• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
  • Donate

The Arts Fuse

Boston's Online Arts Magazine: Dance, Film, Literature, Music, Theater, and more

  • Podcasts
  • Coming Attractions
  • Reviews
  • Short Fuses
  • Interviews
  • Commentary
  • The Arts
    • Performing Arts
      • Dance
      • Music
      • Theater
    • Other
      • Books
      • Film
      • Food
      • Television
      • Visual Arts

Books

World Chess Culture: Cold War Checkmate

“White King and Red Queen: How the Cold War Was Fought on the Chess Board” By Daniel Johnson. Houghton Miffilin, 384 pages, $26 Reviewed by Harvey Blume The book’s thesis about the Cold War is that chess was nothing less than sublimated war between the US and the USSR. For something that is neither war, […]

By: Harvey Blume Filed Under: Books, Featured, World Books Tagged: Books, chess, Cold-War, Daniel-Johnson, Featured, Short Fuse, White-King-and-Red-Queen, World Books

Book Review: La Fontaine’s Beasts Still Know Best

Norman R. Shapiro took on the Herculean task of translating the 17th century French poet’s work—some 240 poems in all—in increments of fifties. He has performed the difficult task with wit and panache.

By: Arts Fuse Editor Filed Under: Books, Featured, Review, World Books Tagged: Books, Featured, Jean-de-la-Fontaine, Norman-Shapiro, World Books

David Hinton on Translating Classical Chinese Poetry

By Bill Marx Translator and poet David Hinton in the midst of nature. On this week’s World Books podcast I talk to David Hinton, an award-winning translator of classical Chinese poetry and philosophy. His latest book, which Hinton translated and edited, is “Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology” from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. The wonderfully rich […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured, Podcast, World Books Tagged: Books, Classical-Chinese-Poetry, David-Hinton, Featured, Podcast, World Books

Book Review: David Grossman’s Lost Faith

by Bill Marx “Writing in the Dark” By David Grossman. Translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen Farrar, Straus Giroux, 131 pages, $18 Israeli novelist David Grossman fears his country is losing its soul. In this stirring but slim collection essays on the intersection of politics and literature by celebrated Israeli novelist David (“See Under: […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured Tagged: Books, David-Grossman, Featured, Persona Non Grata, Uncategorized, writing-in-the-dark

Ellen Elias-Bursac on Writing from the Former Yugoslavia

By Bill Marx Translator Ellen Elias-Bursac On this week’s World Books podcast I talk to Ellen Elias-Bursac, who translates the work of two of my favorite writers from the former Yugoslavia: David Albahari and Dubravka Ugresic. Elias-Bursac is currently living in the Netherlands, but she recently visited Boston, so I got a chance to talk […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured, Podcast, World Books Tagged: Books, David-Albahari, Dubravka-Ugresic, Ellen-Elias-Bursac, Featured, Nobodys-Home, Podcast, Words-are-Something-Else, World Books

World Theater: Sucked Dry, or Let Romania Speak for Itself

By Bill Marx Earlier this month, Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, stoked up the cultural consternation machine when he implied that American writers are too provincial to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. American literary life is “too isolated, too insular” he opines, its writers don’t translate particularly well and they aren’t […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured, Theater, World Books Tagged: American-Repertory-Theatre, Anne-Washburn, Books, Featured, Norman-Manea, Persona Non Grata, the-communist-dracula-pageant, Theater, World Books

Dubravka Ugresic Writes a Book That Dares to Bicker

By Bill Marx Novelist and critic Dubravka Ugresic On this week’s World Books podcast I talk to novelist and cultural critic Dubravka Ugresic about her latest volume of trenchant essays and commentaries, “Nobody’s Home” (Translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursac). My conversation with Ugresic circles around her contention that, despite European enthusiasm for culture, […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured, Podcast, World Books Tagged: Books, Duvravka-Ugresic, Featured, Nobodys-Home, Open-Letter, Persona Non Grata, Podcast, World Books

Theatre Review: ‘The Winter’s Tale’

By Caldwell Titcomb “The Winter’s Tale” is one of the glories of our theatrical inheritance. Of Shakespeare’s total output, the Big Four tragedies stand at the head. Then comes “Twelfth Night,” the greatest comedy in our language. Next I would place “The Winter’s Tale” as the finest of the late romances, though most people would […]

By: Caldwell Titcomb Filed Under: Books, Featured, Theater Tagged: Actors-From-the-London-Stage, Books, Caldwell-Titcomb, Featured, The-Winters-Tale, Theater, William-Shakespeare

Jose Agualusa on Thinking Like a Gecko

By Bill Marx In World Books podcast #13 I talk to Angolan writer José Agualusa, who has garnered considerable praise in the Portuguese-speaking world, including comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. José Eduardo Agualusa at the Brooklyn Book Fair with Dedi Felman, his American editor, behind him. He has had three novels translated into English, each […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured, Podcast, World Books Tagged: Books, Featured, Jose-Agualusa, Podcast, The-Book-of-the-Chameleons, World Books

Book Review: The Genially Surreal World of Conjoined Twins

By Bill Marx In his conversation with me for the World Books podcast, Irish novelist and playwright Sebastian Barry insists that, unlike imaginative writers in Eastern Europe, who seem to have dried up after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Irish authors are making good use of their recent freedom to talk about the corruption […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured, World Books Tagged: Books, Featured, John-Austin-Connolly, Persona Non Grata, The-Boys-from-Siam, World Books

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 165
  • Go to page 166
  • Go to page 167
  • Go to page 168
  • Go to page 169
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 177
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Search

Popular Posts

  • Jazz Commentary: Billy Cobham, Then and Now — An Awesome Jazz Drummer Billy Cobham plays right on top of the beat, and his gr... posted on January 4, 2023
  • The 17th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll: A Profusion of Geniuses This is the 17th annual edition of the Francis Davis Ja... posted on January 6, 2023
  • Film Feature: Best Music Documentaries of 2022 2022 in music documentaries: Ten worth streaming, plus... posted on December 31, 2022
  • Theater Review: The Proudly Woke “Some Like It Hot” Musical Is a Genuine Blast Some Like It Hot is a terrifically entertaining – and t... posted on January 3, 2023
  • The 17th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll — My Poll Without Me This most recent poll also proves the worth of the poll... posted on January 6, 2023

Social

Follow us:

Footer

  • About Us
  • Advertising/Underwriting
  • Syndication
  • Media Resources
  • Editors and Contributors

We Are

Boston’s online arts magazine since 2007. Powered by 70+ experts and writers.

Follow Us

Monthly Archives

Categories

"Use the point of your pen, not the feather." -- Jonathan Swift

Copyright © 2023 · The Arts Fuse - All Rights Reserved · Website by Stephanie Franz