Author post… Musings on Proust, Part 8 27 Dec 202027 Dec 2020 If only Proust were not so parsimonious with his comic writing! Just laughed through a short section in the salon scene of "Le coté de Guermantes," book II, with Mme.…
book review Mini-Review: Patti Smith’s “Year of the Monkey” 6 Oct 20207 Oct 2020 Just finished Patti Smith's Year of the Monkey. Superbly written, with echoes of Pound and Bukowski, among others, and an overall feel similar to chapter 14 in Joyce's Ulysses, with…
Author post… Musings on Proust, Part Seven 12 Sep 2020 Hmm...the next book I called in to my library has not arrived yet, leaving me with only Proust for a day or two. While I have to admit that he…
book review Mini-Review: “He Came in with It: a Portrait of Motherhood and Madness,” by Miriam Feldman 22 Aug 202022 Aug 2020 He Came in with It: a Portrait of Motherhood and Madness, by Miriam Feldman I won't do a full review of this intense and engaging memoir, because I've known the…
Author post… Musings on Proust, part Six 21 Jun 2020 I am done (shall I say, "at long last"?) with A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, Tome II of La recherche. When last we left our hero, he was…
Author post… Musings on Proust, part 5 13 May 202013 May 2020 I have at last finished with part 2 of tome 2, and I must give Proust some credit: the sentence structure is less tormented now, though the protagonist is more…
Author post… Musings on Proust, Part 4 15 Apr 202016 Apr 2020 Having finished not with A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs as I had at first vainly imagined, but only Part 1 of Tome 2, I prepare to plunge into…
book review Mini-Review: “River,” by Esther Kinsky 17 Feb 202018 Feb 2020 River, by Esther Kinsky Esther Kinsky's recent book, River, is not easy to categorize. Is it: A novel? A collection of linked short stories? An extended prose poem? A series…
book review Mini Review: “Always Happy Hour,” by Mary Miller 27 Dec 2019 Always Happy Hour, by Mary Miller Always Happy Hour is a satisfying and ultimately dismaying collection of short stories that could have been a country & western song, and probably…
book review Mini-Review: Yiyun Li’s “Where Reasons End” 18 Dec 2019 I just finished Yiyun Li's Where Reasons End, which might be called a conceptual novel, an experimental novel, perhaps an experimental memoir, or perhaps just a heart-wrenching and intellectually-challenging good…
