Commonplace Book: Jacques Barzun on Criticism
Jacques Barzun on the art of reviewing. Continue reading Commonplace Book: Jacques Barzun on Criticism
Jacques Barzun on the art of reviewing. Continue reading Commonplace Book: Jacques Barzun on Criticism
Drugs are bad. Over at CCLaP, I review The Heroin Chronicles, edited by Jerry Stahl. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: The Heroin Chronicles, edited by Jerry Stahl
Over at CCLaP, I reviewed The Lazarus Machine: a Tweed & Nightingale Adventure, by Paul Crilley. Steampunk fun for those who like the witty dialogue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Warehouse 13 Continue reading CCLaP Mini-review: The Lazarus Machine: a Tweed & Nightingale Adventure, by Paul Crilley
Alexander Theroux has a character that doesn’t like Boston very much. Continue reading Commonplace Book: Alexander Theroux on Boston
Today’s book review: “The Blue Kind,” a dystopian drug novel by Chicago-area author Kathryn Born, and put out by academic imprint Switchgrass. Says reviewer Karl Wolff, “More novelists writing in science fiction should take these kinds of chances.” Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: The Blue Kind, by Kathryn Born
Nothing Serious, by Daniel Klein is “. . . a rollicking farce . . . a tightly plotted comedic tale with a genuine emotional center and a sharp satirical wit.” Continue reading Nothing Serious, by Daniel Klein @ NYJB
Today I interview Joao Cerqueira, the Portuguese writer who wrote The Tragedy of Fidel Castro. We discuss God, Communism, and art. Continue reading An Interview with Joao Cerqueira
Today at CCLaP, Karl Wolff reviews “Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe,” by M. Henderson Ellis, a comedic ride through post-communist Prague with John Shirting in his quest to set up a coffee franchise. Says Karl, “Like some madcap mashup of ‘Confederacy of Dunces’ and ‘The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.'” Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe, by M. Henderson Ellis
Peru not only overturns the notion of nostalgia for childhood but also overturns the very foundations of the novel itself. Continue reading Peru by Gordon Lish @ The New York Journal of Books
I. Burial of the Dead April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarden, And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch. And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s, My cousin’s, he took me out … Continue reading Commonplace Book: April is the cruelest month …