Books

Book Review: “The Translator” — A Bumpy Quest Novel

October 31, 2013
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Nina Schuyler’s uneven novel raises some interesting questions in the course of the protagonist’s quest, and there are many fascinating details about Japan and Noh plays and the power of silence.

Book Review: The Leonard Bernstein Correspondence — A Tour of Twentieth Century Cultural History

October 31, 2013
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So is the book worth reading? Depends how interested you are in twentieth century cultural history, in music and creative genius, in marriage and sexuality.

Book Review: “The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.” — Brooklyn Fiction That is a Breed Apart

October 30, 2013
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The moral urgency and the humane distribution of Adelle Waldman’s authorial sympathy are evident everywhere in “The Love Affair of Nathaniel P.”

Book Review: “The Cool School” — What Does it Mean to be Hip?

October 30, 2013
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In a way, this collection of hip writing, a “literary mixtape,” is the ultimate embodiment of the vision of the Hipster-as-Curator.

Book Review: Julian Assange Trades Hopes and Fears With Cyberpunks

October 25, 2013
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Any book in which the fourth sentence is “The world is not sliding, but galloping into a new transnational dystopia” runs the risk of overstating its case from the get-go.

Book Review: “The Woman Who Lost Her Soul” — A Lengthy Tale of Innocence Betrayed

October 21, 2013
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Despite his weakness for overwriting, Bob Shacochis has a good and sad story to tell, and he gets through it with a degree of mastery.

Book Review: “The Old Priest” — Exquisite Stories About Being Human

October 15, 2013
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This small but important book is a collection of stories about being human. It explores, even probes, the inner recesses of its characters without pretense or flamboyance.

Book Review: Two Volumes of Swiss Horror for Halloween

October 14, 2013
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Interestingly, both of these powerful visions of horror root their avenging vision of mayhem in the brutal mistreatment of children.

Book Review: In Pitigrilli’s Intoxicating “Cocaine,” Love is the Drug

October 10, 2013
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Cocaine’s bleak and brilliant satire, lush and intoxicating prose, and sadistic playfulness remain as fresh and caustic as they were nine decades ago.

Fuse Interview: Ian Frazier on the Comic Genius of Ring Lardner

October 6, 2013
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Ring Lardner wrote the funniest stand-alone sentence using the fewest words with which that feat can be done: “‘Shut up,’ he explained.”

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