Reading The Sweetest Fruits is like looking at the back of an oriental rug in which the pattern is rather more indistinct than the front but the colors much richer and more vivid.
Books
Book Review: “As a River” — How Secrets Divide
As a River is a sensuously and smoothly written book, a heartfelt meditation on what divides us from each other and from love.
Book Review: Nell Zink’s “Doxology” — Not Eccentric Enough?
Nell Zink’s latest novel is vast, aspiring to epic stature — it’s a curious take on the times that have befallen us.
Book Commentary: “Dying of Whiteness” — What Rough Beast Slouches Toward Kansas to be Born?
Class pressures are exerting themselves, class fault-lines are emerging, and ancient demons are being released as a result.
Book Interview: Jay Wexler on the State of “Our Non-Christian Nation”
The book deals with how Atheists, Wiccans, Summums, Muslims, and Satanists “fought to have their voices heard” in communities dominated by Christians and others who were skeptical of their claim that the First Amendment applies equally to all religions.
Book Review: “De Gaulle” — An Exemplary View of the Man and His Times
For anyone interested in the man or that era, De Gaulle is indispensable.
Book Review: “Rabbit’s Blues” — The Reserved Tenderness of Johnny Hodges
Johnny Hodges was originally a Cambridge/Boston guy, and one of the most interesting sections of Con Chapman biography is his knowledgeable description of the local jazz scene in the 1910’s and ’20s.
Book Review: “The Nickel Boys” — Keeping the Faith
Colson Whitehead’s work is political in the sense that he has an incredibly keen eye for the insidious ways in which institutions and structures of power work.
Book Review: “William Walker’s Wars” — Revisiting US Slavery’s Soldier of Fortune in Latin America
A new biography of the oft-forgotten ‘filibuster’ provides ample facts and little thesis. Is that enough — don’t we need more?
Book Review: A Memorial to Lucette Lagnado’s Two Remarkable Memoirs
To have such a remarkably courageous voice as Lucette Lagnado’s silenced forever at such a young age is, simply, not fair.
