Books

Book Review: “Havel: A Life” — A Splendid Biography of a Seminal Artist/Statesman

November 24, 2014
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What this magisterial biography does so well is give us an even-handed portrait of a remarkable, flawed man who is obsessed with a need to help the disenfranchised.

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Book Review: Into the Labyrinth of Fragmentary Memories — The Novels of Patrick Modiano

November 19, 2014
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The prose of Patrick Modiano, this year’s Nobel prizewinner, has a distinctive French style whose directness and grammatical limpidity by no means exclude semantic depth and complexity.

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Poetry Review: “Long Way Back to the End” — Zero to the Icy Bone

November 17, 2014
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American poet Paul B. Roth is keenly aware that a striking phrase can set a dream in motion.

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Book Review: “The Pushcart War” — One for the 99%

November 14, 2014
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First published in 1964, Jean Merrill’s classic children’s novel has just been reissued by New York Review Books to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

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Book Review: Jack Kerouac in Mexico — Fiction Dressed as Fact

November 13, 2014
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Reading this book is like listening to a lively conversation from a self-proclaimed Kerouac authority giving his opinions over a café con leche late at night at Cafe Pamplona in Harvard Square.

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Fuse Book Review: “The Betrayers” — A Powerful Vision of Jewish Life and its Contradictions

November 9, 2014
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It took me until I was nearly done with The Betrayers to step back and realize that one reason I found it so absorbing is that alienation plays no part.

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Book Review: In the Dutch Golden Age – When Science Becomes Profitable

November 9, 2014
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Cutting edge scholar Dániel Margócsy has penned a fascinating study about the early collisions of art, profit, and science.

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Book Review: The Story of the ‘Hand Grenade’ — Emmanuel Carrère’s Biography of the Russian Writer Eduard Limonov

November 5, 2014
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A compelling chronicle of the life of the notorious Russian writer and political activist Eduard Limonov.

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Book Interview: No Guns — No Civil Rights?

November 5, 2014
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“If you’re dead you won’t have a movement, and guns kept people alive. In particular, kept people who made the movement alive.”

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Book Review: “Stealing All Transmissions” — How The Clash Conquered America

November 3, 2014
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Stealing All Transmissions is slim, but nearly every page is filled with insight and originality.

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