P.G. Wodehouse and the Role of Humor (vs. Comedy)
The writings of P.G. Wodehouse might suggest themselves as antithetical to everything I cherish in literature, but that suggestion would be erroneous. In spite of my rabid disliking of golf,…
Tender is the Night and Re-reading Gatsby, or “Yes, Francis, We Know You Want to be Old Money”
I almost didn’t make it through Tender is the Night. I think I only pushed through the god-awful first act because the book is considered Fitzgerald’s best, and I wanted…
Literary Privilege, MFAs, and that Marxist chip on my Shoulder
Writing is less and less a thing that people can do as a job, and the price of admission is getting higher. With their spreading proliferation, MFAs in Creative Writing…
“Fun Home” and aesthetic cohesion (featuring possibly offensive cartoon breasts and implied cartoon cunnilingus)
I’m a bit late to the party on this one, but I’m certainly glad I picked up Fun Home. It had been on my radar for a while, but I…
“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” and -just read it already it’s a great goddamn novel, ok?
One of my favorite novels of the year, this book does very many things extremely well. It’s one of the best examples of free indirect narrations I’ve ever come across,…
Carl Sagan’s “The Demon-Haunted World”: In Defense of the Pocket Protector and Slide Rule
Carl Sagan’s writing is hopelessly nerdy. It’s also pretty time-stamped -even without the rather frequent references to current events, it’s not hard to tell what part of the twentieth century…
Oliver Sacks’ “On the Move” -a rich existence relived
I finished the late Oliver Sacks’ most recent (and most general) memoir days before his death. As an avid listener of Radiolab (where he was a frequent contributor) I was…
Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet” and Cultivating the Virtue of Solitude
Rilke’s 10 letters -written when he was rather young, to an admiring fellow poet, younger still- continue to enjoy a popularity within the artistic set. I came to this slim…
Denis Johnson’s “Jesus’ Son” and my protestations at the alleged death of the short story
This is one of the seminal short story collections of the last few years (or, as some less charitable critics might put it, one of the last dying gasps of…
Flash Fiction Forward: it ain’t the length itself that bugs me, but there are some disturbing correlations…
Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories by James Thomas (edt) I approached this critically acclaimed collection of flash fiction with as much honest impartiality as a true-born cynic such…