Books

Book Review: “Culture Crash” — The People Who Followed Their Bliss Off a Cliff

January 13, 2015
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Truth is, the fraying of the middle class is not just something that has happened to creatives.

Book Review: Miranda July’s “The First Bad Man” — Transforming the Ordinary into the Extraordinary

January 13, 2015
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Miranda July’s originality of vision rests on an acute (and astute) awareness of the cosmic and the quotidian.

Arts Commentary: On Michel Houellebecq, Islamophobia, and “Charlie Hebdo”

January 12, 2015
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It is unlikely that those who turned automatic fire on the staff of Charlie Hebdon ever read Michel Houellebecq.

Poetry Review: Rediscovering Aimé Césaire — The Politics and Poetics of Negritude.

January 8, 2015
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Valuable new translations of Aimé Césaire suggest that we have overemphasized the political dimension of his poetry and overlooked other, purely literary, qualities.

Author Interview: Historian Jason Sokol on Race and Massachusetts — From the Red Sox to Springfield

January 5, 2015
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“I think a lot of people around town are fairly aware of the Red Sox’s checkered history in terms of race.”

Book Review: “The Hilltop: A Novel” — Serious Israeli Comedy

January 3, 2015
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Assaf Gavron’s sweeping, smart, often funny new novel spins a satiric update on Exodus.

Book Review: The Remarkable Life of Storm Jameson — Attention Tenderly Paid

January 2, 2015
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After reading this scholarly and accessible biography, I am convinced that Storm Jameson’s life is a must for anyone fascinated by the history of women writers in the 20th century.

Book Commentary: Dreiser’s “The Titan” Turns 100 — America’s “Downton Abbey”

December 31, 2014
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Theodore Dreiser’s The Titan is not the greatest novel about American business, but it is still among the best, an honorable runner-up that turned 100 this year.

Book Review: “Nagasaki”‘s Diptych of Aloneness

December 29, 2014
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The success of this short novel set in Japan lies in the empathy it creates for a pair of ordinary and lonely characters.

Book Review: “Missing Reels” — Breezy Film Fiction

December 19, 2014
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Ace film blogger Farran Smith Nehme’s first novel grows directly out of her adoration of classic American cinema.

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