book review Mini-Review: “The Lying Life of Adults” 27 Jan 2021 The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante In short: I loved it! An intense, passionate, honest, vulgar, and sublime poetic telling of the young girl's coming-of-age in crime-ridden Naples.…
book review Mini-Review: “Lithium for Medea” 20 Jan 2021 Lithium for Medea, by Kate Braverman An odd, passionate, and almost-perfect novel, written in a gush of negative ecstasy that echoes Allen Ginsberg's best work in but prose form, probably…
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 Book Review: “Ducks, Newburyport,” by Lucy Ellman 30 Nov 2019 Ducks, Newburyport is a new novel both celebrated and feared for its audacity: a single stream-of-consciousness sentence nearly one thousand pages long, paused but not interrupted by concisely-written chapters of a…
book review Mini Review: “Lawn Boy,” by Jonathan Evison 13 Jun 201915 Jun 2019 Lawn Boy, by Jonathan Evison If you threw J. D. Salinger, Oscar Wilde, Jack London, and maybe Gerald Durrell into a blender, added a spoonful of Warhol and a dollop…
book review Mini Review: “Neon in Daylight,” by Hermione Hoby 18 May 201918 May 2019 Neon in Daylight, by Hermione Hoby I'm of two minds about this book. I enjoyed it well enough that I am glad I read it, and I do recommend it.…
book review Book Review: Anna Burns’s “Milkman” 28 Jan 201929 Jan 2019 Milkman, by Anna Burns This book shares some characteristics with Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet, which by chance I read just before picking Milkman up at the library: both explore themes…
book review Book Review: “Republic of Drivers,” by Cotton Seiler 5 Oct 2018 If you're interested in the cultural matrices that make up US culture, you can't avoid studying the country's obsession with cars. Here's my review of a well-written and thorough study…
Author post… Quickie Book Review: Salman Rushdie’s “Fury” 24 Mar 201824 Mar 2018 Just finished Salman Rushdie's Fury. This was my first taste of Rushdie, and it disappointed me. The protagonist is the usual brilliant academic undergoing a midlife crisis. (True, he is…
