In Claire Keegan’s fiction, each sentence matters and each, sometimes very ordinary, action has real consequences.
Roberta Silman
Book Review: Colette’s “Chéri” and “The End of Chéri” — Tales of Love and Morality
A superb new translation in one volume of the two Chéri novellas, regarded as Colette’s masterwork.
Book Appreciation: A.B. Yehoshua’s “Mr. Mani” — A Great Work of Fiction
A.B. Yehoshua was anything but a provincial Israeli writer. He was literary giant whose imaginative gift was so striking and diverse that you never knew what he would do next.
Book Review: “Letters to Camondo” — An Essential Testament to Jewish Memory and History
This is an extraordinarily beautiful book, its present tense prose creating “an atmosphere of literature,” in Virginia Woolf’s words, its honest probing as illuminating as anything you will read about what it means to be Jewish.
Arts Feature: Recommended Books, 2021
An eclectic round-up of the favorite books of the year from our critics, including some disappointments.
Book Review: “The Wrong End of the Telescope” — A Stunning Achievement
This is a wonderful novel about a pressing humanitarian subject, Syrian refugees and the people who helped, as well as an exploration of identity and loss and triumph.
Book Review: Elizabeth Warren and Alexander S. Vindman — Gifted with a Moral Compass
The idea of America is elusive and sometimes, like right now, in danger of disappearing. That is why I have found myself turning for comfort to two books that can give us some perspective as to how to move forward.
Documentary Review: PBS’s “Hemingway” — Inside an American Legend
If you love fiction you should devote several hours to watching Hemingway. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have brought a special tenderness to this series, something deeper and more compelling than previous Burns documentaries.
Arts Feature: Recommended Books, 2020
An eclectic round-up of the favorite books of the year from our critics.
Book Review: “Invisible Years” — A Book for the Ages
Invisible Years is — simultaneously — an indispensable source and a distinguished work of art.