Books

Book Review: The Woman Who Killed Princess Diana?

August 15, 2011
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Perhaps the novel is not the most original read, but AN ACCIDENT IN AUGUST contributes to the growing number of literary meditations on the evolving pathology of celebrity,

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Poetry Review: Daniel Borzutzky — Killing From Too Great A Distance

August 12, 2011
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There is no question that somewhere in this collection poet Daniel Borztuzky is drawing a parallel between bureaucrats and terrorists, between politicians and increasingly dehumanized societies—both in America and abroad—but the connections are like underground cables: I can only guess at where I might dig to uncover them.

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Theater Commentary: Happy 400th Birthday to Ben Jonson’s “Catiline: His Conspiracy”

August 10, 2011
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Multiple Google searches suggest that no one is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the second of Ben Jonson’s tragedies. I don’t think I will live to see a production of CATILINE, but attention should be paid to this awkward but powerful script. Filled with moral strength, perceptive realpolitik, and rich poetry, it proffers a brilliant serio-comic meditation on political gangsterism.

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Book Review: “Deliver Us” — A Memoir of a Boy’s Life in a Small Italian Town

August 9, 2011
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Originally published in 1963, and today considered by some critics a landmark in twentieth century Italian literature, in English Luigi Meneghello’s memoir feels more like a duty than a delight to read.

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Short Fuse: Eternal Recurrence — Freud, Marx, Mao Zedong Thought

August 8, 2011
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What I do suspect though, and find evidence for in BLOODLUST is that Freud is immune to any final dispatch or disproof, and will likely, through one portal or another, go on reinserting himself into our culture.

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Book Review: “The Word Exchange” — A Generous Gift

August 8, 2011
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For everyone who feels the attraction but lacks the study, THE WORD EXCHANGE is a huge gift. It’s the most generous sampling I’ve seen of poetry translated from Old English and collected in one volume.

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Book Review: “Animalinside” — Exploring the Cosmic Intersection Between Painting and Prose

August 5, 2011
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There is an almost Biblical resonance of utter destruction and an improbable, fervid humor in the prose of ANIMALINSIDE as the beast speaks directly to us, its voice moving between trapped panic, cunning hunger, and a vicious savagery.

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Book Review: Violence, a la the Freudian and Biblical canon

July 28, 2011
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Short Fuse thinks Russell Jacoby’s “Bloodlust: On the Roots of Violence from Cain and Abel to the Present” is an unconvincing mix of refurbished Freudianism and Genesis.

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Fuse Opportunity: Arts Fuse Poetry Critic Launches New Series of Courses

July 26, 2011
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An opportunity, via two workshops, to work with ArtsFuse Poetry Critic Daniel Bosch on making poems.

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Fuse Remembrance: Theodore Roszak (1933–2011)

July 22, 2011
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“The main idea I’ve been working with is what I call the longevity revolution.” — Theodore Roszak

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