Gerald Murnane, The Plains
The Plains by Gerald Murnane My rating: 3 of 5 stars Gerald Murnane is in vogue. Every few years, it seems, a new writer or handful of writers is coronated in … Continue reading
Grant Morrison and Chris Weston, The Filth
The Filth by Grant Morrison My rating: 4 of 5 stars The book is full of life—not like a man, but like an ant-heap. —Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and Value (trans. … Continue reading
Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters
The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stonor Saunders My rating: 4 of 5 stars Someone once said that beneath or behind … Continue reading
Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night
Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill My rating: 4 of 5 stars Long Day’s Journey into Night, often considered one of the finest American dramas and as its … Continue reading
Q, Conspiracy, and the Novel; or, Why Portraits and Ashes Should Be Your Summer Read
Readers who perceive an esoteric subtext to my writing and who therefore keep a paranoiac tally of my cryptic allusions will recall that I have mentioned the “Q” or “Qanon” … Continue reading
Gore Vidal, The City and the Pillar
The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal My rating: 3 of 5 stars A little over a decade and a half ago, Gore Vidal was one of the most … Continue reading
Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy My rating: 3 of 5 stars The Crossing (1994) is the follow-up to All the Pretty Horses (1992) and the second part of Cormac McCarthy’s … Continue reading
Against Celebration: Bloomsday vs. Dallowayday
Two years ago, Elaine Showalter suggested that we balance Bloomsday (June 16, the day whereon Joyce’s Ulysses is set) with Dallowayday: Like Joyce’s Ulysses, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway is set … Continue reading
Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories
Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway My rating: 3 of 5 stars Hemingway used to be overrated and is now if anything underrated. Once venerated for promoting … Continue reading
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun
The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Marble Faun (1860) is Hawthorne’s last completed and longest romance—his term for the type of non-realist, symbolic, … Continue reading
