Books

Book Review: “Plato at the Googleplex” — A Passionate and Thoughtful Look at Philosophy Today

June 3, 2014
Posted in , , ,

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s erudition, coupled to her literary skill, makes Plato at the Googleplex inviting and readable without sacrificing complexity.

Book Review: “Natura Morta” — A Powerful Still Life in Prose

June 2, 2014
Posted in , ,

The omniscient narrator in Natura Morta is flawlessly neutral, allowing the images, minimal action, and characters’ reactions to the events of this single day in a Roman square to tell the story.

Book Review: The “Lightweight” Gallows Humor of Jean Echenoz

May 29, 2014
Posted in , , ,

Eschewing harrowing realistic description, Jean Echenoz adopts a jocular sardonic approach to the most gruesome battlefield realities.

Book Review: “On Leave” — An Engaging Anti-War Story From France

May 28, 2014
Posted in , , ,

“On Leave” is a worthwhile novel that deserves this English revival because it convincingly conveys the alienation felt by soldiers who return home on a brief leave from hostilities taking place abroad.

Book Review: “The Poets’ Wives” — What Does it Mean to be Married to a Poet?

May 23, 2014
Posted in , ,

Taken as a whole, “The Poets’ Wives” is a fascinating, brave novel whose love of poetry breathes through all three sections.

Arts Remembrance: Polish Poet and Dramatist Tadeusz Różewicz — The Prophet of the Partial, the Herald of the Unfinished

May 22, 2014
Posted in , , ,

Tadeusz Różewicz’s best poems are blunt hammer strokes that pound at the impossibility of crafting poetry true to the sins of history.

Book Review: “The Star of Istanbul” — A Literary Historical Thriller

May 21, 2014
Posted in ,

Robert Olen Butler chose his protagonist wisely. Christopher Marlowe Cobb is a man of both intellect and physicality, of thought and action.

Book Review: “A Place in the Country” — A Heady Tour of W.G. Sebald Country

May 15, 2014
Posted in , , ,

It seems deeply appropriate that a superb book of essays by W.G. Sebald about his favorite writers should be his swan song.

Poetry Review: Translations of Two Wild Russian Poets, Their Flair Restored

May 14, 2014
Posted in , , ,

New translations of Soviet-era poets Vladimir Mayakovsky and Vladislav Khodasevich ask us to restore them to their rightful places in Russian and international literature .

Book Review: “The Democratic Surround” — Exploring the Makings of Mass Experience

May 10, 2014
Posted in , ,

Fred Turner’s counterintuitive and subtle argument in The Democratic Surround draws a direct line between the design of museum exhibitions and the Be-Ins of the Summer of Love.

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives