Farcical fight and sex scenes might be forgivable, but the “mystery” is so barely there it utterly fails to engage — and that’s lethal to a novel in this genre.
Book Review: “The Ruins of Ani” — Into the Mystic
The Ruins of Ani illuminates one of those rare places that leaves visitors feeling they might have to dust off the word mystical to describe the experience.
Book Review: “Madonna in a Fur Coat” — Sabahattin Ali’s Extensive Epitaph
It’s worth pointing out that Sabahattin Ali has deliberately reversed traditional gender roles in Madonna in a Fur Coat.
Book Review: “Lost Empress” — A Novel That Takes Chances
Lost Empress’ ambition is admirable, and while the over-the-top style gets away from itself, it’s lively and sometimes entertaining.
Arts Remembrance: “Purified Modernist” William Gass — A Wizard of the Word
William Gass’s primal loyalty was to the words composing his texts.
Book Review: Richard Gessner — Sounding out Shapes with the Logic of Dreams
Richard Gessner’s head is a cavern piled high with wonders—original images, fresh metaphors, mind-stretching scenarios, and alternate world orders.
Poetry Review: Dark Illumination in the “Punk Hotel”
Poet Rob Cook bends time and space at will, dispenses with natural laws when convenient, and shuffles sensory perception like a deck of cards.
Book Review: “Debriefing the President” — Ignorance is Tragedy
So now you know: Saddam’s fearsome weapon of mass destruction was a novel.
Literary Homage: John Berger’s Masterpiece, “A Painter of Our Time”
A Painter of Our Time is a gorgeous rumination on art, love, sexuality, revolution, capitalism, exile, propaganda, politics, human nature, and society.
Arts Remembrance: Homage to Paul West — The Cosmic Range of an Eccentric Genius
“Surely the passion for the plain, the homespun, the banal is itself a form of betrayal, a refusal to look honestly at a complex universe.”