Next Door Lived a Girl
First off, this is an extremely graphic book. There is sexual abuse and violence directed at children, and it is dark and extremely graphic. If you are sensitive to that…
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…
Hesse’s “Siddharta”
This one wasn’t for me. Hesse’s popularity as a countercultural icon in America seemed to have led to this book becoming the subject of Zeitgeist-fixation, but in spite of very…
Reading Log: Herta Müller’s ‘Nadirs’ and the Value of Juxtaposition in Bleakness
This is a very well-written book. In a series of short stories that bookend a much longer novella, the author presents her oppressive life as a young girl in a…