Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Sunday 3 June 2001

"The.PowerBook" by Jeanette Winterson (Jonathan Cape, 2000)

Fable and love story held together by using computer jargon ("View As Icon", "Show Balloons",etc) as chapter headings - rather like Levi's Periodic Table combined with Calvino's style. The fables are alluded to later on, and the writing criticized. Amongst the poetry ("The island is like an ideas lifted out of the sea's brooding"; "The world is a mirror of the mind's abundance") and the descriptions ("Now the pilings look like plugs of tobacco, brown and crumbling and moist") I'd have liked a little more of the essay style she's used in other books, especially where she becomes reflective about the creative process. As usual with her, there are always parts which make the whole worth reading.

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