Review

Book Review: “Master Lovers” — An Inventive and Intelligent Fictional Memoir

January 18, 2024
Posted in , ,

“Master Lovers” is written in a lucid, personable style, and the fictional scenes —  David Winner’s recreations of history and imagined trysts — are deft, believable, and vividly imagined.

Book Review: Jack Kerouac’s “Pic” — Last But Not Least

January 17, 2024
Posted in , ,

In “On the Road,” Jack Kerouac voiced a longing to be “other.” He achieves this transfiguration in “Pic.”

Book Review: “Hedged” — How Private Equity Destroyed the Newspaper Business

January 16, 2024
Posted in , ,

Newspapers are still our most reliable source of local journalism. Private equity, though, is squeezing the life out of newsrooms as greedy owners cash in.

Book Review: “The Geography of the Imagination” — Longing for Something Lost

January 14, 2024
Posted in , , ,

Touted as “perhaps the last great American polymath,” Guy Davenport had a singular mind; never was an artist more deserving of the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius grant.”

Book Review: “The Soundies” — A Definitive Study of the Musical Film Shorts of the ’40s

January 13, 2024
Posted in , , , ,

Author Mark Cantor has been the go-to guy for jazz film for decades: this authoritative book solidifies his position.

Television Review: “True Detective: Night Country” — In the Bleak Midwinter

January 13, 2024
Posted in , ,

When the identities of the guilty are finally revealed in this new season of a superb “True Detective,” it is terrifying and glorious.

Jazz Album Review: The Baritone Sax of Josh Sinton — Exploring the Possibilities

January 12, 2024
Posted in , ,

These pieces are an intellectual challenge to the listener as well as a sensual pleasure. They should send saxophonists back to the practice room.

Opera Album Review: An Award-Winning Recording of a Spontini Opera Championed by Maria Callas

January 11, 2024
Posted in , , ,

Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka, under conductor Christophe Rousset, shows why Berlioz and others loved “La Vestale”.

Concert Review: Concord Chamber Music Society’s “The Music of Memory” — An Unusually Beautiful Program

January 10, 2024
Posted in , , ,

It was worth driving over 70 miles of snowy roads to be rewarded with such invigorating heat. Bravo tutti.

Children’s Book Reviews: A Grief Out of Season

January 10, 2024
Posted in , ,

The holidays and their aftermath are not always a time of cheer for families. Two recent children’s books provide empathy and understanding.

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives