Books

Poetry Review: Marcia Karp’s “If By Song” — Verse Passionate and Unruly

May 20, 2021
Posted in , ,

This is a volume filled with complex pleasures and pains, assembled with purpose.

Read More

Film Review: “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue” — Existing as a Writer in China Today

May 18, 2021
Posted in , , ,

For those with sufficient patience and imagination — and are eager to learn more about the Chinese literary scene than what’s found in journalistic headlines — Jia Zhangke’s documentary will be an uncommon treat.

Read More

Book Review: “The Science of Abolition” — See No Evil

May 18, 2021
Posted in , ,

Oh yes, they thought that to treat human beings like livestock was backward and doomed and obsolete and unscientific and fatally inefficient, but if any of them thought it was indefensibly cruel and morally intolerable, they show no awareness by the evidence of this book.

Read More

Book Interview: Bill Nowlin on the Little Label That Could — Fifty Years at Rounder Records

May 17, 2021
Posted in , , , , , ,

For local music enthusiasts of all stripes, the hometown label was a point of pride; for musicians and fans the world over, Rounder was the go-to source for music you couldn’t readily find elsewhere.

Read More

Book Review: “The Life of the Mind” — A Spot-on Portrait of the Postmodern Blues

May 17, 2021
Posted in , ,

Christine Smallwood’s courage in looking at the way things are — for many of us — makes this novel about the pervasiveness of angst a subtle, empathetic accomplishment.

Read More

Book Review: “Robert E. Lee and Me” — An Incomplete Reckoning

May 16, 2021
Posted in , ,

This is a noble effort to reconcile with the Southern past — but are suggested changes in nomenclature — rather than statements of moral and political clarity — good enough?

Read More

Book Review: “Shooting Midnight Cowboy” — A Very Good Read

May 14, 2021
Posted in , , ,

What motivated me to read this book? Not for a special love of Midnight Cowboy, a movie which I like but isn’t ultimately important to me. It was to learn about James Leo Herlihy, who has interested me since I was an adolescent.

Read More

Book Review: “Roundabout of Death” — No Safe Havens

May 13, 2021
Posted in , ,

The strength of Roundabout of Death lies in its credibility, and in a specificity that defies detail.

Read More

Book Interview: Translator Brian Nelson on Finally Hearing Émile Zola’s Voice in English

May 12, 2021
Posted in , ,

“Why read Zola now? Leaving aside sheer enjoyment of his narrative art, I’d say: because his representation of society’s impact on the individuals within it memorably depicts what it means to be a human being in the modern world.”

Read More

Book Interview: Translator Julie Rose on the Lyrical Power of Émile Zola’s “Doctor Pascal”

May 12, 2021
Posted in , , ,

Published in August of 2020, Oxford University Press’s English translation of Doctor Pascal marked the first time that Émile Zola’s 20-book Les Rougon-Macquart series was available in print under one publisher.

Read More

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives