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Janet Malcolm contributes the latest polemic against Richard Pevear and Linda Volokhonsky (hereafter P&V), the famed husband-and-wife translators of the Russian classics, whose preeminence in their field is now being challenged by a number of critics. I have read the previous arguments with interest (for instance, by Gary Saul Morson and Helen Andrews), but they… Continue reading In Defense of Pevear and Volokhonsky
God Help the Child by Toni Morrison My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a fine novel. Not perfect, not even really complete in a writing-workshop "craft" sense, but surely Morrison's best since Love. God Help the Child is a striking example of Saidian late style: the furious and unresolved valediction. God Help the… Continue reading Toni Morrison, God Help the Child
To get evaluation out of the way, I'll say I liked it. Of course I liked it! It was more or less an entertainment, a revel for the bookish. Target audience: Rory Gilmore. Who can resist! There are really two twists to Anna Karenina. First is Joe Wright's conceit of aristocratic social life as theater. … Continue reading Notes on Anna Karenina (2012)
