Books

Book Review: “The Year of the Comet” — Surviving History

February 22, 2017
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This is the work of an extremely talented writer whose prose is spare and exact and has an authenticity that marks him as the real thing.

Book Review and Commentary: Albert Murray’s Non-fiction – A Balm in Columbia

February 21, 2017
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At his best, Albert Murray is a thinker passionately in love with thinking, a virtuoso of verbal music, an American to his core.

A Compendium of Consolations: The Words of Albert Murray

February 21, 2017
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“Art . . . is . . . fundamental equipment for existence on human terms.” — Albert Murray

Book Review: “In the Midnight Hour” — The Tempestuous Life of Wilson Pickett

February 17, 2017
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Tony Fletcher’s research is impeccable, his sources are unimpeachable, and his style is thoroughly engaging.

Book Review: Hebrew Poet Hayim Nahman Bialik — Not the Whole Story

February 13, 2017
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We learn a great deal about Hayim Nahman Bialik’s life in this biography. But the volume does not live up to its subtitle.

Literary Homage: John Berger’s Masterpiece, “A Painter of Our Time”

February 11, 2017
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A Painter of Our Time is a gorgeous rumination on art, love, sexuality, revolution, capitalism, exile, propaganda, politics, human nature, and society.

Book Review: “The Mary Julia Paintings of Joan Brown” — In a Pantheon All its Own

February 9, 2017
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Poet William Benton’s slender and beautiful book can safely be described as sui generis.

Book Review: “The Feud” — Brilliant Literary Frenemies

February 8, 2017
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Alex Beam generates interest via his portrait of frenemies Edmund Wilson and Vladimir Nabokov as brainy but flawed human beings.

Jazz Book Review: “Blue Rhythm Fantasy” — Illuminating the Swing Era

February 8, 2017
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This is more interesting than a sweeping survey, it is a portrait of an African-American musician whose career peaked in the Swing Era.

Poetry Review: Pierre Reverdy’s “Song of the Dead” — Imprisoned in Life

February 7, 2017
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Despite one’s aspirations to another kind of reality, for Pierre Reverdy one is forced to return to one’s fetters.

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