An excerpted passage from the 1966 novel "Trust" by Cynthia Ozick, dripping with the poetry and squalor of Rimbaud.
Continue reading...On Literature, Books
Cynthia Ozick’s “Trust”: Exegesis | Tom Hanks on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Ruminations on Cynthia Ozick’s knotty, profound prose counterposed to some armchair commentary on Tom Hanks’ eminently forgettable appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Live.
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- 2021-11-07
- Reading Journal Viewing Journal
Satire or Misanthropy? “Solar,” by Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan’s 2010 novel “Solar” is a misanthropic retelling of ten years in the life of erstwhile Nobel Prize recipient Michael Beard
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- 2021-05-23
- On Literature, Books Reading Journal
Affecting Song and W.E.B. Du Bois’ “Souls of Black Folk”
Each chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Souls of Black Folk” begins with an excerpt of verse and a few bars of music, begging the question why this song?
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- 2021-03-31
- On Literature, Books Reading Journal
Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”
Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” tells of her life in and escape from the ‘Demon Slavery,’ and its nonpareil powers of corruption.
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- 2021-02-28
- Reading Journal On Literature, Books
“Up From Slavery”: Booker T. Washington’s words
Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery” promotes a vocational training for blacks imbued with Christian virtue. Is W.E.B. Du Bois’ critique of it justified?
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- 2021-02-18
- Reading Journal On Literature, Books
Coming to Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery”
The circumstances of my purchase and knowledge of “Up From Slavery,” Booker T. Washington’s most famous autobiography
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- 2021-02-10
- Reading Journal On Literature, Books
Reading Journal: Assembling Dinosaurs, “War and Peace”
A glorious night when I just wanted to keep reading: first, 25 pages of Lukas Rieppel’s “Assembling the Dinosaur”; then Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, concluding Volume III; a feast of the undeveloped imagination.
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- 2021-01-24
- Reading Journal On Literature, Books
Anna Seghers’ “Transit”: Profound Unknowing
In Anna Seghers’ novel “Transit,” no one really knows who the other is. The reader is never certain of who the narrator really is.
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- 2020-12-15
- On Literature, Books Reading Journal
Julio Cortázar’s “Bestiary”: Man-eating animals
The “Bestiary” narrates pre-adolescent Isabel’s summer vacation with her cousin Nino and … a tiger.
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- 2020-10-25
- Short Story Month On Literature, Books
“Blind Geronimo and His Brother”: Mistrust Finds its End
Brothers Geronimo and Carlo travel the roads of 19th century Italy, entertaining passers-by with song, but one plants a seed of mistrust exposing years of alienation.
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- 2020-10-21
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month
“Anxiety … Dizziness … Freedom”: Paraself Virtue
Ted Chiang’s “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” considers the ethical effects of the consulation with a paraself, a self known through quantum computing.
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- 2020-10-18
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month
Gottfried Keller’s “The Little Dance Legend”: Pagans Mix Poorly
G. Keller’s “The Little Dance Legend” is a quizzical story about Musa, a dancer among the saints whose dance and pagan art led to expulsion from the heavenly host.
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- 2020-10-16
- 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 of the idyll’s history, dramatically so.
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- 2020-10-10
- Short Story Month 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 her little in the way of mothering.
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- 2020-10-08
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month