#james hynes

[thecordedbed]

16 pages in and I'm already dreading what's about to happen.

20 pages in and I've had to put the book aside for a moment while I prepare.

I'd die happy if I could write this effectively.

[thecordedbed]

Peacock by James Hynes

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Sparrow comes another spellbinding historical epic set in the last days of a dying Roman empire

Oh god there's a sequel to Sparrow and I read the reviews and it's going to be just as difficult and brilliant and I've ordered it even though it's going to kill me

[andreviernes]

Book Buffet: Reviews of the Latest I’ve Read

For my last blog post of this year, I’d like to give my thoughts on two special novels I read:

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Literary fiction; historical fiction; romance; music

In the 70s, I remember sitting on the bus in elementary school and hearing “Thunder Only Happens When It’s Raining . . .” from the radio. In the 80s, I remember watching Fleetwood Mac videos on MTV. I grew up hearing their music. So when I found out there is a book based — loosely based — on the Fleetwood Mac of the late 70s, I was interested. Since I had already recently read and liked Taylor Jenkind Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I wanted to check this one out. Daisy Jones & the Six is filled with raw emotion. Emotions. It’s a quick read and I came to appreciate out normal my life is. I am also watching the tv show based on the novel, so I’m enjoying that too.

Sparrow by James Hynes

Historical fiction

This is the controversial but beautifully written story of a boy sold into slavery in 4th-century Roman-occupied Spain. Former writing professor James Hynes has created an immersive novel from the viewpoint of Jacob, a very young boy who works in the kitchen of a brothel in a Mediterranean coastal town.

Note: spoilers ahead

So, let’s talk about the controversy. I had listened to Hynes’s book Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques, and after I finished, I wanted to read one of his fiction books. Coincidentally, Sparrow was just about to be released, so I ordered it.

This is a fantastic story. Hynes’s research into this village’s customs is evident. His knowledge of teaching fiction and writing it has broken the adage, “Those who can’t, teach.”

But, if you haven’t already guessed, the boy Jacob ends up in sex work against his will. His initiation is a graphic rape scene. It’s pretty horrifying, and the incident goes into heartbreaking detail. Though I found it disturbing, I commend Hynes for showing the truth: sexual slavery is something that has happened all through human history.

The other scenes containing sexual acts were not erotic. They showed the exhaustion and dangers the prostitutes faced every day–the public humiliation. The physical pain. The emotion toil.

I never thought I’d give a trigger warning, but I will with this novel. I have no problem recommending it but be warned. Parts of Sparrow are difficult. This story broke my heart into a thousand pieces, and there’s a good chance it will break yours.

Book Buffet: Reviews of the Latest I’ve Read

For my last blog post of this year, I’d like to give my thoughts on two special novels I read: Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

My Linktree

[quotian]

There were other [names I have had], but I ran out of parchment. There were also the proper names that others have bestowed on me - Mus, Antiochus, Antinous, and that's just during my life in the tavern, but I've never kept a list of those. This is one of the techniques of empire, to possess things by naming them. It's not the prinicple technique, of course - that would be the expenditure of actual violence. But once the violence has been expended and the empire has taken some new person, place, or thing as its own, it gives that person, place or thing a new name and erases the old one. This new name also erases the history of that person, place or thing, as if everything that came before never happened. sparrow - james hynes

[quotian]

That's another one of the conqueror's techniques: the pretense that the empire is eternal, that it will not only last forever, but has always existed. I don't know if the latter is the case; how can I know the truth about the past? I don't even know my own. But I can say with some confidence that empires don't last forever - or at least not the empire I once belonged to. I'm living proof of that, as I sit alone in this crumbling library, the last of my kind, choosing my own name at the end, free by default, writing empire's epitaph. sparrow - james hynes

[theblackestofsuns]

Kings Of Infinite Space (2004)

James Hynes

St. Martin's Press

[a-few-good-books]

I’m a sucker for a good epigraph.

[a-few-good-books]

Surely postmodern scholarship and celebrity murder trials are signs of the Apocalypse.

The Lecturer's Tale, by James Hynes