With luck, criticism becomes celebration. I cannot celebrate the history described by Alain Resnais’s film Night and Fog, a film of dignified honesty, forceful discipline, and a passion so resolute and true it does not have to remark on itself, a great film, but I can celebrate the gift of art and intelligence that it is.
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A review of Georges Perec: A Life in Words by David Bellos
Despite its length, this is an engrossing book. It may not rival those great achievements in biography that one can read for their own sake, but everyone with an interest in Perec will find it essential. Although David Bellos rather…
A review of King of Cats by Blake Fraina
The book’s merit is in the presentation of a recognizable character, a popular cultural type—a seductive, reclusive, possibly bisexual musician—and the explanation for his character and contradictions and how these things relate to—are made possible by, and influence—the surrounding world.…
A review of Accused directed by Jacob Thuesen
The film’s early photography is clear, full of blues and greens, and is attractive without being glamorous. Henrik’s eyes are blue and, primarily, he seems to wear blue, gray, and black clothes. Henrik and Nina, with her shoulder-length light brown hair and trim figure, look like ordinary people—in early middle age, and they are attractive but not distractingly so.
A review of The Frugal Editor: Put your best book forward to avoid humiliation and ensure success by Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Contrary to popular misconception, publishers will rarely take on a work that is in obvious need of editing (and to a publisher, every typo is obvious), so authors really need to be capable editors of their own work. Writing guru…
A review of North of Sunset by Henry Baum
This is an immensely enjoyable (at least, for those of us who have long ago heeded Bart Simpson’s wise advice: “If you don’t watch the violence, you’ll never get desensitized to it!”) novel that is successful both as a suspenseful,…
Interview with Markus Zusak
The author of The Book Thief talks about some major themes in his book, genre distinctions, the importance of darkness, on being a literary superstar in America, Death the character, his mise en abyme, The Standover Man, his next project and lots more.
A review of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
He is recounting a history which is both still vital and yet already finished. In that sense he is directly aligned with the reader and as this extraordinary novel progresses, the reader has the sense that perhaps, in some way,…
A review of The Goldseekers by Greg Bastian
Although there is drama and some dark moments in the story, The Goldseekers is never overwhelmed by them. This is a novel which a good reader as young as six (my six year old enjoyed it greatly) would enjoy and gain from,…
A review of Candy by Luke Davies
Candy is an easy book to read, but not an easy one to deal with. It leaves the reader feeling shattered, as if he or she had been through a similar experience. The verisimilitude in characterisation, setting, and in the…