Books

Book Review: The Fascinating Dribs and Drabs of Tennessee Williams’ Genius

April 16, 2011
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This volume of one-act plays may gather up the whiffs and dregs of Tennessee Williams’ achievement, but their flashes of brilliance are valuable reminders of an artist who kept at his craft, come hell and high water, critical as well as popular.

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Book Review: A Fascinating Meditation on Jewish Maps of Time

April 14, 2011
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“Palaces of Time” is a exquisitely illustrated, elegantly written account of the history of Jewish calendars in early modern Europe, as well as a meditation on what they represented — profound reflections of the Jewish experience as it passed through time.

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Fuse News: Kermit Moyer wins the 2011 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award for Fiction

April 8, 2011
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One of the mandates of the Winship Prize is that it be by a New Englander or set in New England. Moyer is a retired Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at American University who now lives in Eastham on the Cape where he has been writing full time for several years.

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Theater Review: A Pair of Dostoevskian Inquisitions

April 3, 2011
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Dostoevsky’s theater is set on a metaphysical stage — both “The Grand Inquisitor” and “9 Circles” explore whether the actions of its central characters are meaningful or absurd.

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Fuse Book Interview: George Kimball Takes The Library of America to The Fights

April 2, 2011
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Jack London was rather like Norman Mailer in that he thought of himself, and tried to write like, a boxer who happened to write. They were both often full of shit, but that’s the perspective they tried to convey.

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Fuse Book Review: Dance is Participation

April 1, 2011
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Like the Dance Exchange’s staged and site-specific productions, Liz Lerman’s “Hiking the Horizontal” is pieced like a quilt. Like Liz, it’s a little rumpled and gives the reader a lot of permission to go her own way.

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Arts Commentary: What Do We Talk about When We Talk about Cultural Dialogue

March 31, 2011
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An exchange about what meaningful online conversation about the arts and humanities entails. What kind of cultural dialogue would best serve the purpose of the Mass Cultural Council? To focus on the creativity of artists? Or to encourage critical thinking?

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Theater Commentary: Tennessee Williams — Putting What is Inexpressible in Life into Words

March 25, 2011
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I asked Davis Robinson, artistic director of the Beau Jest Moving Theatre, to share his thoughts on the 100th anniversary (March 26th) of the birth of playwright Tennessee Williams.

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Theater Commentary: Tennessee Williams at 100 — A Few Personal Thoughts

March 24, 2011
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Director and woman as I am, I would love to see A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, even The Rose Tattoo, cast with all men. Then I would push some courageous director to attempt to prove on stage that Williams’s final plays are not the work of a declining talent, but…

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Book Review: Time, Beautiful and Cruel — The Story of Composer George Russell

March 23, 2011
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In the best of all possible worlds, Duncan Heining’s biography will be the cornerstone of the edifice that time will erect to the memory of George Russell and his gift to music. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen. In some ways, because of the vagaries of the book business, it’s up…

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