Author post Musings on Proust, part 3 7 Apr 2020 I am halfway through A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, and here Proust meanders onward, ever onward...except when he goes left, or right, or back for a while, or…
Author post Musings on Proust, Part 2 31 Mar 202031 Mar 2020 Finished Du coté de chez Swann last night.... Okay, I'm beginning to wonder whether I feel about Proust (so far, having read one volume out of seven, each of which…
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: 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…
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…
Author post The “American” Novel 8 Sep 20199 Sep 2019 I realized recently that I have been reading a great many novels by British writers lately. This includes, of course, novels by immigrants to the UK, or by indigenous British…
book review Book Review: “Life and Fate,” by Vasily Grossman 7 Jul 20198 Sep 2019 Life and Fate, by Vasily Grossman. It is no surprise that a book with perhaps the most Russian title ever--Life and Fate--weighs in at 871 pages in its English translation.…
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.…
Author post Progress Report 2 May 2019 In a recent post, I expressed my relief and amazement at having finished the second draft of my fourth real novel. (I wrote several novels in my twenties, but they…
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