Son of a Gun by Justin St. Germain
Justin St. Germain, the sound of whose name I love, is a cliche slayer. That’s a high compliment...
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Author: Dennis Haritou
Solea by Jean-Claude Izzo
“We had nothing to lose, because we’d already lost everything.” Fabio is in a favorite bar with...
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Our Frail Blood by Peter Nathaniel Malae
Our Frail Blood by Peter Nathaniel Malae, is a brilliant, heroically Catholic novel. Dense, Proustian in its savor of the quality of time and its lost chances.…
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Chourmo by Jean-Claude Izzo
Fabio Montale, the detective hero of Total Chaos, lives in Les Goudes, a sort-of harbor enclave removed from central Marseilles. You could be excused for thinking it’s an isolated village but it’s actually an urban district of the city.…
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Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo
If I am writing this and you are reading it, it means that we are both survivors. We are those who remain, for one more day at least as the light fades.…
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Grandmothers on Deck: Safe Passage by Ramona Ausubel
Dozens of grandmothers find themselves sea-stranded on a cargo vessel. They don’t know how they got there. They got there because they are in the “Birth” section of Ramona Ausubel’s story collection A Guide to Being Born, coming from Riverhead in May.…
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The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
“Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular so long as you have your life.…
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Leaving Maverly by Alice Munro
I like the emotional reticence with which ‘Leaving Maverly’ in Alice’s Munro’s collection, Dear Life begins. I like it because it’s so unpromising.…
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Book Sales, Brought to You By Mr. Potato Head
You zombify books by selling them as if they were rectangular, inert matter. (My gosh, my spellcheck accepted “zombify”!) I didn’t say: “selling books as if they were sacks of potatoes” because I like potatoes.…
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Amundsen by Alice Munro
Amundsen was an Arctic explorer. A gulf is named after him in Canada’s Northwest. It’s also the name of the second story in Alice Munro’s “Dear Life” collection, available from Knopf.…
Read MoreBeautiful Boy, Warm Night by Katie Roiphe
Stella was from a trailer park or a small town in the South. She seems to be on record as Katie Roiphe’s first betrayed friend.…
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DH’s Brave New World of Books 2012
These are the writers who were discoveries to me in 2012. Their books made the world new. Made me want to start exploring again.…
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To Reach Japan by Alice Munro
You reach “character” in fiction by showing how it configures the world around it. It’s as if the events in the world were the envelope but the letter inside is the person.…
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Invierno by Junot Diaz
“Invierno” is the penultimate story by Junot Diaz, and the fourth, that I’m going to review....
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The Cheater’s Guide To Love, Summing Up Junot Diaz
I can see a point in reading the last story in This Is How You Lose Her first. It’s the master story from which all the other stories in this collection are derived, like brilliant fictional shards.…
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Flaca by Junot Diaz
“Flaca” isn’t the real name of the woman in this story. It’s the nickname given to her by her boyfriend. It’s an interesting claim of possession, to rename the person you are in a relationship with.…
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Alma by Junot Diaz
The third story is called “Alma” and it’s a short lyric burst of a couple of pages. Reading it reminded me of the most awesome sort of firecracker from my youth, the cherry bomb.…
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The Sun, the Moon and the Stars by Junot Diaz
Since the narrator of the first story in the Diaz collection, This is How You Lose Her starts off “I’m not a bad guy.”…
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Claire Messud The First Chapter
The Woman Upstairs, the first chapter, in first person, first line of the new novel: “How angry am I?” I think you can take the question straight.…
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because the night by Tessa Hadley
One of the reasons I’m fond of Tessa Hadley’s fiction is that the writer appeals to my nesting instinct. Hadley can outline a domestic situation in a few deft lines, like Matisse can take a few simple strokes of black ink on white paper and show you a beautiful woman.…
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Why I Love What I Do – Michael Reynolds
Among those who read out of love for it, and not simply to pass the time between appointments; and among indie bookstores that showcase literature out of love for it, and not simply because it’s a way to make a buck; Europa Editions stands out as a distinguished publishing enterprise.Recently…
Read MoreThe Hidden Powers of Book Marketers
If I enter a dark room of my house, my cat will announce its presence. One short vocalization that signifies: “I am here, you poor creature that can’t see clearly in chiaroscuro.”…
Read MoreLiteracy Talks
There’s an obvious gap in conversational routine and novelty between those who read books and those who don’t. It’s a glaring division in verbal resources.…
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The Eyes of Venice by Alessandro Barbero
The Eyes of Venice is such a guilty pleasure that you should be arrested for reading it. It’s a 482 page novel with glossary that takes place in the world of Venice in the 16th century.…
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