Eyes Wide Open Eyes Wide Open
For Herta Müller, writing is not a matter of trusting, but rather of the honesty of the deceit.
May 20, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Lorna Scott Fox
The Crack-Up The Crack-Up
The Latin American utopia has disappeared, says novelist and crackero Jorge Volpi, and he displays little nostalgia for it.
Apr 16, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Ben Ehrenreich
A Reign Not of This World A Reign Not of This World
Juan Carlos Onetti immerses himself in reality just long enough to fashion an escape. This is his peculiar gift.
Apr 14, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Jonathan Blitzer
The Catch The Catch
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a ratio...
Mar 30, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Nelson Algren
A Life’s Sentence A Life’s Sentence
Maureen Howard's most recent novel is The Rags of Time.
Feb 25, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Maureen Howard
In Disobedient Rooms In Disobedient Rooms
Pre-emptive evolution, the voices of time, infodumps: the science fiction of J.G. Ballard offers not prescience but present-sense.
Feb 25, 2010 / Books & the Arts / China Miéville
The Renunciation Artist: On Leo Tolstoy The Renunciation Artist: On Leo Tolstoy
The axis of moral struggle, a stroke of salvation--these are the spiritual dimensions of Tolstoy's late fiction.
Feb 11, 2010 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
Telling It Slant: On J.M. Coetzee Telling It Slant: On J.M. Coetzee
J.M. Coetzee's Summertime and the fictions of self-deception.
Jan 28, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Joanna Scott
Permanent Exile: On Marie Vieux-Chauvet Permanent Exile: On Marie Vieux-Chauvet
In Love, Anger, Madness, Marie Vieux-Chauvet explores the choking fear of life under "Papa Doc" Duvalier.
Jan 14, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Madison Smartt Bell
After Macondo: On Evelio Rosero After Macondo: On Evelio Rosero
In Evelio Rosero's The Armies, war is like the Law in Kafka: cruel, implacable and coldly divine.
Jan 7, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Ben Ehrenreich