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The Way Up To Heaven by Roald Dahl Short Story Analysis
“The Way Up To Heaven” is a short story by Roald Dahl. Find it in Dahl’s Kiss, Kiss collection (1959). If you don’t much like elevators, this story won’t do you any favours. WHERE TO LISTEN You may be able to unearth the BBC dramatization of this short story somewhere e.g. on YouTube. “The Way […]
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Paranoia by Shirley Jackson Short Story Analysis
“Paranoia” is a noir short story by American writer Shirley Jackson (1916-1965). A man is followed home by a stalker. Or is he?
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Doubt 2008 Film Study
One of my favourite films of all time. The perfect story. I look at how ‘symbolism’ and ‘foreshadowing’ exist on a continuum and sometimes overlap.
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I Am Not A Fox by Wolf and Groenink Analysis
I Am Not A Fox is a picture book written by Karina Wolf and illustrated by Chuck Groenink. If you’ve ever read “The Ugly Duckling” and thought, “hmm, that message has problems”, then this one might be for you.
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Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Byron Barton Analysis
Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport (1980) is an American picture book written by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and illustrated by Byron Barton.
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Court In The West Eighties by Carson McCullers Analysis
Have you ever lived in close quarters with strangers? Perhaps you went out of your way not to know these people, but in the name of etiquette rather than aloofness. There’s something discomfiting about living in a stranger’s pocket. Like commuters on a packed train, we avoid each other’s gaze. Failure to know our neighbours […]
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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead Novel Study
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is ten years old now, published 2009. I’ve seen this middle grade novel described as magical realism, though for knotty political reasons we might prefer to call it fabulism. It is also science fiction and grounded in the real world. It packs a lot into 40k words. There […]
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Olivia And The Missing Toy by Ian Falconer (2003) Analysis
Olivia and the Missing Toy by Ian Falconer shows Olivia the Pig at her most bratty, and her parents at their most indulgent. There are several versions of the book cover of Olivia and the Missing Toy, and the dark one is the scarier of the two. The other is mostly white space, in keeping […]
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The Bus To St James’s by John Cheever Analysis
I bought The Collected Stories of John Cheever as a salve to heal my Mad Men withdrawals, and this is one of Cheever’s stories that absolutely reminds me of Mad Men. Stephen Bruce is a Don Draper character; his daughter is a Sally Draper type. Matt Weiner has cited Cheever as one source of inspiration for Mad […]