Books

Literary Appreciation: D. H. Lawrence’s “Women in Love” at 100

September 18, 2020
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I hope this centennial will inspire readers to immerse themselves in this enormously important, rich, and vibrant work.

Book Review: “Murder and the Movies” — So Cinematic, the Spectacle of Death

September 14, 2020
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Our awareness of our delight in the homicidal temptations presented by film is itself a kind of twisted comedy that the critic is all too aware of.

Book Review: Crime and Espionage — to the Sounds of Jazz

September 12, 2020
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There’s a larger story to tell about black composers and musicians breaking into the film and TV business, but its only lightly touched on here.

Book Review: Two Glimpses of Caribbean Culture in a Year without Carnival

September 12, 2020
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A pair of recent books help keep the glorious spirit of Carnival alive.

Visual Arts Book Review: Pasolini and Fluxus — For and Against the Avant-Garde

September 9, 2020
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 Long live Fluxus, with its questionable boxes of ephemera, its baggy bags of soil, and its mad prankster sensibility.

Book Review: “Humankind” — The Power of Positive Thinking

September 9, 2020
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Humankind, at the very least, compels us to rethink fashionably pessimistic assumptions about human nature.

Book Review: “Fallout” — Memorably Detailing the Defeat of the Hiroshima Cover-Up

September 8, 2020
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I heartily recommend M.M. Blume’s excellent Fallout, which ably synthesizes large amounts of archival, historical, and biographical material from three continents.

Book Review: “And Go Like This” — Short Stories of Distinction

September 4, 2020
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The stories in And Go Like This are wise, compassionate, and deftly crafted.

Book Review: A Treasury of Tall Tales That Make Opera Fun

September 3, 2020
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Author Ethan Mordden serves up plenty of entertaining yarns, sometimes as exaggerated as the genre to which they pay homage.

Book Review: “Bukowski, A Life” — The Poet of Skid Row

September 2, 2020
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Some of the most insightful and moving parts of the biography are Neeli Cherkovski’s personal recounting of his on-again off again relationship with Charles Bukowski.

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