Tag Archives: Jamestown

Gawd, I must be the slowest reader in the literary field and close reading has only added to my time spent on a novel. Overall, I enjoyed Matthew Sharpe’s Jamestown.  The writing in this particular book did not strike me … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Quite an interesting ending, but I have to think on it some more. I see apathy and I see human nature, and yet I see a spark of hope in that the name of the game is mere survival after … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Although I suppose the entire story is metaphor for the way society is going to hell in a handbasket, Sharpe doesn’t seem to use a lot of metaphor–or else it’s beyond the scope of my intelligence to catch.  But this … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There’s some good stuff here and I think you need to be in the frame of mind to read and catch it.  Johnny Rolfe and Pocahontas are finally text-messaging and it brings in yet another form of communicating story that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Here I was, thinking that overall, Sharpe’s prose wasn’t anything to write home about when I came across some use of language that set imagery in mind that may emulate Cormac McCarthy’s often blunt and emotionless images when it comes … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Of course, natural resources are at a premium, but in these "after the day the earth…" novels, I’m always curious as to exactly what happened that could devastate the ground and animals yet leave people to survive.  "Good.  We’re running … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In this multiple point of view, first person narrative, it is usually narrator reliability that may be questioned. Here, however, I find it points more directly to the creator of the many voices, that being Matthew Sharpe himself. I just … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Up to this point in the story, I’ve sort of gotten a feeling of the Three Stooges meet Planet of the Apes.  There has been a dramatic effect–whatever the cause–on the two societies which we are seeing.  Both are mistrustful … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Have gotten through some more of Jamestown in between other demands and what I’m seeing now is rather a clever employment of multiple POV in combination with the characters preparing psychological evaluation of each other via Rorschach testing. What this … Continue reading → Continue reading →

One thing about an apocalyptic novel is that you don’t have to understand 1) what happened to cause the disruption of the human race–unless of course the author wants to make a statement about things like war, toxic poisoning of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

While Sharpe might have continued on in his pattern of first person pov of Johnny Rolfe and Pocahontas in alternating chapters, he has wisely introduced some new characters viewpoints.  These characters have already been mentioned in the previous chapters so … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There’s some good stuff here, where Sharpe endows Pocahontas with some intriguing ideas: So there I was, spread languidly on the divan (…) minding my own business, and minding the business of the large looking glass on the wall opposite … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Okay, so here is where Sharpe starts to lose me.  The arrow attack didn’t last long.  Newport, our driver, stopped it with an automatic assault rifle. (…) With his single arm he wasn’t too precise with it, but didn’t have … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Sharpe hasn’t really given us a good view of the environment of the story, either by Johnny Rolfe, riding the bus from New York to Virginia, or from Pocahontas, who has given us merely a cornfield and woods.   But when … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m having a problem with the character of Pocahontas.  From a naive teen to a serious-minded protester against government policy is a stretch.  No doubt, the use of ESL can be put as part of the problem, but I don’t … Continue reading → Continue reading →