On Literature, Books

  • Short Story Month

“Beyond the Pale”: The Repressed Returns

William Trevor's "Beyond the Pale" tells of four friends visiting an idyllic Irish island, on the occasion of the return…

4 years ago
  • On Literature, Books

Ginzburg’s “The Mother”: Recollections Partial and Fleeting

Natalia Ginzburg's "The Mother" is a story about a "mother" from the perspective of her two boys who receive from…

4 years ago
  • On Literature, Books

Hoffman’s “Don Juan”: The Mysterious Visitation

Hoffmann's "Don Juan" is a theatre review written as a short story, bound to enlighten lovers of Don Giovanni and…

4 years ago
  • On Literature, Books

“An Unexpected Reunion”: Death’s Dominion Disturbed

In Johann Peter Hebel's "An Unexpected Reunion" death seems to separate a betrothed couple, but after the passing of much…

4 years ago
  • On Literature, Books

Goethe’s Hymn to Virtue: “The Attorney”

Goethe's "The Attorney" shows that though habit and nature are not easily conquered, the powers of the sovereign will as…

4 years ago
  • On Literature, Books

“The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling”: Writing on Trial

Writing explores writing in Ted Chiang's "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling," in a story constructed of two…

4 years ago
  • On Literature, Books

‘Tis Short Story Month

During this lovely autumn month I will read a new short story each day and then write a brief post…

4 years ago
  • Reading Journal

George Saunders’ “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline”

George Saunders' short story collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, was born in a minimum security prison in central Pennysylvania

4 years ago
  • On Literature, Books

Reading Slowly: “War and Peace”

Why reading slowly, especially War and Peace, should be practiced with solicitude, so as to fully appreciate the journey reading…

4 years ago
  • On Literature, Books

Willa Cather’s “Death Comes for the Archbishop”

A novel of religious devotion genuinely spiritual without falling into the mirthless repetition of ecclesiastical doctrine

4 years ago