Monthly Archives: November 2014

Chabon’s The Mysteries of Pittsburgh has been lavished with praise – the mystery is…Why…? As anyone familiar with the literary scene (at least any literary scene not composed solely of adults who read nothing but YA literature or some other … Continue reading →

Durrell raises a question we are most afraid to answer: whether, as his character Clea asserts, “Lovers are never equally matched….” Is that, he asks, the source of the pain so many experience in love…? We come now to another … Continue reading →

If the excerpt from the new Elvis biography is an indication of the entire work, readers will learn exactly –  nothing new… I had a professor who once described sound academic writing as learning to “articulate the obvious.” This in … Continue reading →

Amid current discussions of how genre fiction and literature are merging in the 21st century, Pride and Prejudice is a reminder that the genre of romance merged with literature a long, long time ago… As I have noted before, my custom … Continue reading →

Hipsters being savaged by a former hipster seems – oh, I don’t know, about right…? No one who is a thinking person doubts that our culture is in trouble. Whatever forces have taken us down a road where knowledge of … Continue reading →

While some authors have chosen to follow a literary path called transrealism, Knausgaard has chosen a path one might call hyperrealism. The question always rises rises, however: is there nothing new under the sun…? A little more than a week … Continue reading →

Like other classics of of what might be called pioneer literature, Louis Hémon’s classic of Quebecois literature Maria Chapdelaine conveys the love of a people for the land in a way that is beautifully simple and simply beautiful. Maria Chapdelaine … Continue reading →

Rod Stewart’s autobiography shows that knowing too much about cultural heroes might be part of what’s wrong with the culture… There have been a spate of rock star autobiographies over the last decade or so from classic rock’s legends. One assumes … Continue reading →

A Paul McCartney show these days is a music history lesson wrapped in a plea for understanding with a side order of “Remember when they made music and you actually cared about knowing the words…?” Sir Paul gets a bad rap. Part of … Continue reading →