The Dreamers by Gilbert Adair
In 1968, the Cinémathèque Française in Paris stood as one of the few government-funded and operated tributes to cinema in the world. Henri Langlois, who cofounded the organization in the 1930s, still ran it. During […]
Category Archives: World Literature
Book Review: The Long Day’s Evening
It’s been a goal of mine–unsatisfactorily fulfilled–to include in these pages reviews not only of novels from my own country, but also those written overseas. A culture can become myopic if it views the world […]
Book Review: The Snowman by Jo Nesbø
To use a trite, overused, but descriptive phrase, Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman is a page turner. Once I picked up the novel and began reading it, I didn’t want to set it down, no matter how […]
Book Review: Under the Skin by Michel Faber
Though homely in the face and wearing the largest glasses most people have every seen, Isserley has large breasts. They’re modeled after the breasts of a centerfold model, and in all her travels, she had […]
Erotic Literature: The Diary of a Chambermaid
After finding and losing eleven jobs in two years, Célestine, a domestic maid, took a new position in the country. In an effort to understand her failure to find stability, as she began working for […]
An Atheist Reads The Bible: An Introduction
I became an atheist at the Cathedral of Avila in Spain. Standing in the cathedral, staring at the gilded alter, I overheard one of my travel companions say: “Just think. While this was being built, […]
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
“Who’s your favorite writer?” people sometimes ask me. “What’s your favorite novel?” I shy away from answering. I distrust absolutisms, and favorite implies an absolute status. But some writers I keep coming back to–Fitzgerald, Hemingway, […]
Destiny and Desire by Carlos Fuentes
The fault, I confess, lies with me. I couldn’t get into Carlos Fuentes’ Destiny and Desire. Though I read the book from the first page to the last, it was a struggle. I’m not sure […]
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
“I like long novels,” I overheard a bookstore clerk say years ago. “I like long novels that span years and in which characters change and grow.” Though I don’t believe she was talking about Margaret […]
The Well-Beloved by Thomas Hardy
We read Thomas Hardy today because he’s still relevant, but perhaps the issues that made him relevant in his time, due to the changing nature of the world, are different than the things that make […]