book review Book Review: Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Klara and the Sun” 10 Apr 202111 Mar 2022 in Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro has produced yet another novel that is equal parts peculiar and affecting, in this case the story of an advanced AI in humanoid…
book review Micro-Review: “Blindness” 6 Mar 2021 Blindness, by José Saramago Just finished Saramago's Blindness, a bad choice to read during an actual pandemic, but a excellent if often brutal novel...though it is really more of an extended…
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…
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…
Author post Musings on Proust, Part 1 27 Mar 202027 Mar 2020 I have at last begun reading Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. While the coronavirus pandemic and its accompanying restrictions have given me more time to read, I actually…
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…
book review Micro-Review: “Cities I Never Lived In,” by Sara Majka 12 Dec 201912 Dec 2019 I just finished a collection of linked short stories, Cities I've Never Lived in, by Sara Majka. This is a collection of linked short storiesI heard of from some ten-best…