Books

Book Review: A Chance for Peace—”Killing a King”

November 8, 2015
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People like [Yigal Amir] emerge in many social movements, people who regard protest within the bounds of democratic process as insufficient.

Book Review: Victorian Fairy Tales—Sprites Against Realism

October 30, 2015
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What seems to animate many of the fairy tales is a heady freedom from the constraints of realism.

Book Review: “Death by Water” — Imagination, Masterfully Redeemed

October 29, 2015
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Death By Water plumbs the depths of the human condition in an entirely original way.

Book Review: “Neurotic Beauty”—Japanese Therapeutics

October 27, 2015
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Berman finds a submerged psychic and cultural stratum in Japanese culture that might supply possible antidotes to the US’s consumerist and individualist fevers.

Book Review: The Battle of Agincourt Turns 600

October 27, 2015
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Anne Curry’s purpose is not merely to act as a military analyst, but to explore the long cultural history of the battle’s meanings in subsequent British history.

Book Review: “Real Life Rock”— Decades of Quick Hits from Critic Greil Marcus

October 26, 2015
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If Real Life Rock‘s page count seems daunting, fear not. There isn’t an entry you’ll want to skip.

Book Review: “City on Fire”—Epic Literary Kindling

October 24, 2015
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For a long novel, City on Fire is generously accessible and one of its strengths is in its absorbing, immersive momentum.

Book Review: Patrick Modiano’s Maximal Minimalism

October 23, 2015
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These three books by Patrick Modiano are short, intense, and sensuous.

Book Review: Three Early Works from Sci-Fi Master Samuel R. Delany

October 22, 2015
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Taken together, these entertaining early novels present a noteworthy collection—particularly for Samuel R. Delany fans.

Book Review: Towering Rage and Bottomless Mirth—Jonathan Franzen’s “Purity”

October 20, 2015
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My biggest gripe is with a central tenet of Jonathan Franzen’s fiction: communication between generations is impossible.

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