A Ray Bradbury remembrance (1st tribute)

My summer on the tongue with Ray Bradbury

After years of reading the late Ray Bradbury's work, I heard his voice: a genuine melody of words and images tumbling in mid-air until they hit the ear just as they hit the page.

Kathleen L. Erlich

Jun 11, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

E.L. James's "Fifty Shades of Grey'

Not the whips and chains again!, or: Fifty Shades meets the voice of experience

Just what the world needs: another romance novel about a blushing virgin who's ravished by a wealthy, attractive and powerful sadomasochist. As an older woman who has known genuine pain and loss, I have a better idea.

Terri Kirby Erickson

May 22, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Carlos Fuentes as I remember him

The writer who bit his own tail

The magical but realistic novels of Carlos Fuentes are compendiums of pulsating narratives and capacious realms of knowledge. He wrote in a genre that raises questions at a time when all forms of story are suspect and knowledge is represented as what anyone can locate on the Internet.

AJ Sabatini

May 19, 2012 · Articles · 7 minute read

Three noir novels by Manchette

Abandon all hope, ye who seek rational explanations

In Jean-Patrick Manchette's short, jazzy, ultra-violent thrillers, chaos reigns and moral codes count for very little.

Andrew Mangravite

May 08, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

J. M. Ledgard's "Submergence'

The novel as metaphor

Part international thriller, part philosophical romance, J. M. Ledgard's Submergence is that rare postmodern fiction, a work whose disparate parts cohere finally into an unexpected whole. It also suggests that our hyperintelligent species may be too clever to survive. Submergence. By J.M. Ledgard. Jonathan Cape, 2011. 191 pages. www.amazon.com.

Robert Zaller

Apr 21, 2012 · Articles · 7 minute read

In defense of Janet Malcolm (Part II)

Let me walk with Janet while the others ride by

Dan Rottenberg's criticisms notwithstanding, I remain Janet Malcolm's devoted admirer. Show me an original, compelling, well-constructed voice, and I will tolerate content that rankles others. Besides, you could level the same criticisms at Tolstoy and Tom Wolfe.

Feb 14, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

Sylvia Nasar's "Grand Pursuit'

The liberation of the 90 per cent

Why are we so much better off materially than our ancestors? The author of A Beautiful Mind tells the story of the economists who wrestled with the process that liberated humankind from “the nightmare of the past.”

Tom Purdom

Jan 24, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Townie,' by Andre Dubus III

Behind the literary curtain

How could such a sensitive writer have been such an insensitive father? In Townie, the son wrestles with that puzzle.

Tom Purdom

Jan 17, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

In defense of Janet Malcolm (Part i)

Truth as Silly Putty, or: Why Janet Malcolm makes me say ‘Wow'

Janet Malcolm refuses to buy into journalists' illusions of objectivity. That posture has earned her many critics. Count me among her admirers.

Bob Levin

Jan 10, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

Paul Hendrickson's Hemingway

The old man and the boat: Hemingway, Cuba and me

Paul Hendrickson has pursued Hemingway the way I once pursued e.e. commings. The lesson: Don't be shy. If someone has written a poem or a book that means a lot to you, reach out.

John Dowlin

Nov 30, 2011 · Articles · 6 minute read