Author:

A review of Last Night by James Salter

James Salter is an extraordinary writer and I envy those who are coming to him for the first time. His stories could be said to “explore character”, but that would be too pat and too simple; rather, they reveal soul.…

A review of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

The relationship between the opening of the novel and the ending of it are interwoven powerfully. The theme of what makes a person unique, the relationship between human identity, language, the cultural versus the personal memory, and even the relationship…

A review of Tracings by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

These are ordinary days, and ordinary recollections, make extraordinary by the power of Howard-Johnson’s observation and the tension between sensation and hindsight. Peppered with imagery that is heady and evocative, this is poetry both historical and psychological. Reviewed by Magdalena…

A review of The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate

Although not an unusual narrative strategy, it demands much of an author and it is a pleasure here to see how Southgate rises beautifully to the occasion. Southgate goes beyond this to the extreme virtuosity of a narrative for the…

Interview with Martha Southgate

Martha Southgate is a very aware and gifted writer with a background in writing that includes journalism as well as novels. With an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College she has herself been a teacher. Her novel The Fall of Rome won the American Library Association’s Alex Award.

A review of Russian Silhouettes by Genna Sosonko

In Russian Silhouettes (and later in The Reliable Past: New in Chess, 2003) he describes a game, a sphere of human creativity, that amid nightmarish and fantastic oppression attracted the genius, the dreamer, the damaged and otherworldly, and the angry…