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5.0 out of 5 stars
Pastiche or Hodgepodge, January 16, 2008
This review is from: Pastiche: Stories and Such (Paperback)
Lucille Bellucci's sixth book, Pastiche, warmly welcomes the reader who already knows her writings back to familiar spaces, some more comfortable and others more menacing.
For the new reader of her work, the "hodgepodge" here presented is a virtuoso performance, including the collection here of numerous award-winning shorter pieces, that carries the reader around the world: from California to Brazil, China, Italy, and from there inward for thought-provoking introspection.
"Friends" of Nicolai Valentin Katcharovsky, a prominent presence in his grand coat and great hat first introduced in the Bellucci's fourth novel, the Stone of Heaven, will laugh and cry at his latest adventures. What can happen to him next?
Readers will enjoy Bellucci's poetry, including some haiku, published for the first time in this form.
Bellucci's plots surprise and delight, just as the adventures she describes as having experienced as her own seem authentic even when slightly incredible. It is her wit and insight that lead readers new and old deeper into the realm of Bellucci's discernment and understanding.
The world press dutifully publishes unending coverage of events across the world, reporting on events and turmoil that touch the lives of many. But such coverage is often superficial and insensitive.
Bellucci's writings are a welcome change. Across the pages of her several short pieces, her characters navigate times of great moment, sharing their survival, their success, their passion, and their laughter. Here there is much to learn.
As with her earlier, more extensive novels, the reader of Pastiche often stands at the protagonist's shoulder through revolution, great change, and the experiencing of once unimaginable events.
These pages beckon the reader to experience great events, meet believable characters, and ponder the meaning of that hodgepodge which is Life.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful drama and humor, by Sylvia Waldmeier, January 22, 2008
This review is from: Pastiche: Stories and Such (Paperback)
Powerful drama and humor, by Sylvia Waldmeier
China in turmoil, from the Japanese attack and occupation through World War II and the subsequent Communist overnight takeover of Shanghai in 1949 into the Great Purge of the 1950's. This forms the compelling backdrop for most of the prize-winning short stories compiled in this volume, documenting the author's earliest experiences and flowing into her teenage years in war-torn China. The contents stirred many a memory of a shared past, when we inevitably became "best friends".
Those readers interested in China's history will particularly enjoy the first-hand accounts of unfolding political events. Among the absolute fictional works appears "A Soochow Story", recounting the moving love tale of the handsome Chang-Lao of humble status and the lovely Chu-Tian, whose name means "beautiful sky".
This book is at the same time autobiographical, embracing personal experiences of the author, transporting the reader on a journey to many other parts of the globe, such as, Rome, Brazil and the U.S.A. and dedicated, as ever, to her beloved Renato. Guaranteed interesting reading!
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