BOOK REVIEW: WALDEN Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, is an iconic Yankee manifesto. I am a Yankee, yet I had never read it. I opened it expecting a clarification of our American spirit, like reading Walt Whitman. As a memoirist, I found a similarity between his book and my own; man/woman goes into unfamiliar territory with the express intentionContinue reading “BOOK REVIEW: WALDEN”
BOOK REVIEW: The Idiot, by Elif Batuman This book can be read on many levels – for a linguist like me, its linguistic observations were a blast of fresh air, for a historian it is rich with commentary, and for a writer or avid reader, the allusions are legion, including the title, which pays homage to the eponymous novel by Dostoevsky. (MyContinue reading “BOOK REVIEW: The Idiot, by Elif Batuman”
REVIEW: HUNGER, by Roxane Gay I put down the book discouraged and unimpressed, though a little better informed about people I know who have been tragically transformed by a childhood violation.
REVIEW: HILLBILLY ELEGY, by J. D. Vance I have heard a great deal about the haughtiness and self-satisfaction of “Yankees,” and when Vance refers to “Americans,” that is who he is referring to – the types he met at Yale
Have some time over the holidays? Read a couple of classics THE BOOK OF TEA and WHAT THE STONES REMEMBER
BOOK REVIEW: City of Thieves, by David Benioff How many risks would I be willing to take to find an egg for my family?
BOOK REVIEW: Sweetbitter, by Stephanie Danler I, the happy, hopeful, hippy cannot connect to this disjointed, disaffected, nihilist. Her goals trickle only so faintly outside of herself.
REVIEW: Song of Solomon We have never known characters who are quite like them, yet they stand there fully human. The story is a little bit like a dream or a nightmare, but it has blood .
BOOK REVIEW: The Hare with Amber Eyes It is a unique kind of literature, written by a first-time author who is an artist to his fingertips but has probably never taken a writing course.