Among the Lotus-Eaters Among the Lotus-Eaters
In 1886 the British are fighting an imperial war on another continent with the express goal of suppressing and maintaining control of the natives. Sound familiar?
Jan 30, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Dr. Marc Siegel
Familia Faces Familia Faces
Genealogy rules Latino literature tyrannically.
Jan 23, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
Was It Sexy, or Just Soviet? Was It Sexy, or Just Soviet?
Given the number of prematurely world-weary young men and women who followed the lure of easy money, cheap alcohol and even cheaper sex to the geopolitical discount bins of the...
Jan 16, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Eliot Borenstein
Excursions in the Real World Excursions in the Real World
Why is so much fiction written in our language and why is so much of what is written of so little consequence?
Oct 31, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith
What Would Jesus Do? What Would Jesus Do?
It's easy to find fault with Blue Shoe, Anne Lamott's sixth novel.
Oct 31, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Charlotte Innes
Prairie Home Companion Prairie Home Companion
When the University of Nebraska Press sent my review copy of the Selected Short Stories of Weldon Kees with a note asking that I please accept the book with the compliments of ...
Oct 17, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Kathy Rooney
Graham Greene, Roll Over Graham Greene, Roll Over
A few months ago, novelist Alan Furst, in one of those New York Times "Writers on Writing" pieces, told how, on a magazine assignment to the Soviet Union back in 1983, he sudde...
Oct 3, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Peter Schrag
Sense and Sexibility Sense and Sexibility
In 1967 the world-renowned if somewhat Dickensianly named sexologist John Money was offered a case he couldn't refuse.
Sep 25, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Keith Gessen
Buffoonery of the Mundane Buffoonery of the Mundane
"Felisberto Hernández is a writer like no other," Italo Calvino announced once, "like no European, nor any Latin American.
Sep 19, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
Not So Pretty Horses, Too Not So Pretty Horses, Too
William Eastlake once gave William Kittredge a piece of advice about writing as a Westerner. Never allow a publisher to put a picture of a horse on the cover of your novel: "Th...
Sep 12, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Philip Connors