January 2011
7 posts
Can a Novel be Philosophical? →
The Haiti earthquake, a year later: newyorker.com →
What Truth Reads Like →
Edwidge Danticat is one of the writers today, I think, who manages to balance fierceness of purpose with delicacy of voice. She once commented—and I paraphrase—that the wellspring of your writing comes from the person you are when you are fifteen. There is a truth and a sincerity in her voice as urgent as a teenager’s, as wise as your grandmother’s. This is an...
Imp, Baby, Housekeeper, Center →
A stunning review of “Black Swan” by Kartina Richardson.
To Young Readers
Good books are/Bandages and voyages/and linkages to Light;/are keys and hammers,/ripe redeemers,/dials and bells and/healing hallelujah./Good books are good nutrition./A reader is a Guest/nourished, by riches of the Feast,/to lift, to launch, and to applaud the world.
- Gwendolyn Brooks
Ten Rules for Suspense
Critics tend to devise categories in which writers ought to fit. Sometimes, writers—especially when starting out—may feel compelled to oblige. But, should we? What can we learn from each other? What can the poet learn from the novelist? What can the screen writer learn from the blogger? What can the literary writer learn from the thriller writer? Here are Brian...
The Book of Night Women or To Kill or Not to Kill?
Every negro walk in a circle. Take that and make of it what you will.
- The Book of Night Women by Marlon James, p. 33
By the first chapter of Marlon James’ novel The Book of Night Women (Riverhead; $16.00), the reader is terrified by the accumulated suffering of its protagonist, a Jamaican slave named Lilith. The daughter of the white overseer of Montpelier Estate and a slave, Lilith’s...