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Autobiography and MemoirAugust 3, 2016
Never-Endings
Georges Perec’s books are designed to stir readers to think actively, freshly, and imaginatively about what could have been, and what might come next.
Joanna Scott
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Books and IdeasJuly 30, 2015
The Virtues of Difficult Fiction
If novels aren’t worthy challenges, we have no reason to linger in their pages.
Joanna Scott
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FictionNovember 20, 2012
Ragged, Unkempt, Strange: On William Faulkner
For all the ways it is rife with tenderness, fury and ugliness, William Faulkner’s fiction is stubbornly persistent in its artistry.
Joanna Scott
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CultureMay 22, 2012
Self-Portrait in a Sheet Mirror: On Vivian Maier
The recently discovered photographs of Vivian Maier are tantalizing works of artistry and ambition.
Joanna Scott
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CultureMarch 7, 2012
Till the Knowing Ends: On William Gass
In Life Sentences, William Gass shows that consciousness needs to be stressed to be strengthened.
Joanna Scott
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FictionOctober 13, 2010
A Passionate Reader: On David Markson
Remembering David Markson (1927–2010), whose playful novels pushed storytelling to the edge of understanding.
Joanna Scott
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Autobiography and MemoirJanuary 28, 2010
Telling It Slant: On J.M. Coetzee
J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime and the fictions of self-deception.
Joanna Scott
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FictionAugust 12, 2009
In the Theater of Isak Dinesen
A reconsideration of the fictive truths behind a storyteller’s many masks.
Joanna Scott
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FictionApril 9, 2008
Where Now? Let’s Go!
The nonsensical funhouse of Donald Barthelme’s fiction celebrates the cosmic joke of life and the pathos of grappling with it.
Joanna Scott