Author: Jess Kadow
Memories
| April 6, 2013 | Posted by Jess Kadow under creative writing |
Your life is your memories. That is what you always told me, when we would go racing away in the little convertible to another exciting location, our hands pressed together whenever we didn’t need to use the gear stick. Or even when we were at home tucked up in a blanket in front of a film with a shrink wrapped pizza. Even little adventures were adventures you would say, going into the kitchen to grab a beer. I remember worrying about the wrinkles round my face because of how my cheeks threatened to burst with smiling. It seems so empty now, when all I have are those memories. Me as a young girl, sitting on the sofa in the harsh… more
War
| June 15, 2012 | Posted by Jess Kadow under creative writing |
She looks down at her hands. The cracked skin stares back up at her, neglected and torn. The skeletal fingers taper to an end in sharp points. She clasps those hands together and holds them against herself. It feels like an embrace, a protective layer of bones and muscle warming her heart from the cold grip of loneliness. She moves her head to rest down on one her knuckles, traces them with her lips, blowing air across them to warm them and try and give them more life. She squeezes her eyes shut. If she keeps moving, shifting, she thinks she won’t have any time to stop and think about her life. The dull abyss that is her existence and… more
Black Hole
| February 9, 2012 | Posted by Jess Kadow under creative writing |
A dark room appears from behind the slow, creaking swing of the door. Dull, yellow light illuminates a small portion of the wall on one side, emanating weakly from a faded lampshade, the original colour of which is unknown. Dirty, bare walls. No nostalgic, framed photographs of old memories or beloved family members. No cork boards littered with scraps of the past, no mirrors to reflect light around the room. Darkness prevails. In defiance, the ground lies cluttered with slivers of faded white: pages from ragged books, smashed glass glittering in the corners, splinters of white-washed wood. Scattered paper, torn at the edges, floats ghost-like across the dusty floor, disturbed by the breeze of fresh air from the outside. It… more
A guide to the classics: Jane Eyre
| September 27, 2011 | Posted by Jess Kadow under guide to the classics |
After enjoying Wuthering Heights so much, I had assumed that the talents of Emily Brontë would triumph in my heart over those of Charlotte, the older and more widely acclaimed sister, but one whose tales do not inhabit the same gothic genre as the wild and passionate abode of Heathcliff and Catherine. How wrong I was. Jane Eyre is packed full of misery and pain in their most raw forms, but they are also mingled with the scents of hope and love, making it beautifully sad when Jane’s fortunes stumble into the gutter but providing a feeling of elation when she picks herself back up again. The life of the plain orphan girl, who begins her struggle for happiness in the… more
A guide to the classics: Lady Chatterley’s Lover
| September 20, 2011 | Posted by Jess Kadow under guide to the classics |
Controversial novels such as this one inspire intrigue beyond the usual lure of the printed page, not only because they have been deemed inappropriate for a substantial amount of time, but because it is our nature as humans to desire what is denied us. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, written by D. H. Lawrence in 1928 but not published in the UK until 1961, tempted the reader with its promise of hidden secrets, kept locked up within its pages until it was so suddenly attainable for the public, declaring the decade of free love, passion and sensuality. D. H. Lawrence, it is described in the introduction to my particular copy, intended for there to be no “obscene” sections, a word that many… more
A guide to the classics: The Catcher in the Rye
| September 13, 2011 | Posted by Jess Kadow under guide to the classics |
I don’t want to sound too judgemental or put anyone off right from the start, but The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was possibly the worst book I have ever read. I’ve refrained from calling it a novel because I’m not sure it deserves to be labelled as one. And it definitely does not deserve to be called a classic. What would you expect from a classic novel? A captivating plot filled to the brim with intrigue and shocking twists? An exhilarating journey where you live life along with the characters, overflowing with sympathy at their tragedies and rejoicing at their successes? A feeling of satisfaction when you reach the climactic ending and turn over the last page?… more
A guide to the classics: Animal Farm
| August 30, 2011 | Posted by Jess Kadow under guide to the classics |
Whilst I could have picked the more obvious choice of 1984, the novel that made George Orwell truly famous, Animal Farm is a short and succinct book which seems to have formed the building blocks of its better known successor. Written four years earlier, in 1945, Animal Farm is a metaphorical journey into the realm of revolution and Communism in an altogether different avenue then many have tried before and since. Taking the rather innocent world of the farm animal, Orwell shows the good intentions that began the Communist, or, as termed in the book, Animalist, regime and how it can be twisted and corrupted by the trappings of power, a topic which comes into its own when combined with… more
A guide to the classics: Wuthering Heights
| August 23, 2011 | Posted by Jess Kadow under guide to the classics |
Despite the fact that many people’s first reaction to the title Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is to sing lines from the Kate Bush song, this novel has clearly made enough impact in the literary world for it to be considered one of the staple classics along with Austen’s novels. But Wuthering Heights is far from the cosy world of arranged marriages and family tiffs of Pride and Prejudice. It conveys an entirely new world comprising of deep, raw emotion and violence that is beautifully offset by the simultaneously dangerous and passionate setting of the misty moorland, a setting which reflects the isolation of the characters as well as contributing to the gothic atmosphere Brontë creates. Even the name boasts… more
A guide to the classics: Doctor Zhivago
| August 2, 2011 | Posted by Jess Kadow under guide to the classics |
For anyone who has been forced to delve deep into the depths of the Soviet Union’s past in order to complete an A-level exam, as I have, the name of the famous novel Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak will certainly be a familiar one. In a daring act against the state, Pasternak wrote this 600-page brick of a book, which criticises the regime and highlights the true suffering evident in the time of both the First World War and the sacred 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, in an attempt to shed some light on the truth of the past instead of swallowing the lies of the leaders. This fact was something that Khrushchev, leader of the USSR in 1957 when the book… more
A guide to the classics: Pride and Prejudice
| July 26, 2011 | Posted by Jess Kadow under guide to the classics |
In a completely different vein from last time, it is time to move away from the wilderness of the island jungle and towards the prim and proper world of 19th century Britain for a glimpse into the life of Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s famous novel Pride and Prejudice. This may not seem thrilling, but if you’re aiming for excitement and action then you will not be able to squeeze much more than a drop out of this particular novel. Saying this aloud in my house may be considered treacherous, considering my mother has named it her favourite book and “snuggling down with a bit of Colin Firth” has become a euphemism for watching the film. But, in truth, whilst the novel… more
