There are "ways of making people into ghosts". So Atticus say, to Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird, about Boo (Arthur) Radley. Alfred A. Knopf, 2015 Neil Smith turned Oliver Dalrymple into a ghost in Boo. And, then, he named him Boo and gave him a Casper the Friendly Ghost
A new Friday fugue, concluding this week, considering the ways in which our working lives appear on the pages of novels and short stories. (Previous weeks can be viewed here, here and here, if you're keen.) Riverhead, 2013 Mohsin Hamid’s How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
Sally Mann's Hold Still is a photographer's memoir; although she has kept a journal since she was a girl, her love of imagery is deeply rooted, and it's hard to imagine her memoir taking any other form. Currently represented by the Gagosian Gallery, her CV is impressive and extensive, but
Henry K. Larsen -- star of Susin Nielsen's last novel -- was a savvy young fellow: "I know I can’t change my stupid red hair or my stupid freckles. But I can lower my freak flag." Tundra Books, 2015 In contrast, Stewart -- star of her most recent
Sometimes, when I begin reading an Alice Munro story, I am overwhelmed by a sense of "there it is". It's a feeling of immediate and undeniable recognition of familiar elements. Like the beginning of "Nettles", which begins with firmly rooting the reader in a time and place. It is summer.
