Reading Craig Davidson's Cataract City took me somewhere else. You might think, if you have heard something of the novel, that I am about to say Niagara Falls. But as much as the novel is about two boys' coming-of-age in this environs, it is a study of how 'what-came-before' morphs and
"Let me say, with the risk of appearing ridiculous that the true revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love. It is impossible to think of an authentic revolutionary without this quality." Love is the primary force, not only in the events of Fiesta of Love, but in Suzan Hill's
Everything I know about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which precipitated WWI, I learned from fiction. First, Aleksandar Hemon's short story, "The Accordian", which explores the very moment of the shots' impact, inspired by the presence of a bystander. This man seems to be the author's grandfather, standing in the
In bookish synchronicity, when a friend and I met one summer morning to go book-shopping, each of us had begun reading A Beautiful Truth the previous evening. We had both read only about 50 pages, so were hesitant to commit to loving it too soon, but we shared that excitement
When I pointed out Matadora to a friend in a bookstore last weekend, she scrunched her nose. "Who wants to read a book about bullfighting?" Well, readers might turn to Elizabeth Ruth's third novel for many other reasons. (So, if you're scrunching your nose too, please read on.) First, she was mentored
