Henri Duchemin and his shadows

 

Emmanuel Bove was discovered by Colette. However, his career was cut short by the Germans in World War II. I liked this book of short stories because they were simple and to the point. He is not pretentious. The stories are almost too straightforward. Two stories stuck out the most for me. "Night Visit" is about two friends, one of which is suicidal and has had a marriage just end. He convinces his friend to speak to his wife, to beg for reconciliation between the two. However, the wife is cold to the friend. The last story "Is it a lie?" is about a husband whose wife had stayed out all night. She has a story but is it really believable. I got this book done in just a couple of days. New York Review Books usually releases good stuff.  

La Morte Amoureuse

 

This was a pretty cool story I read from Kessinger Publishing. It concerns the story of a priest and his lustful love for a girl named Clarimonde. The book gets more bizarre when the girl comes back from the dead as a vampire. Is the priesthood his imagined life or is the one with Clairmonde real? It was cool to read a vampire story that wasn't lame. So many of them are nowadays. I've got to read more from this author. 

The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch

 

This isn't my favorite Iris Murdoch work. She's done better but it's all right. It's about a governess who arrives only to learn that the person she is governing is an adult named Hannah. Hannah is being imprisoned by her husband who hasn't been there in years. This is for an affair she committed. There's another man called Effingham who is infatuated with Hannah. The book sees Hannah as a unicorn figure, a representation of purity. The governess tries to rescue Hannah but the plan backfires. I need to read Under the Net again. It's been a while, I also really need to read The Sea, The Sea the one she won the Booker Prize for.