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Category Archives: Authors
Thoughts on James Agee’s A Death in the Family (by Bethany)
A while ago, I posted about something called the Countdown to Concision challenge. For the first year and a half we had this blog, my posts typically ran in the 3500-4000-word range, and I wanted to coax myself to get … Continue reading
‘And Don’t Have Any Kids Yourself’: Philip Larkin, Charles Darwin, and the Biology of Choice
In graduate school I loved Larkin’s poem “This Be the Verse” – who doesn’t? – but I was determined to find it somehow ironic. I’d like to say that I had read enough of Larkin’s to know that much of … Continue reading
Final thoughts on John Williams’ Augustus (by Jill)
Remember how on Tuesday I said that we never get to have Augustus’ voice tell us anything in the novel? Well, guess what Part III of the book is? That’s right, it’s Augustus Caesar’s final letter, written to his friend … Continue reading
This is supposed to be a progress report on John Williams’ Augustus, but I have a feeling it’s going to turn into me feeling sorry for myself because I’m far away from home and getting a cold. (by Jill)
Here’s the deal. I have about fifty pages to go in Augustus, and I really, really want to finish it before I write a post about it, but I need to talk about something tonight. I’ve been whining in … Continue reading
Early Thoughts on Michel Houellebecq’s Submission
I suspect that this book will go down in literary history not for its merits but for its eerie timeliness. It was published in French earlier this year, but the English translation was released just a few weeks before the … Continue reading
That Time Shakespeare Woke Up One Morning and Invented Modern Narrative: Final Thoughts on The Winter’s Tale
I feel a little silly for wondering why Shakespeare titled this play The Winter’s Tale, especially since I used to devote a week or so in 10th-grade English to the way seasons are used metaphorically in poetry, including Shakespeare’s – … Continue reading
Thoughts on Christopher Hitchens’ Thomas Jefferson: Author of America
Robert Frost has been much on my mind lately – probably because my birthday is approaching. Along with Philip Larkin, Frost is the poet that best captures for me the slow but orderly forward motion of time. At the same … Continue reading
A Review of Sarah Vowell’s Lafayette in the Somewhat United States
Sarah Vowell has been a favorite of mine for a few years, ever since I read The Wordy Shipmates. If I could stomach NPR, I probably would have known of her sooner. Sarah Vowell does for American history what I … Continue reading
Happy Monday (on a Saturday)!
Days of the week have very little meaning to us weekend workers. While most of you were doing Saturday things today, I was dealing with all of this stuff. This is actually not so bad, now that I look at … Continue reading
Postcards From Purgatory 