The Painted Bird is a coming-of-age story populated by the worst of humankind.
World War II
Theater Review: “Hold These Truths” — A Vital Lesson
Hold These Truths is an invaluable reminder that alternative facts are not a new thing.
Film Review: “The King’s Choice” — Norway’s Stand Against Hitler
The King’s Choice is a thoughtful nail-biter, a suspenseful historical drama.
Film Review: “Dunkirk” — Overwhelming Immediacy
The Wermacht cut its swathe through France at a rate that amazed Winston Churchill in no small part because it was on speed.
Film Review: “Dunkirk” — An Epic Celebration of the Communal Spirit
Dunkirk is a rousing testament to how common people, when called, can unite against adversity.
Fuse Book Review: “A Hero of France” — An Insider’s Guide to the French Resistance
Alan Furst’s books are spy thrillers infused with a crisp, rather than a flowery, literary sensibility.
Theater Review: “Copenhagen”—A Dazzling Production Conceals Moral Confusion
Despite the dazzling rewards of this virtuoso Underground Railway Theater production, Copenhagen short circuits its central theme.
Theater Review: “The Wakeville Stories” – Theater as Civic Ritual
Dramatist Laurence Carr has a gift for vivid characterization and for creating a concrete sense of time and place.
Book Review: The Sad Tenderness of Patrick Modiano’s “Dora Bruder”
Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano understands that time periods can mesh, interpenetrate, layer up, blend, and blur naturally in the mind.
Fuse Book Review: “The Zone of Interest” — Not Quite Interesting Enough
Martin Amis’s fiction, bleak though it often is, paradoxically remains compelling and pleasurable to read because of how well he writes about dreadful things.