Search Results: roberta silman

Fuse Book Review: “The Translator” — A Bumpy Quest Novel

October 31, 2013
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Nina Schuyler’s uneven novel raises some interesting questions in the course of the protagonist’s quest, and there are many fascinating details about Japan and Noh plays and the power of silence.

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Book Review: “The House of Doors” — Changing Skies and Expanding Visions

November 2, 2023
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Against all odds, these characters test the limits of what were considered “normal lives” at that time. The testing is what gives “The House of Doors” its urgency and intimacy.

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Book Review: “Thinner Than Skin” — Ambitious to a Fault

January 8, 2013
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Uzma Aslam Khan is a wonderful writer whose descriptions of the northern part of Pakistan and the fast fading way of life that had been lived there for hundreds of years are sometimes stunning.

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Concert Review: Mirror Visions — An Extraordinary Vocal Ensemble

January 25, 2016
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I urge anyone interested in the voice and or just terrific music to try to attend one of Mirror Visions’ concerts.

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Book Commentary: The Emperor of Lies = The Emperor’s New Clothes?

September 6, 2011
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Should we fictionalize the Holocaust? This is not only a literary question, but a moral one as well, issues raised by the publication of the translation of “The Emperor of Lies,” a novel about the ways in which the Jews in the Lodz ghetto struggled to survive the Nazis.

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Theater Review: “Time Stands Still” — After Trauma

September 25, 2019
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In this seemingly modest, but beautifully constructed and deeply moving play, Donald Margulies has tackled some of the thorniest questions of our time.

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Film Review: “Archie’s Betty” — A Charming Documentary about Comic Book Americana

June 11, 2015
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Here is a terrific documentary that will appeal to people who grew up in the mid-20th century and also their children and grandchildren.

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Music Commentary: The 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute

August 27, 2016
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If any of you are harboring a budding young musician, investigate the possibility of he or she attending BUTI.

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Fuse Poetry Review: “Gabriel, A Poem” — A Terrible Beauty

October 17, 2014
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Gabriel is a searing experience to read, filled with sadness but also humor and forbearance, and may give comfort to parents who are dealing with difficult children.

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Book Commentary: Philip Roth — American Warnings

June 13, 2018
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In the end, Philip Roth produced the greatest body of work in the 20th century since William Faulkner and Saul Bellow and I.B. Singer.

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