This is an invaluable gathering of interviews, an impressive excavation of institutional memory that not only recognizes the MFA’s grandeur but its many deficiencies as well.
Books
Book Review: Samuel R. Delany’s “Dhalgren” — A Critical War of Words
The jury’s in. The critics who agreed with an early assessment that 1975’s Dhalgren is a “literary landmark” get to touch champagne flutes and congratulate one another.
Book Review: Mario Vargas Llosa’s “Harsh Times” — A Menagerie of Monsters Great and Petty
Above and beyond Mario Vargas Llosa’s political outlook, his latest novel proves that he remains at heart a master storyteller.
Book Review: “The Anomaly” — We Know Less Than We Think
The Anomaly is an entertaining philosophical critique, suggesting that nothing is as it seems, knowledge is imperfect, and the human predicament will perhaps always be more inexplicable than we can admit to ourselves.
Book Reviews: Two Books on Labels That Forged the Soul Revolution
Two recent books offer illuminating, behind-the-scenes looks at beloved soul music labels. .
Author Interview: David Livingstone Smith on Dehumanization and “Making Monsters”
Making Monsters “is a wake-up call. We need to seriously address the phenomenon of dehumanization if we are to have any hope of constraining it when things get really difficult.”
Book Review: “The Wrong End of the Telescope” — A Stunning Achievement
This is a wonderful novel about a pressing humanitarian subject, Syrian refugees and the people who helped, as well as an exploration of identity and loss and triumph.
Book Review: “Mr. Beethoven” — Alternative Musical History
Beethoven never left Europe. But he could have. And the possibility that he might have visited Boston is the basis of Paul Griffiths’ touching, witty, and thought-provoking new novel.
Book Review: “Running Out” — Drought Time
The sense of loss that necessarily pervades Running Out is balanced is by Lucas Bessire’s lyrical prose, whose consistently crisp beauty serves as a welcome respite.
Book Review: To Compromise With the Mystery Tramp — A Vocal Dissection of Bob Dylan
The book’s main contention is clearly correct: Dylan’s lyrics aren’t everything, and his vocal delivery is eminently important. But, according to Larry Starr, every period is a golden one, and the most minor effort deserves major respect.