Book review: “Safekeeping” by Gregory McDonald
When Bill Sikes is introduced in Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens describes him thusly: “The man who growled out these words, was a stoutly-built fellow of about five-and-thirty, in a black [...]
Book review: “The Bounty Hunters” by Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard’s first novel The Bounty Hunters was published in 1953, just eight years after World War II, and it was part of a movement in American arts to reevaluate [...]
Book review: “The Song of Songs: A Biography” by Ilana Pardes
The Song of Songs is one of three very odd books in the Bible. Ecclesiastes expresses a deep mournful existential angst not found anywhere else in the Jewish and Christian [...]
Essay: Tweet at me, Mr. President
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m feeling sort of left out. This past weekend, President Donald Trump tweeted about how much he dislikes singer and activist John Legend [...]
Book review: “The Periodic Table” by Primo Levi, translated by Raymond Rosenthal
Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table, published in Italian in 1975, is a literary memoir of high art and broad ambition. It covers the waterfront. The periodic table, of course, is [...]
Essay: Let’s celebrate working when we’re working
On the occasion of this 126th Labor Day as a national holiday, I’d like to make a modest proposal: Let’s have a second one — Labor Day 2 — that’s [...]
Poem: “Visions”
Visions By Patrick T. Reardon I see the hand of God write on the wall the sins of the king. I see the bloody knife. I see the father lead [...]
Book review: “The Cold Way Home” by Julia Keller
Near the very end of Julia Keller’s latest Acker’s Gap novel The Cold Way Home (Minotaur, 306 pages, $27.99), Jake Oakes wants something that he knows he may never get, [...]
Book review: “Lords and Ladies” by Terry Pratchett
Granny Weatherwax hears a noise outside her witch’s cottage: There was something in the garden.It wasn’t much of a garden. There were the Herbs, and the soft fruit bushes, a [...]
Book review: “Playback” by Raymond Chandler
Two-thirds of the way through Raymond Chandler’s novel Playback, Philip Marlowe is having a conversation with Henry Clarendon IV, an aged, wealthy man who spends his days sitting in a [...]