Ataraxia

  The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis is the prequel of the very popular Chronicles of Narnia, which are ranked 261 st on The Greatest Books of All Time, and are also included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list – you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from those two and other compilations on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel   8 out of 10   CS Lewis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/surprised-by-joy-shape-of-my-early-life.html is one of my favorite authors, thinkers, even more than that, if I ‘convert’, and find absolution, redemption, then I owe him – and Andrei Plesu, perhaps a few others, after God – perpetual gratitude, for I have been, still are skeptical   I have read a series of his magnum opera on the subject of religion: The Abolition of Man, The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters – for the latter, I should be ashamed to confess that, when I read th...

  A Bell for Adano by John Hersey Not my cup of tea Coming on the footsteps of The Beach by Alex Garland it would have been difficult for The Bell to offer an equal satisfaction. But I must say that I did not like this novel and it might have been due to the circumstances or a pure failure to get its value. In other words, from here on the discourse will be rather negative and not just that, but I venture to say not interesting. If anyone is interested to read A Bell… and takes a note by chance, then the opinion has been expressed. From here on I try to make sense of what I have read and see what I can still get from this brief encounter. I stopped over this work because it won the Pulitzer Prize and with all my hostility I can still grasp why. The writing is interesting and funny- for a reader with a better vision and more relaxed than the undersigned, it can be wonderful. There are many passages that seen from a different perspective would prove rewarding and the read worthwhile....

  Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin 10 out of 10 It seems somewhat sad to see that quite a number of formerly acclaimed chefs d’oeuvre have fallen into neglect and if you look them now on the world’s database, you tend to find very little about them and this looks to be the case of Scarlet Sister Mary, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1929 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_Fiction ) but not much read these days. One reason might be that phenomenal as this novel is, it could be difficult to read and the undersigned thought himself lucky to have the habit of reading for some hours every day, for without that ritual, the dialogue specific to the Gullah people of the Low Country in South Carolina, which is hard to comprehend, given that it includes expression such as ‘chillen’ and there are words that the locals have not heard about and thus are twisted, like diploma, which Seraphin is trying so hard to get, only it had never been heard of and therefore ...

  An Instant in the Wind by André Brink was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1975, I could not find it on The Greatest Books of All Time site, presumably because it is not on their radar, not even at 20,000 or thereabouts…notwithstanding this flagrant omission, the novel is in my Top 500; you have thousands of reviews of magnum opera on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html   9 out of 10   A Dry White Season https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-dry-white-season-by-andre-brink-84.html is on the 977th place on The Greatest Books of All time site, where An Instant in The Wind does not exist, maybe just for the time being, it was shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize in 1975, and it has my vote   I found it magnificent, except for the ending, I am not sure if I will get into that, it may be that I did not understand it, perhaps it is meant to be ambiguous, it could be evident for the average reader, ...

    Nobel prize this one liked by London Times and dismissed by New York or something Humor indeed Portnoy link Herman Broder Yadwiga a fatalistic hedonist without belief in himself or the human race bigamist who had a lover as well – he wanted all three tamara had become more interesting At times, when Herman fantasized about a new metaphysic, maybe a new religion, he based evertying on the attraction of the sexes. In the beginning was lust. The godly, as well as the human, principle is desire If God was able to watch all this horror –   free will link to Lewis –   amd remain silent, then he is no God Tamara Quotes from Nietzche Spinoza…   Link to Frankl   Wasn’t it possible that a hitler presided on high and inflicted pain on imprisoned souls? Aka God is hitler …he had equipped them with claws, teeth, flesh etc so they had to either commit evil or perish to that effect Averything in haste, eat, work, speak…perhaps rushing w...

  Adam si Eva by Liviu Rebreanu   This book has fascinated me about thirty years ago. The question is – how much of that exaltation is left and how I perceive the pronouncements that at the age of eighteen or seventeen made me feel that I had found the Truth. The book had such an unexpected, yet tremendous effect on me that I kept quoting and thinking about it. As the title openly displays, it is a book about Adam and Eve, the original couple, their love and descent from paradise, or discovery of earthly heaven, depending on how we look at it. The author writes about reincarnation, a subject which makes me uneasy, for I share many of the Buddhist beliefs and values, but reincarnation seems somewhat implausible. There are moments when you see someone who feels so special and familiar, that the only likely explanation seems to be that you have met before. However, upon scrutiny, you both come to understand that it did not happen in “this” life, because you have lived on differen...