Beatrice and Virgil (Hardcover) by Yann Martel

from TheCrowdedLeaf

What is Beatrice And Virgil about? The question of "about-ness" is asked more than once in Yann Martel's latest novel. In reference to our main character Henry, "What is this book about?" is asked of his latest novel regarding the Holocaust. When Henry's publishers and editors don't "get" his wor...

from Cecilturtle

What an incredibly powerful mix of genres and subjects! I loved the way Martel uses the novel, the play and the short story to talk about a painful and incomprehensible moment in history. The play, with its Brecht-like characters, perfectly conveys the alienation and dissociation of humanity with...

from cameling

This was an incredible exercise in transition. A transition from a whimsical tale of 2 animals, a howler monkey and a donkey, discussing the qualities of a pear to gradually more complex tale involving philosophy, morals and uncivilized horror. It's difficult to review this without giving away sp...

from reluctantm

I didn't really know what to expect. I know the novel got pretty panned by critics when it came out. I'm not even sure why I picked it up - I wasn't that much of a fan of Life of Pi, which I thought was too contrived. And then it took me awhile to warm up to this novel, which starts a bit too ran...

from msbaba

Every time I interact with a work of art that deals with the Holocaust - be it a film, documentary, novel, painting, photomontage - I am left traumatized, exhausted, and drained of emotion. Sometimes it takes me days to recover. When faced with yet another major artistic work on the Holocaust, I ...