Books

Fuse Book Review: The Novels of Mathias Énard — Probing the Intersection of Politics and Conscience

October 24, 2014
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Although Street of Thieves is less accomplished than Zone, it once again displays how Mathias Énard is seeking new ways to talk political issues in precise, often gripping prose.

Book Commentary: Patrick Modiano — An Oddly Elliptical Choice for the Nobel Prize for Literature

October 23, 2014
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Patrick Modiano’s simple sentences pull one in; the nostalgia of loss and pain of youth and the hunt for a vague, romantic Other are easy to relate to.

Book Review: Lunacy Trumps Religion When It Comes To Peace in the Middle East

October 20, 2014
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Religion occupies pride of place in this volume. As Lawrence Wright says at the outset: “The struggle for peace at Camp David is a testament to the enduring force of religion in modern life”

Book Interview: The Boston Book Festival — Six Years On and Thriving

October 18, 2014
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“The Boston Book Festival is doing really well. It feels like an established part of Boston’s cultural scene.”

Poetry Review: “Gabriel, A Poem” — A Terrible Beauty

October 17, 2014
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Gabriel is a searing experience to read, filled with sadness but also humor and forbearance, and may give comfort to parents who are dealing with difficult children.

Book Review: Associate Justice Antonin Scalia — A Judge Who Refuses to Evolve

October 15, 2014
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Bruce Allen Murphy conveys the impression that Scalia knows how he feels on every issue before the briefs have been argued.

Book Review: “Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh” — A Definitive Biography of One of Our Most Important Playwrights

October 14, 2014
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The biography is a remarkable read. It has all the hefty research you’d expect from a scholarly work, yet the story is told through prose fit for a great novel.

Book Review: In Quest of the Elemental — André du Bouchet’s “Openwork”

October 13, 2014
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André du Bouchet writes the kind of poetry that other poets ponder, perhaps resist or even reject for a while, yet inevitably return to study even if (or because) their own poetics are starkly dissimilar to his.

Book Review: Merritt Tierce’s Smart and Ruthless “Love Me Back” — The Way We Live Now

October 13, 2014
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So much of what this novel has to say feels bracing and necessary. This is where a good part of America lives—dangling over a chasm.

Book Review: “The Great Gatsby” — The Greatest American Novel?

October 11, 2014
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There’s no debate: The Great Gatsby is the Great American Novel, with Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn as also-rans.

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