Alone but not isolated — an essay about the seven sacraments
Life is lonely. We’re born alone. We die alone. No matter how much we’re surrounded by people, even people who love us, we experience life in a way that can [...]
Book review: “Luther” by John Osborne
Perhaps the core of Luther, the 1961 play by John Osborne, can be found midway through the play in a scene set on the steps of Castle Church in Wittenberg. [...]
Book review: “Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy” by David Nasaw
David Nasaw writes that Joseph P. Kennedy was always “the most vital, the smartest, the dominant one in a room” who “imposed his will on family members, friends, and acquaintances, [...]
Book review: “Star Gate” by Andre Norton
The idea of alternative universes is old hat. Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter just published The Long Mars, the third installment in their Long Earth series about uncountable millions of [...]
Jane Jacobs and the New York City Gay Pride Parade, 2014
555 Hudson Street, New York, the former home of Jane Jacobs On a recent trip to New York City, I went looking for Jane Jacobs and found the Gay [...]
Book review: “The Lowland” by Jhumpa Lahiri
It’s easy enough to miss or disregard several faint Biblical echoes in Jhumpa Lahiri’s 2013 novel The Lowland. After all, this is a very modern story about Indians born in [...]
Me, myself and Jim Brosnan and Anne Hollander
I suspect that Jim Brosnan and Anne Hollander never met. They moved in different circles. They died eight days apart — Brosnan on June 29 at the age of 84, [...]
Book review: “Leonardo da Vinci: A Penguin Life” by Sherwin B. Nuland
The stellar Penguin Lives series, published from 1999 to 2011, was a collective act of courage and chutzpah. Each of the 34 writers in the series dared to tell the [...]
Book review: “The Devil’s Larder” by Jim Crace
Jim Crace’s 2001 book The Devil’s Larder is a collection of 64 very short stories centering on food. There are stories here about strip fondue and about a waiter who [...]
Book review: “A Blink of the Screen” by Terry Pratchett
Is Terry Pratchett a fan of John Barth? I never gave it any thought until I read Pratchett’s 2012 collection of short fiction A Blink of the Screen which contains [...]