Monday, May 2 2011
88 Highly Debatable Statements About ‘Reality’ in ‘Reality Hunger’
When I review a book, I like to dog-ear pages that contain interesting passages or noteworthy statements. By the time I was done with Reality Hunger, my paperback was so puffed up by pages that were doubled in width from dog-earing that it looked like I'd dropped it into a hot bath filled with Calgon and then left it to dry on a radiator.
Tuesday, May 4 2010
The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn
Freely mixing fact with fiction, Jerome Charyn's Emily Dickinson lusts after a handyman while boarding at Holyoke, visits rum resorts with her huge dog Carlo, and still finds time to bake a great loaf of bread.
Monday, February 15 2010
Point Omega by Don DeLillo
Entirely too long at 117 pages, Don DeLillo’s latest novel was inspired by an installation at the Museum of Modern Art in 2006 called 24 Hour Psycho.
Friday, January 29 2010
The Paris Review Interviews, Vols. 1-4, Edited by Philip Gourevitch
If you love to read, love to write, or are simply curious about how great authors think and talk about their craft, you’ll find these interviews endlessly fascinating.
Tuesday, January 26 2010
How to Hold a Woman by Billy Lombardo
This debut novel-in-stories examines the way an American family deals with the murder of their daughter and the fractured relationships that exist as a result.
Tuesday, November 10 2009
The Humbling by Philip Roth
Simon Axler, a stage and screen actor of near legendary stature, has earned the “reputation as the last of the best of the classical American stage actors.” The novel begins: “He’d lost his magic.”
Wednesday, November 4 2009
Nicholson Baker’s Enthusiasms and Passionate Obsessions
Nicholson Baker writes from his enthusiasms, which are many and ever changing. Among other things, his books have focused on sex, John Updike, public libraries, and pacifism and World War II. His latest, The Anthologist, is his love letter to poetry.
Thursday, October 22 2009
Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow
In this book, E. L. Doctorow is like a great magician trying to make a monumental illusion out of a street corner shell game, just to prove that he can.
Friday, September 4 2009
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Moore’s reputation is for mastery of the short story. This book, almost 10 years in the making, should establish her as a master of the novel, as well.
Wednesday, February 18 2009
Novel: 808s & Mixtapes
A mixtape that's quick and to the point? Yes, and it's dope, too.
