Connecting Thread: From Corruption to Colonialism (4 of 5)

2021-12-27T16:20:08-05:00

Dirty Work by Eyal Press (2021) landed in my stack following an interview with the New York Times Book Review editor. Its subtitle—Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America—summarizes the content aptly, but doesn’t express how un-put-down-able I found this book. Most of the time, when

Connecting Thread: From Corruption to Colonialism (4 of 5)2021-12-27T16:20:08-05:00

Autumn 2020: In My Reading Log

2020-09-30T15:08:29-04:00

If you think you don’t like poetry, Simina Banu’s Pop will surprise you. Having just stumbled through a reading of W.B. Yeats’ 1919 The Tower, I approached Pop with that swelling sense of inadequacy that haunted me as a student, that I do not understand poetry. But what a

Autumn 2020: In My Reading Log2020-09-30T15:08:29-04:00

Mavis Gallant’s “Up North” (1959)

2019-02-25T17:36:56-05:00

In “Saturday”, the mother had dreamed a different kind of life for her daughters. In “Up North”, Dennis’ mother is dreaming of a different kind of life for herself. She’s on a train, north of Montreal, heading for Abitibi, Quebec. That’s where Dennis’ father is working in the bush.

Mavis Gallant’s “Up North” (1959)2019-02-25T17:36:56-05:00

A Presence Beyond the Page

2020-07-22T09:56:03-04:00

Sometimes the body count in my reading is high. Of late, the un-body count has been rising. I noticed the presence in W. G. Sebald, when I began reading Austerlitz (2001; Translated from the German, 2011) earlier this year. In the photographs which accompany his narrative, there are no

A Presence Beyond the Page2020-07-22T09:56:03-04:00

Suzette Mayr’s Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall (2017)

2017-09-13T09:11:50-04:00

It's not quite as bad as Edith's dreams. Not quite. But almost. And that's because Suzette Mayr has a way of writing that pricks beneath the skin. "That night Edith dreams of hares. Hares hanging by their necks, throttled by catgut in a thicket of trees. Someone has executed

Suzette Mayr’s Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall (2017)2017-09-13T09:11:50-04:00
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