Perhaps it is not so much that the characters are thinly developed but that it is hard to make them out through the scrim of their Dostoevskian lucubrations.
Javier-Marias
The Annual Arts Fuse Holiday Gift Roundup — Tips from the Experts
With gift season comes the existential quandary: What to give the culture lovers on your list? This season the writers for The Arts Fuse waylay the crisis by recommending items that will delight the heart and stimulate the mind. Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments section. Keep in mind that […]
World Books: International Reads for the Holidays
Because of my gig at WGBH’s The World I read works in translation when I have the chance. Here’s an idiosyncratic round-up of first-rate literary stocking stuffers from around the globe. By Bill Marx Some of my favorite books from around the world this year raise the thorny issue of the relationship between literature new […]
Cosmic Cloak and Dagger
Spanish literary phenomenon Javier Marias has come up with a spy novel that is more concerned with a theoretical investigation of truth, trust, and betrayal than with cloak and dagger spying.