Ataraxia

Vassa Zheleznova by Maxim Gorky is not a formidable play, if you ask me, but the performance of George Constantin as Prokhor Khrapov is magnetic, pure magic – you have thousands of reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel, my macaws are the stars of that channel   12 out of 10 for George Constantin, but only 7 out of 10 for the play   I have not been elated by Mother https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/mother-by-maxim-gorky-nine-out-of-10.html the work by Maxim Gorky which has been included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, and I was under the impression that the author has collaborated with the Soviet regime to some extent   I wonder where this work would be in one of the new book clubs; there is an article in The Economist of May 7 to 14 about the...

  Vassa Zheleznova by Maxim Gorky has only four reviews (now five) on Goodreads, and only 52 (53 with this) ratings, furthermore, it does not exist on The Greatest Books of All Time site, which may have some twenty thousand entries or more, although I have found myself at odds with the algorithm they use – you have a few thousand of my reviews here https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   9 out of 10   George Constatin https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-marriage-proposal-by-anton-chekhov.html was the greatest thespian that I know, better than Jack Nicholson, to name just one, maybe the next most formidable competitor, and he makes Vassa Zheleznova worthwhile, at least the version I saw   Otherwise, this is a modest offering, from what was not the best Russian creator, never mind looking at the world at large – these are personal views, ergo stop here, for you may find other utterings offensiv...

  Tropisms aka Tropismes by Nathalie Sarruate is one of Le Monde’s 100 Books of The Century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Monde%27s_100_Books_of_the_Century but does not make it on Realini’s 500 Books To Read compilation http://realini.blogspot.ro/ 8 out of 10     If we look for the definition of tropism, we may fall on the wrong meaning, but that confusion (for those of us less erudite, knowledgeable, educated) is in itself 5hrowing a light on the book that Le Monde has picked to sit along A La Recherche du Temps Perdu on the list of 100 Books of The Century   http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world ? Marcel Proust is the greatest writer that the under signed has ever known http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/un-amour-de-swan-by-marcel-proust.html - there is a video in which Nathalie Sarraute talks about her experience when first reading the magician and everything was taken aside…   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy...

  Ex Machina written and directed by Alex Garland won an Academy Award, and was the 2016 Nominee for The Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, furthermore, the predictions from the narrative appear to take shape in reality – for more notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists you could visit my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   8 out of 10   Alex Garland https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-beach-by-alex-garland-brilliant.html has enchanted this reader with his phenomenal, otherworldly The Beach, wherein this group of Westerners find an isolated place somewhere on an island near Thailand, and it appears to be absolute bliss, until it isn’t anymore…   "Ex machina" is part of the Latin phrase "deus ex machina," meaning "god from the machine," used to describe a sudden, unexpected solution to a seemingly unsolvable problem in a...

  England, Their England by Archibald Gordon Macdonell is included among The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... and on Realini’s Top 100 Comedies, a book you must read indeed http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... 10 out of 10 In my humble view, this is a Magnum opus that will delight any reader that has an open mind and some sense of humor – indeed, it is considered to be one of the 1,000 books we all must read, and seeing that it is a comedy, it could be taken even further to the top, if that is the favorite genre, and it probably is for most audiences – and it is ever so remarkable, if we consider that a good many pages, a whole chapter is dedicated to…cricket, and most of us have no idea about this complicated game… Which means we do not get the humor, those of us that live outside the Anglo- Saxon world and are unfamiliar with its attitudes - even if we have read the chef d’oeuvre Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by magical Angus Wilson http://rea...

  Gran Canary by A.J. Cronin   Normally, Gran Canary and Cronin would not be on my to-read list. Yes, Gran Canaria (in Romanian, as I listened to a Romanian adaptation) sounds appealing, distant and enticing. I have been travelling for too long. When an island is mentioned, I feel like going there…for good. Greece is a place where I would park indefinitely, in Corfu, or another island: Crete, Santorini. Another island, in the Caribbean, but it could Mauritius, Maldives- I am not sure about Vanuatu, but Tahiti sounds nice. Once you settle there, you discover the problems. In Gran Canary, there is an outbreak of fever, but without that, Ed Diener in his book on happiness explains that the islands sound thrilling before you get there. A period of a few weeks is all right, but a longer stay makes you notice the power cuts, the expensive life, due to the difficult access to most of these places. It is not just the islands, the Californian myth was proven to be just that: Daniel Gil...