Siren by John Everson
In the study of fiction, we talk about “the willing suspension of disbelief.” It, along with imagination, is what the reader brings to the novel. It helps produce the trance we enter as we read, […]
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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 […]
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
There is a philosophy in this novel, but I fear I’m not smart enough to grasp it. So I come back to it every few years, read it again, and puzzle over what it is […]
Story of My Life by Jay McInerney
Jay McInerney writes about characters on on the verge of insanity. They grip what little sanity they have left by a frayed rope that no doubt will soon break. In Story of My Life that […]
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
The last word in this novel is braiding, and in this word choice, Michael Dorris hints at how he saw the process of writing it, and how he expected the reading experience would be. The […]