I’m going to start with a little confession: I’ve never read Lorrie Moore before (say that three times fast). Why not? Who knows? But now after finishing her latest collection of short stories, called Bark, I can say I’m fan. And if you’re one of those people who wants to buy free-range poultry, brine it, and slow roast it in the oven but accidentally sets the oven to Clean ... Read More...
Levels of Life
You put two things together that have not been put together before. And the world is changed. People may not notice at the time, but that doesn’t matter. The world has been changed nonetheless. With these beautiful words Julian Barnes leads us into Levels of Life, his latest work. He begins with glimpses at the history of balloon aeronautics—when the act was still ... Read More...
What I Need When I Read
When I read Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs I loved it. The protagonist was a middle-age, single woman who was angry about a lot of life. For some this anger was off-putting and there were reviewers who found the woman (Nora) disagreeable and depressing. I certainly felt sympathy for her situation but by and large, even when she made me uncomfortable, Nora was a character I ... Read More...
Benediction
Yes. You know how much they think of you. Well, I think a lot of them too. But they never say much, do they? They never say much to me. You don’t let people, Daddy. You never have. You think that’s what it is? Yes, I do. Well. I don’t know about that. I couldn’t say. -Lorraine speaking to her father It is the beginning of summer but the end of Dad Lewis’ life. As per ... Read More...
In Between Days
He looks out the window to his left and notices a small row of brown stucco houses, all old and somewhat disheveled, and realizes then, with something like panic, with something like fear, that he doesn’t actually know where he is, that he must have made a wrong turn somewhere, that somehow, in this city where he’s grown up, this city where he’s lived all his life, he is ... Read More...
Ed King
My conscience says that I should start with a Spoiler Alert but with a condition: this book’s plot will only be news to you if you’ve never read Sophocles or heard of an oedipal complex or if you don’t read dust jackets. Now that I’ve covered myself liability-wise here’s what you need to know, David Guterson’s Ed King is his re-imagining of the tale of Oedipus Rex. ... Read More...
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