World Books
By Bill Marx A number of new pieces on World Books since the last update in September, including my podcast interview with Benjamin Moser about his biography of Clarice Lispector (1920-1977) entitled “Why This World” from Oxford University Press. The Brazilian writer’s challenging stream-of-consciousness technique, lack of political bite, physical beauty and, Moser argues, her…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx October includes the usual line-up of plays by seal-of-approval dramatists, Edward Albee and Conor McPherson, but there’s some welcome new blood, from Punchdrunk’s athletic adaptation of “Macbeth” to “Little Black Dress,” playwright Ronan Noone’s latest salvo at our national psyche, and “The Overwhelming,” the Boston premiere of a critically acclaimed study of…
Read MoreObserve the ass … his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals. — Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson” The Donkey Show Conceived by Randy Weiner. Directed by Diane Paulus and Randy Weiner. Presented by the American Repertory Theater at Zero Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA Presented by American Repertory Theater,…
Read Moreby Bill Marx Instead of a critique for World Books this past week I finished up a review of Australian writer Kate Grenville’s historical novel “The Lieutenant” for the “Los Angeles Times.” This is a well-written, well-meaning study of understanding between colonized and colonizers in the 18th century Australia; the emphasis is on the experiences…
Read MoreTHE THOMASHEVSKYS: MUSIC AND MEMORIES OF A LIFE IN THE YIDDISH THEATER. Written and hosted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Directed by Patricia Birch, with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. by Helen Epstein I’m a fan of the serious introspective kind of memoir, that tries to wrest meaning from existential and emotional chaos.…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx Two more reviews posted on my World Books page at PRI’s The World.
Read MoreBy Bill Marx You want a racy, nineteenth-century epic about sex, sin, drugs, and prostitution set in China? Here it is. Two more pieces on international fiction for World Books, the feature I edit for PRI’s The World.
Read MoreA novel about sexual obsession, inspired by “Lolita,” stretches the limits of credulity. Rupert: A Confession By Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Translated from the Dutch by Michele Hutchison, Open Letter, $12.95, 131 pages Reviewed by Tommy Wallach I consider myself something of an expert in the seldom studied theme of impotence in film and literature. Most…
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