People often write of singers or actors with such amazing voices it would be a pleasure to listen to them read the phone book. For the written word Chang-rae Lee is such a person. His words and the way he melds sentences are all so quietly beautiful the plot is secondary. He has a voice of astonishing grace and range. This is not to say that his newest novel, On Such a Full ... Read More...
The Wife, The Maid, and the Mistress
In a clever move, the title of The Wife, The Maid, and the Mistress describes the three main characters in the book, eliminating any need for the reader to figure out what the novel is about. There is Stella, the socialite long-suffering wife of Judge Crater who doesn’t seem overwhelmingly concerned when he disappears, only when she finds out his paychecks are going to stop. ... Read More...
Dominion: A Novel
What-if books can go terribly wrong. They require a great deal of thought, generally because they are written about a time when a change in events would bring a massive change to history. In the novel Dominion, C.J. Sansom writes about Great Britain in the 1950s if it had not declared war on Germany but had held to Prime Minister Chamberlain’s desire for appeasement. The novel ... Read More...
A Well-Tempered Heart
Not all explicable things are true. Not all truths are explicable. Such an unusual combination: ghost story and love story and yet, in A Well-Tempered Heart it works. Julia is a successful corporate lawyer whose professional achievements are overcome by the personal disappointment of a called-off wedding. As she tries to bring herself back around she is beset with a new ... Read More...
The Empty Glass
Marilyn Monroe is one of the most iconic stars in American history. Numerous non-fiction books detail her life but it is the fiction that provides more fodder for the rumors about her death; namely because it can draw on the smallest of details and create a story around them. If it sounds like I’m getting ready to slam this genre, relax. I’m a fan of it, albeit not of the ... Read More...
Belle Cora
I know a man who had a colossal stone mansion dismantled to be taken by sea from New York to California, with every block labeled and numbered so that the house could be reassembled at its destination. Whenever in my life I have moved a great distance to a new place and new circumstances, I have felt like that house. I seem to have spent some time in pieces, waiting for ... Read More...
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