with the doctor's death are his father and the student. 

Rock Crystal

 

This was good, another simplistic book given the New York Review of Books treatment. It's about two children who get lost in the mountains after visiting their grandparents. The village strives to find the children. The atmosphere in this book is quite lovely. I love how New York Review of Books finds these gems of lost novellas - an art form that is really not given completely its due. I actually bought this one. Usually, I just interlibrary loan these books and read them once. But I found something haunting about this one.